Last night i painted my headlights. i masked them with 3m blue painters tape. I pulled of the masking this morning and got this! is there anyway to restore the flimsy chrome? or should i just scrap these?

 

you can probably spray paint the chrome back on but it will look like crap

 

^yep, or just paint that part to match, then put the amber piece in there...

 

hmmm or i could mask off the ridged parts of the light again, where the chrome is stronger, and paint the smooth parts black. that would looks intersting.

 

you f***ed up, just scrap it and buy some used ones on eBay. if you spray anymore black on there, u run the risk of having poor visibility.

 

im going to try and salvage these first, save the 300 bucks.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by gitrdone &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you f***ed up, just scrap it and buy some used ones on eBay. if you spray anymore black on there, u run the risk of having poor visibility. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Well, the parts that are de-chromed are his turn signals. They have nothing to do with his visibility.

When did you take the tape off, ajgrosch716? After putting it in the over? Or did you let the tape stay on overnight? I would recommend taking the tape off, about 5 minutes after putting them in the oven. That way, the glue on the tape doesn't have time to sit and harden.

 

i put em in the oven last night, then i took the tape oof this morning.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ajgrosch716 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i put em in the oven last night, then i took the tape oof this morning.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah, the glue hardened to your housing. You want to get the tape off as soon as you can, without touching the paint. Otherwise, it's going to harden and remove whatever paint/chrome that's underneath it.

As for fixing the existing problem. I would lightly sand the existing chrome down, to rough up the surface and get rid of any flaking chrome. Then I would put a coat of primer white down, then at least 3-5 very thin coats (almost non-existant) of that spray on chrome. If you keep the coats really thin, and bake them on, it should look fairly similar to the OEM look. Luckily, it'll be covered by the amber piece, so it won't turn out bad at all.

 

i think im just going to leave the reflective peices chrome and black out the rest, sitting here looking at them i think it will look pretty sweet. what temp do you bake the paint, i been at 150

 

i should have mentioned this before. i did my lights about 3 weeks ago... thing i i wasn't too sure about using my oven... so i used my heat gun. its a lot more safe and works almost as well but you get less glue mess. especially when you have two people working on them. so one rips the light off while the other applies heat to needed areas especially on glue that is stringing causing it to go back into its socket. use paint tape or masking tape. and spray paint about 3-4 coats on it to make it look like its completely coated... if you got finishing gloss go for it... i would want some but its expensive haha....

 

just paint that part black too. thats what i did.

 

i thought of that too, but i asked a few cops where my mom works and they said you need an orange reflective piece there. but they wont pull you over just for that. they will just give you a hard time for it when they pull ya for something else. if all things go to hell ill do that. thanks for the picture.

 

ya i painted it all black and i really like it.!

 

i painted them basicaly all black now. i left the lower reflector part masked. it looks pretty nice, just got seal em back up.

 

here what i did..

i took all the plastic peice off, orange peice, relfector peice.. and then i painted the housing. after a day or so it dryed and in stalled the relfector and orange plastic peice back in.. and itworks good.

 

that reflector piece comes out?!?!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by toyomatt84 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Yeah, the glue hardened to your housing. You want to get the tape off as soon as you can, without touching the paint. Otherwise, it's going to harden and remove whatever paint/chrome that's underneath it</TD></TR></TABLE>

yup...i think you should have read the diy better or let alone had common sense...

 

i read a 04/05 headlight DIY they dont have it haha

 

oh well, lesson learned...

ive done a bunch of blacked out headlights and never had this problem so i couldnt help ya...good luck

 

same here.. i just paint everything black on mine tho lol

 

im scraping those headlights i did, because the lenses i had were very scratched up, the guy before me had eyebrows on it and used a razor to get them off. I wonder if anyone sells just the lenses.

 

i have some lol

30 and theyre yours... i also have a diy black housing lights a extra set... in good conditon.. and some carbon fiber looking ones in amazing conditon.. pretty cheap. 50 a set plus shipping.

 

PM'ed

 

if u wanna get rid of those headlights and still have the amber piece.. let me know