I like me a sealed beam retrofit, but you really don’t see that many of them, and it is no wonder why. Sealed beam retrofits are among the biggest pain to pull off, but the payoff is a clean, modern projector beam living inside those classic rectangular headlights. Today we are going to walk through a full 7×6 sealed beam headlight retrofit from start to finish. We tested this build using one of the biggest projectors out there, a Nissan Murano bi-xenon unit, retrofitted it into an aftermarket housing, and mounted it on a Jeep with nothing more exotic than a Dremel tool, some JB Weld, and OCI-B rubber adhesive.
Why We Skipped the OEM Sealed Beam Housings
The first thing you will notice is that we are not using the original equipment headlight housings for this retrofit. There are two reasons for that. First, they have glass lenses, and second, those glass lenses are fluted, meaning they have texture molded into them. That texture distorts the output from a projector and ruins the sharp cutoff you worked so hard to build. So instead we grabbed a set of pretty cheap aftermarket housings made of plastic, which are a lot easier to work with. They run about $30 on eBay, Amazon, or anywhere similar, and being plastic they take a Dremel and heat far more gracefully than glass.
If you want a factory-quality plug-and-play route instead of a full custom build, it is worth looking at the Oracle 7×6 LED sealed beam headlights, which drop right into the same 7×6 opening. And if you are shopping across multiple vehicle fitments, you can shop the full universal LED headlight assembly lineup to see what else fits your application before committing to a scratch build like this one.
What If You Only Have a Glass Housing?
A lot of aftermarket housings are still made of glass, and that makes your life a little more difficult when it comes to retrofitting. Glass is brittle, so when you go to pry the front lens off you are liable to crack or break the housing entirely. Here is the tip we swear by: if you insist on using a glass housing, dunk the whole thing into a bucket of gasoline for a couple of days. The gasoline eats the glue around the perimeter of the lens, and from there the lens will just fall right off on its own. That matters because you really cannot heat those glass housings, and prying on them is a fast way to break something. For the rest of this build, though, we stuck with the plastic housings.
Choosing the Projector for a Sealed Beam Retrofit
Since sealed beam housings are regarded as one of the smallest housing types out there, for the purpose of demonstration we deliberately used a big, bulky projector, in this case a Nissan Murano bi-xenon unit. The logic is simple: if we can make one of the largest projectors fit inside one of the smallest housings, then this retrofit works with just about anything you might want to run. It is a worst-case scenario on purpose, and it still comes together.
That said, you do not need to punish yourself with a giant OEM projector. Smaller aftermarket units make the whole job far easier. Something like the Morimoto Mini D2S 5.0 bi-xenon projector retrofit requires little to no trimming to fit, and you can also grab the Mini D2S 5.0 projector direct from Morimoto if you prefer to source it from the manufacturer. If you want a broader shopping trip for parts and full kits, you can browse complete projector retrofit kits at Headlight Revolution to compare bundles.
Trimming the Fat Off the Projector
Before you move on, you want to trim all the fat off the projector as much as possible. Our Murano unit came loaded with original equipment mounting ears and a little extra material around the solenoid, none of which does us any favors inside a shallow sealed beam housing. Depending on what projector you use, you might not have to do this at all. This one only needs it because it is an OEM projector carrying a lot of extra bulk. A projector like an FXR or the Morimoto Mini really has almost no extra trimming to do. So we went ahead and trimmed all of that material off until it looked like a unit that was already prepped and ready to sink into the housing.
Modifying the Housing to Accept the Projector
With the projector trimmed up, it is time to start modifying the housing. Because of the limited depth inside sealed beam housings, we need to sink this projector as far back into the headlight as possible so that the housing lens clears the lens on the projector when you look at it from the side profile. That is the whole reason a huge gaping hole gets cut into the back of the housing, so you can push the projector all the way back until everything clears.
Every projector comes in a different shape and size, so there is no single specified formula for the shape you should cut. Common sense goes a long way here. Look at the back of your projector, look at the back of your housing, and you will start to see the similarities in the outline you need to remove.
To get started, we always recommend getting out the Sharpie marker and drawing a small hole in a rough shape first. You can always enlarge the opening later, but it is very hard to put material back once you have already cut it away. So mark up the reflector, cut just enough to match your reference, and then keep test-fitting and enlarging as needed until the projector drops in place.
Mounting the Shroud With JB Weld
Once the shrouds were fully trimmed up and ready to mount, we prepared them for their final installation onto the projector. We already had the angel eye halos mounted in the shroud, and we depinned the connector for the halos so we could fish the wiring through the housing a little more easily. That small step makes routing the harness through that big rear hole a lot less frustrating.
To bond the shroud, we cleaned the front lens frame of the projector with an alcohol pad, like always, to make sure the surface was free of contaminants that could prevent the shroud from sticking. From there we mixed up our JB Weld and applied it to the small fingers arrayed around the inside of the shroud. When the shroud is pressed onto the front of the projector, that JB Weld locks it in place so no road vibration or heat works it loose over the long run.
While you have the projector on the bench, this is a good moment to make sure the optics are dialed in. If you want your cutoff and beam clarity as sharp as possible, check out our guide to tuning a projector’s clear lens before you seal everything up permanently.
Resealing the Front Lens With OCI-B Adhesive
With the shroud mounted on our sealed beam retrofit and everything test-fit on the Jeep, we were ready to put the lens cover back on. To do that we used OCI-B rubber glue, which comes in a roll format. You stretch it out a little and roll it around the outer edge of the channel that surrounds the housing.
From there we heated up the housing, pressed the front lens back on, and used a pair of pliers all the way around the edges to smush the two halves back together. Working around the perimeter evenly keeps the lens seated flat and gives you a clean, weather-tight seal.
Final Fitment and Aim on the Jeep
After a couple of days of getting our hands dirty on this Jeep, we finally got the headlights back on the truck. Thankfully, the headlights sat level and everything fit as it should. At that point the only thing left to do was a little fine-tune adjustment on the aim, and we could call it a day. That is the beauty of taking your time with the cutting and the shroud mounting: the final install becomes almost anticlimactic.
A sealed beam retrofit will never be the easiest build on the bench, but the results speak for themselves. By skipping the fluted OEM glass, sourcing cheap plastic housings, trimming the projector down to fit, cutting a generous rear hole, and bonding everything with JB Weld and OCI-B, we turned a set of $30 housings and a big Nissan Murano projector into a genuinely sharp bi-xenon setup on this Jeep. If we can do it with one of the largest projectors in one of the smallest housings, you can absolutely handle it with a smaller, easier projector of your own.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why use aftermarket plastic housings instead of OEM sealed beam housings?
OEM sealed beam housings have glass lenses that are fluted or textured, which distorts the light output from a projector, so cheap aftermarket plastic housings are used instead.
How do you remove a glass lens from an aftermarket housing without breaking it?
The housing can be soaked in a bucket of gasoline for a couple of days, which dissolves the glue around the perimeter of the lens so it falls off without needing to pry or heat the brittle glass.
What projector was used in this sealed beam retrofit demonstration?
A Nissan Murano projector was used because it is one of the larger projectors available, chosen specifically to demonstrate a retrofit into one of the smallest housing types, the sealed beam housing.
Why does the projector need to be trimmed before installation?
The projector needs the original equipment mounting ears and extra material around the solenoid trimmed away so it can fit into the limited depth of a sealed beam housing, though projectors like the FXR or Mini require little to no trimming.
How is the shroud attached to the projector during this retrofit?
The front lens frame of the projector is cleaned with an alcohol pad, then JB Weld is applied to small fingers inside the shroud so it bonds securely to the projector and resists road vibration and heat.
Meet the Experts Behind The Retrofit Source
Tyler Jordan – Technical Writer
Tyler works directly with the TRS product R&D team, bringing over a decade of automotive aftermarket lighting experience to every article. An avid enthusiast with hundreds of personal installations under his belt, his content is built on hands-on knowledge from the workbench, not spec sheets.
Caleb Morgan – Marketing Manager
Caleb brings over a decade of automotive lighting industry experience and works with TRS customers daily on the front lines. With hundreds of personal lighting installations and a direct feedback loop from real buyers, his content addresses the questions and problems that actually matter.
