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yeah, i've been running 9005 HIDs in my C3 headlights since 2010, and they're alright... but the cutoff would be much sharper with a projector actually designed for HID.
cutting into OEM Denali/C3 lights ain't for the faint-of-heart, though. the sealant they used is MUCH harder than the base model stuff (i personally cleared both my stock 99 lenses & the C3 set i bought).
The NBS denali lights dont need to be taken apart to retrofit, which is what is so nice about them. You remove the oem projector, bolt the custom plate to the mini h1, then bolt that onto the headlight. I have cleared a set and they are a pain to do compared to silverado lights.
Nothing is wrong with the OEM denali projector. The issue is its designed for a halogen bulb. The H1 is designed for a HID so the light output, focus, and cut off are far better. It also acts as a low and high beam
Yea. I have a hid kit in stock denali projectors. great light output. aimed well but its a truck so its up high. it could be better but it met my price point and is totally reversible.
Everything you would need to do a retrofit in a 99-02 Silverado housing is in the 03-06 kit linked from TRS assuming they are not pre-modifing the shrouds. The mini-gatling shrouds need a little massaging to sit nicely in the reflector bowls but is is not that bad. It was more work to fit the D2S projectors in a GMT900 Sierra housing.
I don't have any pics loaded online of them in the truck but here is one after sealing the housing back together: Morimoto Mini-H1 with mini-gatling shrouds in a ebay special clear lens headlight assembly.
Wow that looks great!
Thanks for all the info guys!
Many years ago, you had to retrofit the headlights with cutting, and glue to make projectors fit. It was a PITA, and anyone who could do it well, charged a lot for it. Now its as simple as a few screws. IMO the best looking headlights are the DEPO headlights for the Silverado.
(feel free to search, but IIRC amazon was the cheapest place I found.
Then you need the bracket. I know there are at least 3 companies that sell this. I'm not sure if they are all the same rebranded bracket. Not sure if a member sells these, but these are the cheapest I found em, when the other two were $70. https://www.custom-brackets.tech/collections/chevrolet
Last, you need the Morimoto Mini H1 7.0 HID projectors, for <$120. All in you are less than $300 (not counting HIDs); $250 if you go chrome housings and get a good deal on some projectors.
You can search and you will probably find a DIY, either on the Silverado site or maybe the Tahoe site. The diy though (on this setup), is: unscrew the 3 screws holding each projector in on the DEPO housing, use the bracket to mount your new projectors, then swap the housings. Its really that simple. While you're at it, at least be aware of the 4-on/all-on mod (so your lows don't go off when you turn on your high beams).
The NBS denali lights dont need to be taken apart to retrofit, which is what is so nice about them. You remove the oem projector, bolt the custom plate to the mini h1, then bolt that onto the headlight. I have cleared a set and they are a pain to do compared to silverado lights.
sorry i misunderstood what you meant.
...although, i don't remember what year they started, but that's still only true for the later versions. the early years used that same permaseal on the projectors, too. i know because i tried to take mine out & clean them when i was clearing the lens.
and as a still-somewhat-relevant update, the BeamTech solid heat sink LED bulbs have been relatively upstanding from what i've been reading, so since i know my wife's H3 has ALL the room behind the lamps, i'd give the 4000lm/25W, 6500K a shot. before installing, i did test fit the 9005s on my truck & vette just to see if they'd work.
no room in the C5 high beams... heat sink hits the metal arm over the lamp (at least with ACA projectors).
the only way to fit these in [Denali for sure but likely all] truck high beams would be to dremel out parts of the brackets on the housing & the truck because the heat sink is too big to fit otherwise. for the low beams, the passenger side's wide open due to my AirAid box... not sure how close the stock airbox is. the light is roughly the same color & almost the same brightness as my 35W 6000K HID. cutoff is about the same if not slightly sharper. (please forgive the burnt park lamp... bulb just busted the other day). making it fit on the driver's side, though, would require cutting part of the washer reservoir... not sure how much & wasn't gonna try. i've seen a couple truck over the years make similar cuts to run heat sink LEDs just fine, though, so they could be an overall decent budget alternative to a HID retrofit since they have good beam patterns due to the chips being in the same relative position as the halogen filament.
No, my statement still stands. You can easily retrofit the Denali lights in just a few minutes without taking the lights apart. Been done dozens of times, search for it...
No, my statement still stands. You can easily retrofit the Denali lights in just a few minutes without taking the lights apart. Been done dozens of times, search for it...
that's why i said it's true of the later versions. i tried taking my projectors off my factory C³ lights at the same time that i was opening the front lens (mainly to clean them but to also measure for retrofitting other projectors). trying to cut the sealant that holds the projector in was just as thick & hard as the permatex or whatever it's called for the front seal, so i said "screw that!"
Not sure man, the ones I retrofitted were factory Denali lights from my coworkers quadrasteer. Easy as pie. I chose to clear them as well, so I did cut them open and do all that, but it was not necessary for just a retrofit.
02-10-2019, 07:31 PM
