DIY - Painting Your Headlights

[R35SEDAN]

Thank for the DIY, its these types of mods that you're most pround of

[G35papa]

No problemo man. Glad it helped out

[G2FLIP4]

Just finished my drivers side up and thru it back on the car. I taped off 1/8" wide rings around the headlight holes and also around the blinker, also machined a clear lense at work for it. Actually have to use some plastic polish we have at work to buff out some hazing on the outside of the lense from normal wear and tear

Ill post up some pics tomorrow.

The DIY was very helpful.

[G2FLIP4]

[DiGil]

G2FLIP4, I love it. I've been thinking of doing the same thing. If I do, I hope you don't mind me biting your shtuff. What kind of paint did you use?

[G2FLIP4]

Nah man, copy away. I think the way I did it looks the best, obviously thats why I did it that way...

I used Rustoleum satin black. Takes almost a full day to dry though. One thing I learned is laquer thinner does nothing to the chrome headlight housing so dont be afraid to screw up cuz the paint will just clean off with thinner without eating the plastic as long as its wiped off right away.

What I did was put a piece of tape on the edge of my countertop and ran an x-acto knife along to cut about 3/16" wide strips and then ran those around the ring openings. Then sprayed and peeled the tape after about 10-15 mins... you wait to long and the paint will chip and not leave a clean line.. wait too little and its still stringy.

And as far as cutting out the orange reflector I found a very small rasp bit works way better than the little drum sanders. I went around the outside of the orange and barely had any cleanup to do.

Most of the guys just buy that ceiling light prismatic lense, which I did, but I machined center rings just like on the stock orange reflector at work. Looks more like OEM that way.

[R35SEDAN]

Originally Posted by G2FLIP4

Nice job. Makes me say why didn't i think of that...

[DiGil]

I'm gonna try using clear reflectors out of '06 lights for the blinker. Hope I can make them work. And the silver you have showing on those rings you taped off...Is that the stock bezel color or did you paint them and them tape them?

[G2FLIP4]

its the stock bezel chrome.

[DiGil]

Last bit of help if you don't mind me asking... You didn't sand the bezels before painting? How about a primer? I appreciate the help, man.

[G2FLIP4]

sanded... no need for priming. 600-800 grit is fine. wet sanding of course

As much as I hate spray paint I went ahead and used it. Im a huge advocate of painting stuff with automotive bc/cc, spraypaint cant come close to achieving the shine of an automotive clear. but since it was a satin finish, there was no need to a clearcoat

[DiGil]

Again, some great information. Now to find a place to paint the darn things (and repaint my grille). Damn, I hate living in a high rise.

[SIKHestG35]

does anyone know the best and easiest way to remove the orange turn signal in the headlight? I wanna put some clear turn signals with an orange bulb. thanks

[BuckeyeInMI]

Dremel and a steady hand, at least that seems to be the common theme for the few that have done it (I'm not in that group). Many have used a cutout from a fluourescent light fixture as a replacement lens. I considered doing it, but I actually like the egg yolk look. The orange looks good against the black housing.