So I'm considering painting my headlights, flat black, my buddy who is a mechanic offered to do it. He says that painting the entire housing black will affect the lighting, cause the light won't have anything shiny to reflect off of, it makes sense. I've seen pics of both the entire housing painted black, and pics of just the surrounding painted, and I prefer the look of the entire housing painted, but if it effects the lighting, I'd be opposed of doing it. People who have had their entire headlight housing painted, do you think your headlights are less bright?

 

I've had a few sets of painted headlights, the black housing didn't affect the lighting and if it did, I didn't notice.

 

Yes, it does. But not nearly as much as overlays.

 

I wish I knew how to post pics, I could explain this alot easier, those above pics are exactly what I wanna do, taking the headlights apart and painting the entire housing black. I'm just worried about inside of the two circles, should I leave them chrome, or paint them. Also my buddy has a heat gun, is the oven method easier? Has anyone tried to use a heat gun?

 

The oven is easier IMO because it will be heated pretty evenly, it's impossible to get the heat to be even with the heat gun.

Painting the housing will not effect your night time vision.

 

either smoking your lenses (will change), or painting your housing (will not change) both should be done in the oven.

Like anything, take your time and get it done right.

 

revival! Im gona paint my headlights and again should i paint it all or leave the chrome areas around the bulb unpainted?

 

My way FTW

 

in the picture with the white g35 coupe, what side markers are those and what type of grill is that

 

Looks Good! Did you notice any reduction in light output after painting the housings black?

 

Those are self made LED side markers, there's a DIY on how to make them on this forum.. And a Gialla Grill prolly made by Ionic.

 

I don't think you have anything to worry about. As you can see in the pics above, the actual reflector of the light is not painted. Just the housing around it. As long as you don't get stupid and try to paint that, you are good to go. I have had black housings on several other cars and the lighting was the same.

 

+1. I just did mine and oven is super easy. Its scary putting headlights in the over when you have never done but 12 minutes at 215 will do what you need it to do safely and you can leave the wires in. The best advice i can offer is TAKE YOUR TIME! Also don't get glue on the inside of the lens. I didn't but I have heard that it is a biatch to get it off and have the lens still look clean.

 

Technically, there is not a single mod you can do to your headlight housing that is legal. NHTSA prohibits any type of modification to the oem headlights unless it's to swap it out with another oem headlight ( one that is DOT approved ). So the only legal thing you can do is swap an 03-05 headlight for an 06-07 headlight.