I'm taking apart my headlight to clear out the orange casing. I was thinking about painting my housing black or something of that nature... should I do it?? Anybody done this before??

 

take off the headlights, use a low setting in the oven and put them in there. take them out and carefully pry apart the plastic using a flat head.

paint the housing whatever color you like. assemble back with ALOT of silicon. good luck

 

How long should I put it in the oven? Also, isn't there a special spray paint that tints it gunmetal?

 

anyone know a good temp. to put the headlights in the oven for and about how long? I dont want to **** anything up on mine when I paint mine black.

 

a industrial heat gun ( looks like a blow dryer on steroids) is much more precise and safer

 

I'll just use my blow dryer, two of them But I was wondering if anybody has a pic of their headlights that are already have black housing.

 

blowdryer worked fine for me. I've used that method 3 times already, gonna do my 4th. Just like the heat gun and there are no worries of melting other things like if you use the oven....

just be careful whatever you do.

and instead of "painting" the housing, use spray tint, so it gives a dark chrome effect, also looks closer to CTR headlights.

 

where can I get a bottle of spray tint??

 

No

 

hobbie shop

 

What do I use to put the headlight back together???

 

Bubble gum and duct tape........

Just kidding....silicon, you can get some from a fish store.

 

200 degrees or less for 12-15 minutes.
A heat gun takes too long. ONe friend did it and it took him 1 hour per headlight. Oven method take 15-20 minutes per headlight.

Then you get rubber weather resealant from Pep Boys or Autozone. Make sure you get the black stuff and not the yellow For obvious reasons.

 

do you have any pictures of the spray tint method? anybody?

 

im in the process of doing this i just finished my left headlight it is currently drying and i am going to do my right one tonight...i used gunmetal auto paint from auto-zone five lite coats and one tube of silicon for each assembly to seal it back together ill post some pics when i finish it up...oh yea and for the right seasoning i baked them for 20min at 180

 

What about adhiesive remover? WOuld that work to seperate the head lights?

 

Unless you have a chemistry degree and know the composition of your headlight housings I would never use an adhesive remover on clear plastic parts(or any plastic parts). Depending on what type of remover you would use it would cause the plastic to fog, crack, sag, etc. Also you would have to use a strong remover to make it even worth while, which would only increase the chances of damaging the housings.

The oven idea can and does work but I have preheated my oven to 200 and then turn it off and put the housings inside and just keep an eye on them. Also older cars use a different plastic in their housing which has a lower melting temp then the new cars so do beware of this. To be on the safe side a heat gun(low setting) will work.

As for resealing I have always used a clear silicone sealant. To get a good bond always clean the surface with a dregreaser and then wipe and dry with some thinner. Do not let the thinner sit as it can also damage plastic. Dry with a clean lint free cloth and then apply a small amount of silicone on each side and when it gets tacky push them together. Using a cue-tip to reseal any open areas works a lot better then using the whole tube and clean up any excess with thinner. When I used black silicone my first time it didn't look right. The key is keeping the silicone off the inside surface.


[Modified by moyerek, 7:34 PM 5/21/2002]