How to Retrofit a set of Mustang Headlights

I think this post will be the main one on my blog.  If you see instructions that are not clear or you feel there is a better way to do it - then please comment below.

Please also note that these are images from multiple builds I've done in the past.  I'm looking for the image that best shows what I'm describing in the instructions.

Please also note that you do this at your own risk.  I will not be liable for any damage that may come from the steps below.  Also you should know that doing this project will void any warranties you might have on your headlights.  If you understand these risks - then feel free to proceed.

Anyways  - lets get started.

What you need:

• A good set of headlights (I mainly use Eagle Eye Headlights)
• Good projectors (I normally use Morimoto Mini H1 7.
• Screw Driver (both Philips head and large flat head).
• JB Weld
• Window Weld (may not be needed - but good to have handy for later)
• Drill
• Cutting Tool
• Spray Paint (optional)
• Mechanics gloves (or grippy gloves you can use to handle a cooked hot headlight)
• Latex gloves

1- Remove extra parts from headlight

First thing to do is to remove all the parts possible from the headlights.  If you have Eagle Eyes - then the following images will make sense.  If you use a different brand - I think you will get the idea.

Here is what needs to be removed:

• Bulb and locking ring
• Sealing ring
• Vent tubes
• 2 screws by the reflector
• 2 nails on the top of the headlight

2 - Cook Headlight

Once the headlight has all the parts removed, it is time to bake them.

Set the Oven to 230 Degrees F.

3- Open Headlights

Once the oven is up to temp, Cook the headlight in the oven for 8 Minutes

I recommend putting on Mechanics gloves and a old sweatshirt for the next part.  The next step will be a little messy - so make sure the surface you are working on is clean but might get a little stained.  I normally use cardboard or an old sheet over a table.

Alright - the time is here.  Keep in mind the headlight is HOT at this point.  Pull it out of the oven.  There is one tab on the top of the headlight that needs to be undone and then carefully use the large Flathead screwdriver to pry the lens off the housing.  Once you see it separating, keep working on prying open the side opposite of the reflector.  I normally work that corner and the bottom, since there are two tabs that need to be separated down there.  Keep prying and working on the corner of the headlight till you can get you fingers in to pry it open all the way.

While prying open, it is normal for the sealing material to spread like hot cheese.  Try to cut it toward the housing.  The main goal here is to keep the inside of the lens clean.

OPTIONAL instructions: If you do not intend to paint the reflector - then I recommend being careful to not let any sealing material to land in the reflector.

Once the headlight starts to open, the inside trim will more than likely stay with the lens.  This is fine and good.

Once opened all the way, carefully place the lens to the side.  Make sure it is in a safe area will the inside of the lens will remain clean.

4- Remove bulb Shield

Remove the bulb shield.  There is a tab that needs to be pushed in and then the shield will slide out.

5- Remove reflector from headlight housing

Removal of the reflector is really only needed if you plan to paint the reflector.  If you do not plan to paint the reflector, I'd recommend being extra careful in the cutting and drilling portions below.  Wear latex gloves (or other type of gloves that will avoid leaving finger prints on the reflective paint).

At this point, we need to remove the reflector from the housing.  To do this I recommend first unscrewing the reflector adjustment screws from the housing.  Once they are lose, carefully slide them off the reflector.  The tabs on reflector are brittle, and will snap off rather easily.  It is not a failed project if they do.

I do use a small screwdriver to help slide the clip thing off the reflector.  Here are some images of the adjustment screws and how they connect to the reflector.

Once removed, this is what the removed adjust screws look like.

There are 3 mounting points.  2 of them are set up with the adjustment screws and a third is an anchored permanent post.

Once the reflector is removed, this is what the housing looks like.

6- Cutting and drilling

Cutting time!  Take the reflector, and cut off the back end of the bulb cylinder lock.  This cut is made to ensure we have the space needed to place a socket on the Projector nut when we are putting it all back together (step 9 below).  It is just easier to get it dirty now since one of the next steps is to clean it for painting.  Make the cut as shown in the images below:

Image above is how it looks stock.

Image above shows the cut.

Next - drill the hole for the High Beam cables (and optional demon eye LED cables).  It is a good idea to have the cable handy so you can test fit if it will pass through the hole.  Make it just large enough to ensure the cables that need to pass through, can fit through.

We have to also cut the projector shrouds now.  I find it easiest to cut with a stout set of scissors.  This cut should be on the bottom of the shroud.  Which is the bottom part?  Well, mount it to the projector.  The cut off fence motor is on the bottom.  I normally mark the cut with a sharpie before just to make sure I'm cutting off the right part.  Please make sure you are doing the right cut - the shroud only fits on the projector one way.

Here is what the cut should look like:

7-Prepping for painting (optional)

If you want to paint the reflector and shroud, the next step is to strip the chrome off both parts.

I normally do this by scrubbing rubbing compound on them with a rag or sponge.  This is what they normally look like after I've removed the chrome:

8- Painting (optional)

Ideally you want it somewhat scuffed up for the painting part - which comes next.  I get some spray paint and put 4 light layers of paint on it.  I do prefer flat black over glossy, but paint based on your preference.  I buy paint designed for plastics and follow the directions on the can.

The important parts to paint are the outside of the shrouds and the inside of the reflector.

Let the paint dry and cure.  Once done you are ready to put it all back together.

I strongly recommend you wear latex gloves for the rest of the process.  At least until the headlight is sealed back up.

9- Mounting projector to the reflector

Remove the 3 screws that are holding the bulb backing plate in place.  The shaft should look like the image below once the 3 screws and the plate are removed

Screw the shroud onto the projector.  There should be 4 screws used.  If you purchase it as a package from The Retrofit Source, then the screws are provided to you.  Once completed,  you should have the projector and shroud together like this: 

On the back side - it is time to start getting it ready to mount to the reflector.  Start by adding the larger (fatter) rubber gourmet to the back of the projector:

 Feed the wires through the holes you drilled out for them, and then place the main shaft of the projector through the hole where the stock light bulb would normally go:

 When you look at the now back side of the reflector - you should see the projector's shaft coming through.  Used that keyed washer (pictured in my hand below) to center the projector's shaft in the reflector.

Then use the projector's Shaft Nut to bolt it all together.  Hand tighten it.  I have used needle nose pliers to do this, but have been most successful using a 28mm socket.  I tend to score the nut if I use needle nose pliers.  Please note if you are not adding demon eyes - the you probably will only have the red and black cables sticking out the back at this point.

 Once it is hand tightened down. There should be very little or not wiggle between the projector and the reflector.  From the front it should look like this:

10 - Mounting reflector back into the Headlight Housing

First thing is to slide the reflector onto the non-adjustable post.  Easiest way to do this is to add the anchor to the post, and then slide the reflector into place.

 There are two ways you can mount the other 2 anchors.

• Method 1 - Mount the adjustable posts to the headlight housing.  Slide the anchors in place on the reflector, and then pop them onto the adjustable posts mounted on the headlight housing.  BE CAREFUL to only put pressure on the anchor point as the tabs used to hold it in place on the reflector can easily break.

•  Method 2 - Reverse order of method one. You place the anchors on the adjustable posts.  Through the housing (without mounting them just yet) you slide the anchors into place.  it is a bit more challenging that it looks.  Once in place lock the adjustable posts into the headlight housing.

11- Reinforce the anchor points (also broken reflector tab repair)

WARNING: do not put any glue on the ball connection between the anchor and the studs they are mounted into.  This glue should only touch the anchor and the reflector.

After building a few headlight like this - you learn where it breaks.  It should be no surprise that adding the extra weight of a projector to a setup that was just designed to hold a bulb would potentially cause some issues.  I'll tell you the weakest point are the reflector Tabs that hold the anchors and the anchors themselves.  Once put together, these should not be moving so adding glue here will not impede the ability to adjust the light beam later.

Add JB Weld or glue to the anchor points.  The glue should be such that it combines the 2 tabs as well as the anchor and makes it all into one piece.

Please also note that if you broke a tab in step 10, that this method is good to repair that break too.

12- Add the bulb backing plate back onto the projector

Pretty straight forward.  Add the bulb backing plate that was removed on step 9 back in place.  The plate should fit flush with the shaft.  It should not be bending in any way.

The back and front should look like this right now:

13- Seal the holes we made in the back of the reflector

Use JB Weld to seal the holes we made in step 6.  This will ensure the headlight is sealed properly and does not have condensation entering into it.  Be careful though to not get any JB weld on the outer ring as it may make it hard for the back grommet to seal.

The seal made should be such that it ensures the cables are properly sealed.

14- Test the headlight - make sure it all works

In this step you need to make sure the projector works.  If you have the high beam cut off, now is the time to test and make sure it all works right.  I would plug it up to a 12V source and test it over an over again.  At least 50 times.  You really don't want to complete the next step and later find out it is not all right.

If you can get a bulb into the projector - you should test the beam now too.  I've had bad projectors that have a soft cutoff line (mainly knock of projectors - never had an issue with Morimoto).

Also - to a small degree at least - test and make sure the reflector can be adjusted up and down, and left and right.  I normally do the final adjustments in a later step - but now is the time to make sure it can be adjusted.

15- Seal it all back up

This is somewhat the same steps we had in steps 2 and 3, but in reverse.  Heat up the oven to 230 degrees F.

On the headlight, put the lens in place as much as you can.  You will normally need to get the reflector somewhat covered before the reflector corner part can properly come around and be put in place.

Once lens is in place, put the headlight in the oven and cook for 8 minutes.

• When you get the headlight out, you will need to focus on getting the reflector part of the lens pushed into the pocket in the headlight housing.  This is very important.   
• Once you feel that reflector corner is in place, then you can squeeze the lens into the housing so all 3 tabs lock it all in place.  One of the tabs is on the top of the headlight and the other 2 are below.
  
  
  
• Once all 3 tabs are in place - try and add in the 2 small nails that were removed in step 1.
• Add the 2 screws back into place.

16- Cleaning up

At this point you probably have a little of sealant on the lens.  This is normally the time point at which I clean it all off.  I use Plastic-X as a lubricant to assist.  I use a micro fiber cloth to polish the lens.

It can get a bit dirty.  Also be warned that it may take a little extra elbow grease to get all the stains out.

Morimoto LED Fogs

I had this idea to switch over to LED Fogs.  I had been using HIDs for a while - but my housing always seemed to just fail or show condensation after a while.

In looking around, there was one other person making some very expensive LED fogs for Cobras.  It was much more than I'd care to pay, and it was very skimpy on details.

I figured I'd instead fabricate my own way of doing them.  I started with making a mold - which quite frankly took way more time to do than I ever care to admit.  I never could make them look properly pretty, but it was functional.  In then end - I ended up painting the white builds and I had and this is what it looked like in the end:

This is what my adapter looked like before installing.

When installed on the car - they would look like the image above. It really did blend in well with the black bezel it was placed into.

All lit up!

Daytime picture.  You can see the painted mold a bit when  you get really up close.

Another picture from the 3 foot mark, in shade.

The light output is as precise as can be desired.  These will produce no glare once they are aimed correctly.

One of my favorite details is that it retains the ability to easily be adjusted up and down as desired.

Shot in the daytime.  It almost just looks like a blacked out bezel.

The connection could not be more simple. Just a short cable to the stock cables the car has stock.  There is no longer a need to hide a ballast and extra HID wiring anywhere.

One more shot of the Fogs in action.  Since this is already a sealed housing we are adapting to the car, there is no worries about water intrusion or anything else of the sort.

Finally put in passenger side A-Arm

Saturday I decided that I would finally finish the project I started 2 weeks ago.  I didn't call for help this time - I figured several of the issues I ran into last time will not be a big deal on the passenger side.

I started by putting the front of the car on jack stands.  I removed the passenger front wheel, and then just dug in.  I removed the brake caliper and hung it on a bolt.  Removed the ABS sensor, the outer tie rod, and the sway bar.  From there I put the jack under the old A-arm, so it would be holding the spring in place and then removed the two bolts that connected the spindle to the strut.  I slowly lowered the jack and allowed the spring to just basically fall out once it got low enough.

From there, probably the 2nd toughest thing to do on my own for this job, I removed the spindle from the A-arm (unscrew the nut from the lower ball joint).  It was tough because the spindle wanted to freely spin.  I finally did manage to get it done though.

 I had to loosen the rack and pinion and remove one of the subframe bolts - this allowed the two bolts holding the lower A-arm to come out and the old A-arm could be removed.

I remove the Sway bar end link from the old A-arm and installed it on the new one.

Here is what it all looked like when it was out:

The new A-arm took a little persuasion to get in place, but managed to get the 2 bolts back in.  Then added the subframe bolt back in to the 75 ft/Lbs torque.  Put the rack and pinion back in at 51 ft/Lbs.

Added the spindle to the new lower ball joint and tightened it down.  From there, I came to the most challenging step, I had to get the spring back in.  This was all kinds of tough.  I finally did get it cradled into the A-Arm, and had to call on assistance to get someone to jack up the A-arm from under the spring as I ensure the sway bar end link was connecting correctly into the sway bar.

Once that link was established, I added the 2 bolts that connect the spindle to the strut.  From there the worst is over - the jack can be removed from under the A-Arm and the strut will now hold it in place.

I double checked to ensure the spring was properly cradled in the Lower A-arm and once satisfied and continued on to add the outer tie rod, ABS sensor and brake caliper.  Once all that was installed, I lifted the car by the A-arm and tightened down the A-arm bolts.   Put the tire back on and dropped the car back to the ground.  It looked good.

After that had to clean up the tools I took out and put everything back in their place.

I know I'm not the speediest of people, but i did manage to get it all done in about 4 hours.

Took the car out for a shake down drive, and it drives like crap.  It really needs an alignment. I think I actually have positive camber on the front wheels right now.

2004 Mustang Front A-Arm Lower Ball Joint replacement (FAILURE!)

Saturday 8/5/2017 I began the process of getting the Lower Ball joint replaced.

But first - in the mail on Friday I got a letter that my car need to update the registration.  It's good through September, but it means I need to get the car inspected.

So, I thought I might as well get the car inspected real quick before I began working on getting the Ball Joint replaced.  So I knew this shop close by that was really quick at getting me in and out.  So I figured out what they they opened and showed up about 10 minutes early.  I really wanted to be in and out.

When I got in I also remember that I needed to get the fuel filter replaced.  I asked them how long it would be to do it, and they said it was just 30 minutes.

Well - to my dismay - I didn't get out of there till 90 minutes later.  So I started a little later than planned.

I did also go to Harbor Fright to get a couple tools.

Went home, and after breakfast I started working on the car.  I got the front end up on jack stands and took off the front wheels.

Teared into the drivers side quite a bit, even got the old ball joint pressed out.  But I totally screwed up the install of the new ball joint.  It went in a little sideways.  I thought it was all good, but when I took the tool off, the ball joint just fell out.

Needless to say - I was quite disappointed.  I had not eaten well that day so I was drained of energy - feeling a little sickly.

I did a little research and found some new A-Arms with the ball joint included at O'Reilly's.  Note that Auto Zone had them too, but they were quite a bit more expensive.

I went to church.  Went to dinner with the family.

I started working on the car again and got stuck.  I got everything off the A-Arm.

But I could not get the front bolt of the A-Arm out.  It was hitting the Rack and Pinion on the way out.  I had to call it quits for the night - defeated....

Fixing a leaky Convertible Top

My poor Cobra...  She is getting a little old.  Issues are starting to show here and there, and for the most part they are just small details that do not detract from the joy of driving her everyday.

However, one thing I'm dreading more than ever is driving it in the rain.  She has developed a little leak that allows water by the A-Pillar at times, but lately it also leaks in the back in the area behind the seats were the top would stow away in.

The one by the A-pillar isn't too bad as long as I get her into a garage or under cover she seems to be okay.  But the rear area one is pretty bad.

Yesterday I finally decided I had all I needed to properly tackle this issue.  After doing some research, it pains me to say that I have probably been ignoring my top since I bought the car new.  I started research by seeing if I could Scotch Guard the convertible top.  What I found instead is that there is a regimen that can be followed once or twice a year to keep the top clean and waterproof.  I did this yesterday but I think I'll start a regimen to do this in the fall and spring (you know - trying to avoid the summer heat and winter freeze).

So here is what I did:
Started by cleaning the top as recommended.  I had to wet it first, so I recruited my daughter to be on hose duty first.  I figured I'd hunt for this leak in the back first.

The the top getting drenched - I did spot this leak:

Just a little trickle next to the rear window on the passenger side.  Now that I know where the leak is, I figured I'd clean the top.

Notice how the top absorbs the water?  Anyways - here is what I'm using to clean and treat the car top:

Once cleaned and somewhat dry, I thought I'd tackle a little tear I had in one of my seams:

Who knew sewing would be part of a car repair?  I was using a UV protected thread so hopefully it will hold up in the long run.

I did add a little glue into the seam as well and it didn't turn out exactly as expected, but better than before at least.

I did also try and tackle the leak.  I had some Tear Aid patches for cloth.  This stuff is very flimsy but strong.  It was hard to get it in place, but here is what it looks like:

This morning, I got up early and inspected the top again.  It looked clean and dry - which is what I needed for the next step.

I essentially sprayed the whole bottle of protector on the top:

I made sure to put extra on the seams or where it was aparent there was a crease of sorts.  I tried to also focus a lot on the sewing repair I did as well as the leading and side edges.

I removed the clips from the back of the window, and here is what I see of it now:

By the time I made it into work - the top was looking great:

I really hopes this works.  If it all goes as planned, the water should just bead off the top going forward.  I will update the blog once I had my first bout with rain (which may be later today).

8/6/2017 update:
It seems like this really works.  Here is a small video of how hydrophobic it becomes: