Spent this last weekend blacking out my 06 headlights. I baked them at 275 for 10 mins and they came right apart. I used a satin black heat resistant spraypaint and I masked off the projector cover so it would be a little different than what I have seen before. While they were apart, I modded the yellow foglight capsules from hidtech to fit over the h1 foglights in the 06 projectors. Hadn't seen anyone else do this before, and I wasn't satisfied with the yellow color produced by any of the yellow coated bulbs, so this was the best solution I could come up with. I'm currently running them without the city light bulb, but I may reinstall the factory bulb to lighten up the color a bit. The color produced by the capsules is a very deep yellow color, maybe too dark and almost orange, but it depends on the lighting, and the color may be decieving due to the black housing causing the reflection to appear darker. Overall I'm happy with the results. Sorry about the picture quality, my camera's kinda out old and i didn't have a tripod. Lemme know what you guys think of the setup.









Foglight Retro:


Sorry no direct front shots, all of them came up with too much glare to be of any use.

 

that looks siiiiick.....i wanted to ask ya redlude, where did u get the paint and did u need to primer it or anything or did u just straight up spraypaint it?

nevertheless, u did a damn good job =) i like the retrofit. thumbs up

 

how did you modify the capsule to fit the h1 bulb. i have been thinking about doing this for quite some time. did you put the capsule over the stock h1 bulb or did you use another? and pictures of how you did it?

 

How did you prep the housings for paint? (ie 3M scotchbrite, fine grit sandpaper, etc?) Thanks

 

haha, everyone's got question =) you're so popular my friend

 

Very nice job! Please give us a list of your supplies used; what type of paint, prep components, process if possible. The paint actually appears to have a slight texture to it. If this the fact or is the lighting playing tricks. I would also likle to see some daytime shots where it wasn't so dark.

 

To open the headlights, remove from car and dissassemble the headlight as best as possible. I removed the ballast, bulbs, harness etc. Remove the 3 screws from the back of the housing and preheat the oven to 275 and let it sit for a while so the temperature has time to stabilize and the insulation of the oven reaches the same temp. Its important to not have temperature flucuations etc. so keep the oven closed as much as possible and insert/remove the headlight as quickly as possible. you want the heating elements to be on as little as possible so that the temperature inside stays somewhat constant and you don't get hotspots. Place the headlight on a tray cover in a towel with the lense facing up. Make sure none of the headlight touch the sides. After 10 mins of baking, remove while wearing mits/gloves because the headlight is going to be hot, pry apart with some flathead screwdrivers, and a butter knife works well also. it would be easier as a two man job, so one person and pry while the other one pulls apart, but i did it by myself and it worked out ok. Once the cover is remove, the bezel is held on with 2 screws and a tab that requires it to be snapped apart, you'll see what i'm talking about when you open them.

I prepped using 400grit 3m wet sandpaper, just scuffing all the painted surfaces, but 320 probably would have been better, i just happen to have 400already. No primer was applied, and I used a can of duplicolor satin black wheel paint, but any heat resistant paint of your choice would work. I would say 2 cans are necessary since I barely got enough coverage out of 1 can, so get 2 to be safe. I masked the projector area using 3m blue painter's tape. Hang the pieces if possible, and start by spraying the backside of the bezel near the openings so you can get into all the nooks and crannies that can't be reached from the front. Just make sure you use light coats 10 mins apart until you have even coverage you are satisfied with. Follow the instructions on the can to make sure the paint cures correctly. I dried mine overnight with a heater to speed up the curing process to make sure no hazing occured from offgassing inside the headlight.

After that just reinstall the bezel, place the lense back onto the back part of the housing lining it up as close as possible, and place back into the oven for 10 mins at 275 following the steps previously. This is to remelt the sealant. Remove and press the two parts together making sure all of the tabs are locked in place, reinstall the 3 screws and allow the headlight to cool. Reinstall the bulbs harness etc and reinstall on the car.

Yellow Capsule Retro:
I used the HIDtech lexus capsules which look like this:

The normal method of retrofitting is to drill holes in the housing for the little legs to go through which then covers the h1 bulb, but I found a better method that isn't "permenant, by seperating the base from the glass. This requires a little twisting and pushing to break the sealant holding the two together. I then removed the glare shield from the foglight housing which is held in by a screw from the backside of the housing. With a bending, the metal housing for the capsule can be pressed into the shield which will allow a base for the end of the capsule to be inserted into. I then bent the 3 legs of the metal base from the capsule to hold the glass capsule in place. Kinda hard to explain, but i'll try and draw a picture when I get home that may explain it a little bit better. I also trimmed some of the metal base that that extended past the shield for more light transmission through the capsule using tin snips. The capsule sure be held snug by the 3 prongs, but should be able to slide in and out slightly. When you reinstall the shield, make sure the capsule is centered over the hole for the h1 bulb, and that it is pressed as far back as possible and touching the housing so a little light as possible leaks from the base of the capsule so all of it is filtered yellow. Hopefully that was easy enough to understand, but my picture will explain it better.
Edit:
Heres the pic:

 

u answered a lot of my questions red_lude. thx man dude =)

 

very different and highly worth reviewing:

1) I like how you used a different approach towards the "Yellow Fog" project. It does look darker, actually, even more like a macaroni yellow look. If that is the final color you wanted.. then i'm glad to tell you that you have reached the look. I like it!..
2) I would like to be able to see some day pics if you could post some for availability asap.
3) Don't recall you saying anything on the retro/painting of the housing, affecting any light output.. if it did could you possibly post for those that plan on.. or want to know.. if it did have a big affect or not?

Dude it looks pretty awesome!.. You probably are (pretty sure you are) the only one that has done this. It looks good, and it's unique/different. Congrats! Keep up the good work!

The question for you from me now is. Since you're so handy with an oven.. are you that good with baking cookies?! if you are, could you pm me a price for a dozen of chocolate chip cookies shipped to 91326?

lol

 

I'll post some day pics if it ever stops raining here, hopefully this weekend. This mod shouldn't affect the light output any since the headlights are projectors so the housing doesn't really have any affect on the light output. The foglight output may have diminished slightly, but it couldn't be much. I didn't paint the reflector bowl which does most of the aiming for the foglights, and the bezel only reflects a little bit of light, the affect is probably more from the capsule filtering the light. Its hard to get a good picture of the output, but if you look directly into the bowl the light appears a deep yellow, but at an angle its slightly orange I think because the black bezel is making the color appear darker. The fogs are more of a cosmetic mod anyways since the headlights provide plenty of light output.

 

That looks fantastic. Congratulations!!

 

Nicely done and I'm for one thank you for the detailed information! Wonderful work

 

cool! can you get those condoms in blue?

 

thanks for the write up!!