out2kayak

Hello all,

Well, I can't get the video off my cellphone due to a security policy. So, here are a bunch of pictures walking you through the process and the results.

The box the glass part of the bulb came in. The bulb included a halogen bulb, but I wanted to go LED:



The LED kit came as a separate item:




In the LED kit are three boxes - two containing the LED bulbs and one that has the LED driver modules and double sided sticky tape:



Taking the glass bulb out of the box. Here is the front:



And here is the back:



I ordered the H4 / 5000K LEDs, which are white light. If you want you can go more yellow or blue, depending on what you order:




The parameters in the instructions for the bulbs I purchased:




On the back of the glass bulb you will need to remove the plastic connector protector. It simply pulls off:



Next, remove the rubber boot:



Around the bulb there is a wire clip. Moving the clip wires closer toward the front of the bulb and toward one another will unhook them. Then simply rotate the clip to open. Remove the halogen bulb. If you want to use the halogen bulb in another vehicle be sure to not touch the glass.



Carefully remove the LED bulb from the box. I only touch these by the back -- never by the glass of the bulb:



If you notice there are three tabs around the LED bulb. The wider of the tabs must align with the wider tab slot in the mount. In reality, unless you force it you can't get the bulb installed incorrectly:



Install the clip to hold the LED bulb:




With the bulbs in and clip is installed, it's time to put the headlight into the bucket. On the bucket you will find three grooves (shown here next to the wiring harness). The back of the headlight has three metal tabs that align to the grooves. Put the headlight into the grooves (if it does not fit correctly odd are the bulb is rotated:






In the kit was some double sided sticky tape. I ended up cutting some small strips (you will need this to stick the LED driver module down, so use sparingly) to make the headlight trim ring fit tightly against one bulb:





Put on the trim ring around the bulb:






Now, unbox the LED driver modules (2 come with the kit):




Going off of the LED bulb there are round connectors that connect to the LED driver module:



Connect the LED bulb to driver module connectors for both the low and high beams. Be aware that the connectors are keyed and don't force the connection -- make sure everything is lined up. Tighten the screw connector:



Now with both LED bulbs connected to their respective LED driver modules:



Now, you will want to think out how the wires from the LED bulb, the driver module and the connector to the original harness all layout. Get them so that they all route correctly prior to sticking down the LED driver modules.

Stick on the double sided sticky tape to the back of the LED driver modules. Then stick the low beam side module to the housing:



Next, stick the high beam side module to the housing:



I ran my original harness toward the top of the flat part of the headlight housing. Here you can see the LED driver module connector for the low beam and the original harness connector:



Here the two are connected together for what I hope is a long life:



The original high beam connector is missing one leg and the LED bulbs actually have both low and high. I simply slid the low beam leg over the side of the connector and wrapped it with electrical tape:



Be aware that the curved top of the original high beam connector goes on the opposite side of the connector as where the extra leg of the connector coming from the LED driver module:



Now, put the black trim back around the front of the bulbs and put in the four screws holding it to the housing:



The bulbs themselves stick out a little bit more than the originals. Here is how much they stick out:






With power applied, here is both lights illuminated (high beams):



The beams themselves are very sharply focused. Just outside of looking at the center of the bulbs, they don't look all that bright:



Directly centered on both the 4Runner and Corvette bulbs:



Comparing my 2011 4Runner high beams to the Corvette high beams. The 4Runner has more yellow-ish light:



Comparing my 2011 4Runner high beams to the Corvette low beams




Comparing my 2011 4Runner low beams to the Corvette high beams



Comparing my 2011 4Runner low beams to the Corvette low beams



Total 4.25 amps with high beams on for the whole assembly (both lights):

out2kayak

For what it's worth, here is the LED kit:

http://www.hidxenonlights.com/5202-h...sion-kit-p-820

And the headlights:

http://www.hidxenonlights.com/sealed...adlights-p-772

For headlight color, the measurement is in degrees Kelvin. The smaller the value, the "warmer" the light is. Conversely, the higher the number the "cooler" the light is.

3000K is what the standard halogen bulb produces and will appear to be yellow in color. A Sylvania Silverstar headlight will be around 4000K. At 5000K you will have almost perfect white light. 6000K will have a slight blueish tint. 8000K will be blue. 12,000K the tint becomes purple.

I personally struggle when people run 6000K light or higher -- it ends up giving me a headache or worse, triggering a migraine. Yes, Christmas can be a painful time of year for me depending on what color lights people use.

A nice sweet spot for headlights is somewhere between 4000K and 6300K for most people. With this you can do the upgraded halogen bulbs, then up to Xenon HID headlights and finally to LEDs.

As you can understand, I chose 5000K LEDs because I maximized illumination while not causing headaches.

Another thing to think about is that these bulbs on low shine mostly out the bottom of the bulb. Yes, light gets reflected around, but looking at the front the bulk of the light tends to come from the bottom of the headlight (kind of like the headlight covers they used back in the 50's and 60's):



These were sold so you could drive with your high beams on all the time without blinding oncoming drivers, yet providing substantial light to the road. Given what I seen in the garage, with this pattern of light and focused beams the road will be quite illuminated without blinding anyone (one of the concerns I had starting the project).

out2kayak

FYI:







--- Joe

dudman

Great job on the instructions. You should do that for a living. Lights look really cool.

out2kayak

A quick follow-up. A gent asked a few questions and I thought I would answer them here so others will have the answers:

1. Do the LED Bulbs, when mounted in the headlights, clear the C2 buckets without modifying them?

Yes, they do clear the buckets without modification. That is one of the things I was worried about and rolled the dice -- everything fit without modification. That said, I have not mounted the bucket onto the body itself but I don't see any reason why it would not fit as stock.

2. By using the LED Bulbs, does this eliminate the necessity of adding relays to the headlight wiring harness?

As mentioned above, the total draw is 4.25 amps with high beams on for the whole assembly (both lights). Using the formula P = I * E, with E = 12v and I = 4.25a, the power (P) = 51 watts with both bulbs illuminated (in other words, maximum possible current draw for the bucket).

According to the 1963 Corvette Shop manual, the outer bulbs are 37.5 watts and 50 watts. The inner bulbs are 37.5 watts.

So, when you consider just the high beam on the outer bulb you have about the same draw as both LED bulbs on high beam.

Thus, I don't think that a relay is necessary -- LEDs don't need as much current as the factory headlights.

As an aside, there is a 15 amp circuit breaker in the light control switch that protects the headlamp circuit. The total draw for LEDs is 8.5 amps with all the lights in both buckets on -- well below the 15 amp breaker.

That said, this is my approach for working on my car. What you choose to do is up to you.



-- Joe

6T5RUSH

out2kayak,

Thank you for the "walk through" of "how to do it" with specific part # upgrades.

I am curious for your follow up on this install when the buckets are reinstalled into your car and functional. Is there any conflict in the bucket rotation (you mentioned these particular bulbs do bulge out more than the stock or halogen bulbs).

Thanks again for this.



Jim
In God We Trust!

LouieM

Have the headlights on the Corvette been properly aimed? They hit high on the wall compared to the Toyota lights. Is there a concern about glare for oncoming drivers?

out2kayak

LouieM,

The buckets are simply resting on the 4Runner, next to the battery so I can connect the wires to illuminate the bulbs. It is not bolted to the front end of my Corvette.

6T5RUSH,

If you look at:





The trim around the bulb (black) would hit well before the bulb hit.

Thoughts?

-- Joe