WHAT A PAIN IN THE ****!

I dunno how ya all do it.


too much sanding in places you cant possibly sand at all.


How do you guys deal with a ribbed sections?

pm G35Papa

what ribbed sections are you talking about Joker?

the ribbed piece that is on the projectors comes out - i actually didn't paint that

All it takes is about 2 min with some red scotch brite on each headlight. Paint comes out super smooth too.

It doesn't have to take long. All you really need to do is scuff it up. Then paint your color.

You can use primer before the color if you want to build up a layer, and use a high grit sandpaper to smooth any scratches or bumps out. Then layer a few coats of color. You can sandpaper the color with 1000+ grit to make sure it's smooth if you need to, and finish with a few more coats.

I sanded down the ridges your talking about. That takes a lot more time. You can check out what I did here.

I wanted to keep the ridges tho.

I sanded down the entire housing to the bare plastic and just the tops of the ridges, gonna use some adhesion promoter to make sure paint grabs on good.

I went with 800 grit all the way, did not want to go with something higher and then resend it after primer.

I'll just go over with adhesion promoter/primer and paint after that.

Joker - can you post a pic of what piece you are talking about - if it's the piece below the projector, i didn't even paint that piece and you can't tell.

X2... sounds like you went about the hard way.

You sanded the chrome off and down to the ABS? Yikes

400-600 would have been fine. 800 is smoother but takes way longer to sand with. Wetsanding also helps

I didnt use adhesion promoter or primer, just a single stage black in my HVLP gun.

I'm not talking about that piece, I'm talking about rest of the ribs besides that piece.

I sanded my headlights for a couple of hours when we did mine. I feel your pain...LOL.

I did wet sanded.

I was gonna just scuff it up but when I started chrome came right off, so I figured I'd do the entire housing that way. Flat areas were easy to deal with, it was the grooves that were pain in the butt.


Another problem I'm having is hat I got to paint it two diff colors (projector housing separate from the rest)

My plan is to pain the entire housing with color of my projector housing. Then let it cure, mask off the housing for projector and spray rest of the housing.

Do you guys think if I should scuff up the freshly sprayed paint before I spray it with diff color or just go ahead and spray on top of it?

well I wanted to be perfect

I even had to use a tool for windows tint installation to sand the grooves.

I wrapped it in a sand paper and went to town........what a pain.

Not necessary. You can layer the paint. You should only need to sand any imperfections to make everything is smooth and level.

What paint are you using?

duplicolor caliper paint for the projector housing and duplicolor wheel paint for the rest of the housing.

Nice.

The main thing is to paint in a clean and ventilated area. Clean, so fuzz or dust ends up in the pain before it drys. If it does, lightly sand the area with light grit before applying the next coat. And ventilated, unless you like huffing for some reason. Out side of that, just spray even coats in light layers.

I used Rustoleum Universal. It's great for plastics and and has a hardy spray. Painting was definitely the easy part of the project.

I can't wait to see how your lights come out. I want to do an 06 set now.