Didn't know if there was a how to on this yet...so enjoy!!!!


A couple of people have asked me to put something together on how to paint your headlight housings. So here it is. Enjoy!!

Well first off you take your headlights from your car. Take the bumper off. Its pretty basci that part. 1 bolt in each wheel well, all the plastic clips on top the grill, some more screws under the car. ( I can't remember how many). Then 4 bolts for each headlight.

Chuck them in the oven one at a time for like 8:00 minutes at 200 F. Take them out and start pulling the housings apart. After you do that this is what you should be left with.


After you have that done, there are 2 screws in each headlight that seperates the housing from the lens. htey are at opposite ends of the lens.



Take that apart and your ready fro painting. Mask all reflective material around the signal bulb so you don't paint that part. As for paint, I used a flat black primer because it would stick better to the plastic them just regular paint.



Let that dry for like 30 minutes. then apply a second coat if needed in case you missed any spots. Then its back to baking. Screw the housing you just painted back to the lens and put it all back in the oven. for the same amount of time to ensure that you heat up all the silicone again. put it all back together and let it cool down before you put your headlight and signal bulbs back in so no moisture can be left.

And after that put them on your car, put your bumper back on and take it for a cruise and turn some heads. Here's what the finished product looks like.






[Modified by BennySiR, 4:33 AM 6/1/2002]

 

a lot of work in to it

 

your ride looks like a vampire...

 

I hope you didn't spray paint on your mom's nice table cloth!

I like the car man. I can safely say your car is the first car with a kit I like. Good job.

 

hhhmmm, i might actually try that out. get a pair off a junkyard, for now, i'll stick with the ones i bought. good info though.

 

Good instructions and pics bro , I used a blow dryer and a flat head screwdriver to take apart the housing, it's pretty easy if you pry and heat the silicon at the same time, but the oven is probably the better way. I used graphite grey as another member here suggested. just a note- let the paint fully dry before you remove the masking.

 

Yeah it does.... That **** is tight

 

Actually I had a lot of trouble using your method. The glue would heat up and the screwdriver I using to pry the lights apart would just end up getting glue all over it.

 

I've helped clear Civic and Accord headlights. I used the blow dryer method. We never ran into any problems.

 

You have to think. . .do aftermarket comapies do this procedure to make new headlight housings??


Looks awesome and you save money. Same thing with polishing your valve cover instead of buying one for $100.

 

sorry for getting off topic, but dude, i thought you had like 100 posts or something? 28?

EDIT: It would be a VERY good idea to scrub the chrome before you start painting. maybe even sand most of it off. Paint doesn't stick very well to chrome, and you might notice sometime in the future that it's gonna flake off if you didn't treat the chrome accordingly before painting.


[Modified by hot_EF, 1:13 AM 6/2/2002]