Mex's Headlight Mod, DIY, PICS...
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Mex's Headlight Mod, DIY, PICS...
The reason I made this post was to answer questions I had just in case anybody else had the same questions.
I hope I don't offend you Mex because you did an excellent job, and personally, I wouldn't have been able to do it without your initial post. It was a very creative and innovative idea.
I don't have pictures of the lights on my car, but Mex does, just click on the link in the above paragraph. The reason I don't is because I have a "practice headlight" so I can figure out everything I want to do before I rip into my stock ones. So, thanks to Mex, here's my attempt.
1. This picture shows the headlight already apart. As you can see, this is the chrome plastic piece in the headlight that reflects all the light.
2. Here, I have removed the orange cover over the turn signal and reflector. As you can see, the reflector is just clear.
3. Here I have removed the clear reflector and set all pieces side by side.
4. The spray I used was different than the paint that Mex used. I couldn't find the stuff he used, so the people at the stores I visited led me to used this spray. I went and bought the STAINED GLASS color by Krylon. It doesn't have a color # or code on it, but says that the cap color represents the color inside the spray can. Well, I first bought a yellowish orange at Michaels, then I went to Hobby Lobby for something else and found this deeper orange. The top of the can basically matches the color of the large orange piece that was pulled off in the second picture. Look for that and you will be okay. There is a very slight difference between the two bottles I bought, but when they are sprayed, there is a huge difference. Look for the darker top.
5. I was told this picture looked like a bloody mess, but oh well. If you look closely, you can see that it is the clear reflector. What I did was using masking tape and newspaper, mask off what I didn't want painted. I then took it out to the garage and followed the directions on the bottle to paint it.
6. Again, a bloody mess, but too bad, it's what I took. This is just the same reflector from a different angle minutes after spraying it. I sprayed it two times, but I suppose you can decide that depending on how dark you want it.
7. These next two pics are pictures of it after pulling off the tape and newspapers. The color is near perfect to an orange reflector.
8. The next two pics are pics of the painted reflector installed on the chrome reflector on the headlight.
9. These last two pics are pics of the entire light assembly together. Mex had a very great idea here, and I think it looks great.
I hope I don't offend you Mex because you did an excellent job, and personally, I wouldn't have been able to do it without your initial post. It was a very creative and innovative idea.
I don't have pictures of the lights on my car, but Mex does, just click on the link in the above paragraph. The reason I don't is because I have a "practice headlight" so I can figure out everything I want to do before I rip into my stock ones. So, thanks to Mex, here's my attempt.
1. This picture shows the headlight already apart. As you can see, this is the chrome plastic piece in the headlight that reflects all the light.
2. Here, I have removed the orange cover over the turn signal and reflector. As you can see, the reflector is just clear.
3. Here I have removed the clear reflector and set all pieces side by side.
4. The spray I used was different than the paint that Mex used. I couldn't find the stuff he used, so the people at the stores I visited led me to used this spray. I went and bought the STAINED GLASS color by Krylon. It doesn't have a color # or code on it, but says that the cap color represents the color inside the spray can. Well, I first bought a yellowish orange at Michaels, then I went to Hobby Lobby for something else and found this deeper orange. The top of the can basically matches the color of the large orange piece that was pulled off in the second picture. Look for that and you will be okay. There is a very slight difference between the two bottles I bought, but when they are sprayed, there is a huge difference. Look for the darker top.
5. I was told this picture looked like a bloody mess, but oh well. If you look closely, you can see that it is the clear reflector. What I did was using masking tape and newspaper, mask off what I didn't want painted. I then took it out to the garage and followed the directions on the bottle to paint it.
6. Again, a bloody mess, but too bad, it's what I took. This is just the same reflector from a different angle minutes after spraying it. I sprayed it two times, but I suppose you can decide that depending on how dark you want it.
7. These next two pics are pictures of it after pulling off the tape and newspapers. The color is near perfect to an orange reflector.
8. The next two pics are pics of the painted reflector installed on the chrome reflector on the headlight.
9. These last two pics are pics of the entire light assembly together. Mex had a very great idea here, and I think it looks great.
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Rep Power: 0 [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/IMG] This past weekend I just did a similiar project, my lights were fogging a little, so since i had to take the bumper, etc all off again, i figured i'd paint my headlights. I painted everything except the top "blinker" area. I got a custom color spray can mixed for only $20 and it's electornic blue pearl to match the car. It went pretty well, just be careful about masking off the chrome insert, the chrome is only like one thousand of an inch, and no matter what type of tape i used, it took it off. All in all, they're not leaking so far and I'm happy w/ the way it looks- will post pics soon - d
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I wish I knew about the spray paint! I too used practice headlights to do this mod, and when I first tried it the reflector came out perfect. so I put them back in my car and the headlight aim is WAY off, turns out the lights I bought off ebay were broken. they were also from a sedan, and I have a coupe, so the headlight parts were not interchangable. SO, I had to paint the reflector for my coupe lights. but no matter how hard I tried, it would come out either too dark or too streaky from the brush. so bah, i had to cut off parts of the sedan reflector to make it fit into the coupe's headlight housing, and used glue to hold it in place. now when you get all close to admire the headlights you can see a thin line of glue holding it in place.
did you have any problems with the paint running? maybe I'll do it again with spray paint if I can find a cheap pair of OEM lights.
I wish I knew about the spray paint! I too used practice headlights to do this mod, and when I first tried it the reflector came out perfect. so I put them back in my car and the headlight aim is WAY off, turns out the lights I bought off ebay were broken. they were also from a sedan, and I have a coupe, so the headlight parts were not interchangable. SO, I had to paint the reflector for my coupe lights. but no matter how hard I tried, it would come out either too dark or too streaky from the brush. so bah, i had to cut off parts of the sedan reflector to make it fit into the coupe's headlight housing, and used glue to hold it in place. now when you get all close to admire the headlights you can see a thin line of glue holding it in place.
did you have any problems with the paint running? maybe I'll do it again with spray paint if I can find a cheap pair of OEM lights.
This mite be a really really bad question but I jus gotta ask......
When I was clearing my heads out I scratched up the inside a lot, You can see some sratches from the outside, and I hate it.
What if you took off the outer casing and painted that? It would be like a GTO, but if it's pretty transparent it wouldnt matter much. I wanna tint it sorta with a light blue, not like jet black. And it would be on the inside of the casing not the outer.
Mex, 2001Civiclx : what u guys think about this? Do you think theres a transparent light blue spray I can try on my head casing?
When I was clearing my heads out I scratched up the inside a lot, You can see some sratches from the outside, and I hate it.
What if you took off the outer casing and painted that? It would be like a GTO, but if it's pretty transparent it wouldnt matter much. I wanna tint it sorta with a light blue, not like jet black. And it would be on the inside of the casing not the outer.
Mex, 2001Civiclx : what u guys think about this? Do you think theres a transparent light blue spray I can try on my head casing?
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