I remember seeing a red prelude with the front part of its headlights darkened. Made it look good IMO, does anyone have any idea how to do this, whose car it was, and if it affects lighting performance.....

 

twas mine.

you need:
1 tube of clear silicon
1 caulking gun
1 can of black spray paint (flat - high temp preferred)
1 can of black spray paint (gloss - high temp preferred)
10mm open end wrench
flat head screwdrivers
--------------------------------
take front bumper off.

take headlight aseemblies off. there are two bolts holding them in. use a 10mm socket for the bolts on the side and possibly an open end for the front bolts for the headlights.

take one headlight assembly and place it in your oven (yes, seriously) for about 1 to 2 minutes to warm up the tar-like glue around the edges of the clear lens. Once the glue gets a little thin and easy to manipulate then it means its time to remove all of the little clamps (the ones that hold the housing to the front clear lens) surrounding the headlight. unclamp them all and pry off the clear lens with a flathead. the headlight will be pretty hot so use an oven mit or maybe a paper towel to hold the light while you pry it GENTLY.

Once the front lens is off, there should be another piece held on to the housing by two screws. you need a phillips for these two small screws. The piece in the headlight that is held on by these two screws if what you want to paint (see picture). Put on a few coats of flat black and make sure it dries good. make sure no dust can get on the light. if the paint isnt dry then you WILL get finger prints on it. after the flat dries then use the gloss black and put on a couple coats.

to put the headlights back together: when the piece is dry screw it back on to the headlight housing and put the lens back on the headlight housing as best as you can. line the clamps up with the lens. put it back in the oven (set at 400F) for like a minute and remove, the glue will have become very soft again. put the headlight aseembly back together very tightly. let the glue settle for a minute or two and then seal the headlight with clear silicon from a caulking gun. once the silicon has settled and dried then go over and spots that may have holes in it. sometimes silicon dries funny and seperates from itself. I have not had any moisture in my headlights EVER! sealing them up is the most important part here.

good luck.

 

Do you have any other photos, like from a distance? Also, did you see any difference with lighting performance?


BTW, how the hell did you come up with putting the lights in the oven? When I was looking at how to take them apart, kitchen appliances were the furthest thing from my mind!

Oh, and thanks

 

this did not affect any of my lighting. I don't have any other photos right now but I will be taking some this week.

 

damn Martha stewart, that's pretty freakin' creative. Looks awesome.

I'd be afraid to try it though, too afraid to mess up.

 

Thats car modifying for you....if you want what everyones done, its simple, if you want something noone else has, you've got to be creative, which means you take on a LOT of risk.....

Thankyou again, vabeach

 

useing a heat gun work just as well also.. but it looks good,

 

heat gun does work fine, and a hair dryer probably would but the dryer may take a lot longer (from what I have heard). with the oven you get an even heat throughout the whole light asemmbly and only takes like 30 seconds or a minute if the oven is set at 400f.. this only took me like an hour to do, and I even had lunch while the paint was drying.