HID retrofit into fox housings. Any new feedback?

Leadsled Coupe said:

Conversion results are quite pleasantly good on mine. You’ll recognize the aftermarket one piece units from Fleabay of course.

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Which ones did you go for? LED or HID?

I haven't seriously looked at HID retrofits in a long time (mainly because the car doesn't drive at night) but wow, prices sure have come down. When i looked at it, you were looking at almost $1k for quality OEM projectors, ballasts and all necessary parts. Now I can get practically the same OE parts for virtually nothing.


Maybe i'll give this a second look, assuming i can find a pair of clear OE style headlights to work with.

to get clear housings

will will need to buy the whole assembly and unglue it, and put onto to your backing

that is what i had to do like 17 years ago

Problem is the “crystal” style that closely matched factory are impossible to find right now. There’s a bunch with some sort of little separate light with them but I think it’s ugly as hell. I know a few people have said not to use the OEM style lens because it’s not perfectly clear. I’m debating on trying it.

these are clear lens

take them apart

Mustang408, you do NOT want to use lens with those refractive ribs

I assume these will work as well. Sucks I have to buy all 6 though as I prefer the oe style inner and outers. I’m sure I can flip them on eBay.

not a project I’ll likely undertake any time soon so I’ll wait until they are back in stock.

just make sure the lens are DOT, like i linked

Yes Indy, I realize the ones I have might not work but the smoked clear lens housing lights that I wanted to get are no longer availiable because of Covid. I may just remove the refractive ribs from the inside before I seal the lens back on.

you could smoke them yourself with a film

Yes, but most small amounts of film product are hit and miss as to how well they work when applied over compound curves. I have used yellow film for my original Hella fog lights and It is not the best looking but you don't notice because of the location in the bumper cover. I have clear mixed with black die and some black base for tinting, but some plastics don't like the solvents and will craze the plastic lenses. I do a lot of auto painting, but I would be apprehensive with spending $100 just to see if the plastic would take the tinted clear.
I have tools for sanding and buffing in small areas, so that is what I will use to sand smooth the inside of the lens and get smooth.

Mustang408 said:

I have finally gotten around to doing my install. You are correct, you cant get clear lens type headlights so I went with regular factory aftermarket smoked lenses to match what I already have.
I'll se how it looks, but really HID with this lense cover type should be better than my crappy aftermarket H4 lighting.
View attachment 1073769 View attachment 1073770

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Very cool. Can’t wait to see your result. Did you use LED or HID ones?

HID projectors. You need the projectors to get good light. Sticking LED bulbs in these terrible reflector housing would just blind oncoming traffic and not improve visibility for the driver.
This is what I have, these are slightly newer, it has a better bulb locking ring setup.
Bi-Xenon: Morimoto Mini D2S Stage III Retrofit Kit | TRS

Mustang408 said:

HID projectors. You need the projectors to get good light. Sticking LED bulbs in these terrible reflector housing would just blind oncoming traffic and not improve visibility for the driver.
This is what I have, these are slightly newer, it has a better bulb locking ring setup.
Bi-Xenon: Morimoto Mini D2S Stage III Retrofit Kit | TRS

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Did you have to cut the housing to fit them or did these sort of bolt in? Also are the projectors adjustable or do you still have to adjust the housing? I’m have trouble getting my lights adjusted properly, would love to see pics of the back and any more info you can include.

Mustang408 said:

HID projectors. You need the projectors to get good light. Sticking LED bulbs in these terrible reflector housing would just blind oncoming traffic and not improve visibility for the driver.
This is what I have, these are slightly newer, it has a better bulb locking ring setup.
Bi-Xenon: Morimoto Mini D2S Stage III Retrofit Kit | TRS

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The have LED projector retrofits as well now. Yeah, LED bulb in stock housing is a bad idea.

Mustang408 said:

I finished my install of the HID projectors in the aftermarket tinted housings and the light pattern at night is great. The pattern looks real good from the drivers seat and the light is SOOOO much better than the old Halogen setup. I need to use the factory screws to fine adjust the beam, but that will be easy. Even with everything costing so much more nowadays, this is still a must if you use your Fox at night.

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Do you have any links to parts used? Any issues with the factory style front plastic. Some where mentioning the factory look was bad and they had to be totally clear.

Mustang408 said:

I finished my install of the HID projectors in the aftermarket tinted housings and the light pattern at night is great. The pattern looks real good from the drivers seat and the light is SOOOO much better than the old Halogen setup. I need to use the factory screws to fine adjust the beam, but that will be easy. Even with everything costing so much more nowadays, this is still a must if you use your Fox at night.

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Those look really good. Does the fluted lense cause any issues? Early on in the retrofit world people said fluted lenses kill the HID light output. Can you take pics at night on a wall or down a dark street?

Curious to know myself. I'd like to do a HID retrofit in a set of OE fluted lenses to keep them "hidden". Was concerned the cutoff line would be affected

Mustang408 said:

I finished my install of the HID projectors in the aftermarket tinted housings and the light pattern at night is great. The pattern looks real good from the drivers seat and the light is SOOOO much better than the old Halogen setup. I need to use the factory screws to fine adjust the beam, but that will be easy. Even with everything costing so much more nowadays, this is still a must if you use your Fox at night.

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Please post some night shots and what the parts list looks like. They look great from what y ou'v shown so far