[LTZ Malibu]

Finally.. HID projectors installed (UPDATED)

UPDATE More detailed pics are on page 3
Hi folks, Am a long time reader but first time poster (well.. almost), bought my 08 Malibu on last march with only 24k miles on it, I really like the car and how fast is it, but there were a few issues that I did not like about this car, like the small trunk (comparing to other cars in the same class), no GPS, no rear a/c, no parking sensors, and no HIDs. But the design of the car was more than enough for me to convince me to buying it and replace my junky ford explorer.
So I started modding the car, added steel mate parking aid kit, tinted the windows 35% all the way around, debadged with carbon fiber decals over the goldish chevy logos and changed/flushed the brakes and replaced the shaky rotors with premium slotted ones and new +1 size continental DWS tires.
I've been thinking in doing the HID retrofit along time ago, I've seen some guys who installed HID bulbs in their stock reflector housing but did not like it, so started to look for a compact projector that will fit the bu, found the Morimoto kit from the retrofit source really a good deal with amazing customer service, so I bought myself a projectors kit w/5000k D2S bulbs and h11 pnp kit for the fogs to match the hids.
Since there is no writeup that I could find on the web to install projectors in the new malibu, I'll post my own, but please be aware that this is not for the faint of heart, this retrofit requires grinding, baking and modifying your stock headlights plus some minor body work to clear the hid sockets, so please proceed at your own risk.

first step would be removing the bumper, remove front tires and support vehicle with jack stands, remove all plastic clips and small screws from the wheel well splash shield.

Remove intake pipe and the radiator plastic cover.

Disconnect fog lights

Unscrew the hidden screw near the headlight and remove the one near the wheel well.

 

[LTZ Malibu]

Carefully remove the bumper (lift and pull)

Notice how big the bugs on the lower part of the condenser

Since the lower grill opening have no protection to the condenser, I've decided to do my own by using $10 Gutter grill and some good black paint.

 

[LTZ Malibu]

And Now let's get down to the real deal, let's start working on the headlight.

Disassemble everything from the headlight

preheat the oven to 200 deg and place oven paper on the shelf, bake the delicious headlight for 10 minutes.

Take your mid well done headlight to a clean working place, oh and don't forget to wear gloves, the headlight is gonna be toasty, then slowly work your way around the headlight prying by a large flat head screwdriver, be patience.

 

[LTZ Malibu]

Carefully pry the chrome reflector.

To be able to install these bad boys

we need a dremel, should be a very powerful dremel to complete this job.

Test fit

 

[LTZ Malibu]

Don't even think in fitting this shroud, it will bottom out on the reflector and will touch the lens, space is very limited in here, I tried to trim it but there was just no way for this to work, so ordered the GTI-R shroud which is much smaller, sorry no pics for the GTI-R shroud.

Then comes the wiring, the provided relay wiring kit was very easy to wire, just need to figure out how to route the wires, I choosed to wire the positive to the remote post near the fuse box and a ground point on the radiator support.

Then I was facing a problem with the ballasts, where should I place them? so I removed the horn bracket, flipped it and placed it a little forward then placed the ballasts in place of the horn.

 

[LTZ Malibu]

and for the passenger side I ditched the intake resonator to free some place for my ballasts.

Another problem that I faced was that the D2S plug was hitting body and could not install the headlight.... hmmmm let's try the hammer.

That was a fail soooo........ DREMEL time, sorry no pics, was enjoying cutting my car

 

[LTZ Malibu]

Finally, the projectors installed.

 

[LTZ Malibu]

Some crappy night pics to show the sharp cutoff, looks much nicer and brighter in person.

The install was a real PITA, but am really happy and proud of my install and most of the help I got was from Matt at the retrofit source, he's such a great and helpful guy.
Please feel free to ask any questions about the install.

 

[Silver LTZ]

Wow man, great write-up and great install.

 

[Matrix78]

very nice!

 

[RaineMan]

Very nice. Glad you showed pics of the baking method. You guys can use the same trick to color-match the insides of the lights if you wish.

 

[LTZ Malibu]

Thanks guys, If my car is black, I'd definitely paint the headlight housing flat black.

 

[JasonZ34]

Nice work! Thanks for sharing

 

[Joeyavhu]

That looks great.

 

[bignick]

awsome, been thinking of doing this. whered you buy the retro fit kit?

 

[LTZ Malibu]

Thanks, I've got the kit from Matt at theretrofitsource.com

 

[elcompaLalo]

Sweet mod!

I've been wanting to do this for some time now, really glad you beat me to it though. Thanks for posting the write-up, it will be a must do on my Malibu.

 

[ChevyFreak]

I officially hate you haha. I have been trying to convince the wife to let me do this for a long time now. Glad it worked out for ya and I will be pushing even harder to do this now.

 

[Silver LTZ]

I officially hate you haha. I have been trying to convince the wife to let me do this for a long time now. Glad it worked out for ya and I will be pushing even harder to do this now.

Convince her? Just don't tell her.

 

[ChevyFreak]

Convince her? Just don't tell her.

When you have no job its kind of hard to jsut drop that much cash without her noticing haha.