DIY!! Removing Lights, Painting Housing, Getting Rid of Amber Turn signal
11-06-09, 11:57 PM
#1
DIY!! Removing Lights, Painting Housing, Getting Rid of Amber Turn signal
OK so today i woke up at the crack of dawn and decided that it was a good day to paint my housing black. I wanted to do this for a while and figured that it would be better to do it now than never. Hopefully this DIY becomes a sticky and helps other people out.
I would list tools to say what I used to complete the task but I used so many tools I don't really know. LOL. for the most part i used:
- Needle nose Pliers
- 10mm socket
- phillips screw driver
- flathead screw driver
- small 10mm flat wrenches
- heat gun
- oven
some other stuff but cant remember
So i started with the basics Club Lexus DIYs n a heat gun.
After referencing some DIYs I wanted to get a good look at those OEM lights and remember em cuz they will nvr be the same again.
I def want to get rid of the water under the light and jus clean things up
So first thing first, I had to loosen up the bumper. Thanks to the two DIY headlight removal posts on here i was able to get the lights out with little to no problem. the only snag i had was with these screws
they are wedged around the fender and hold the bumper in place. you dnt need to take these out but u could mess up the light by trynna yank it out but if u twist and turn it u can get it out.
I highly recommend following the other headlight removal DIYs so you can get the headlight out cuz i dnt want to misguide anyone with my half *** instructions for removing the light.
After getting the light out the next dangerous step that a lot of people dont want to do (i was scared myself) but it has to be done. BAKING THE LIGHT!!!
I had seen a bunch of different recommendations for baking lights but i didnt want to mess up my only set of headlights cuz i def cant afford new ones. So i followed the DIY from ORACLE HALO LIGHTING for how to bake lights. They said to put the light centered in the oven with the rack close to the bottom. Set the oven to 250 and let the light sit in there for 10-15 min. I felt like that was a lil high and a lil long so i baked it at 210degrees for like 10 minutes.
BEFORE PLACING THE LIGHT IN THE OVEN MAKE SURE YOU REMOVE THE THREE SCREWS ON THE BACK THAT HOLD THE LENSE TO THE HOUSING. OTHERWISE YOU WILL NOT GET THE LENSE OFF AND YOU WILL MESS SOMETHING UP!!
so back to the DIY...after baking ur light the epoxy seal should be pretty pliable and when you pull back the tabs around the light, its about 4-5, you should be able to take it off.
Dont be afraid to put sum force into it, but not too much you dont wanna break it. And be careful not to let hot epoxy stretch and get on the chrome housing. I did this and it does not end good, i had to sand this crap off and its still some traces left but not too noticeable.
After you get the lense off it shuld look lyk this
There is a screw in the middle you can use a phillips to get out that shuld be rly easy to pull out. when I got to this point I decided to pull out that amber piece in the turning signal.
this was a lot easier than trynna crack it out with a screw driver n a hammer. When you pull it out it shuld look like this.
They are a pretty solid disc n could be used for something else. IDK what but its a lot cooler than lil cracked amber pieces everywhere. LOL
Next step is prep for paint. I used 1000 grit sand paper to rough up the chrome surface before painting it black. This is where the heat gun came in handy. Im in MD and its a lil cold around this time of year so I had to heat the housing to make sure the paint sticks
since i was trying to speed the process a bit i also used the heat gun to dry between coats. I only recommend this if you hav previous experience heating plastic becuz if not u can melt ur housing. I sprayed about 4 light coats and heat gunned the housing between coats to dry quickly. If you do it right then it shuld come out like this
I had a lot of experience painting so i would say dont do this unless ur very confident or have money to buy new lights when u mess these up. while i let the lights dry i attempted to clean the inside n outside of the lenses.
This stuff is nice but my lights r kinda at a point of no return so even thou they were cleared up better than before they still have some rough spots.
after cleaning the lense it was time to reassemble.
at this point i recommend trying to get those screws in the back of the housing to hold the lense down when you put it back in the oven.
this a pic when i actually baked the lights the first time around but it shows how to put the light in. dnt try to lay it on the back, i did this n the top of the oven melted a lil line in the lense cover, nothing serious but not cool.
when you rebake the light same, same temp and time make sure u allow lots of pressure on the back to push the lenses back into the housing. then rescrew and tighten everything. push down all the clips and make it snug
when your done it should look something like this of course if you paint it black
It takes a lot of patience, more like about 5 hours of patience. but it can be done. u can paint these any color and I'm sure it will look great. With these steps you could change the regular lights to look like the sport design lights. I did this all for around $12 for paint. great learning experience and would def do it again.
after you reinstall make sure everything is tight and in the right spot. My motto is if you dont have any screws left when you thnk your done, your done...unless u lost one. but i didnt
Here are some finish product pics. i hope this helps someone
My lights still shine with the same brightness, it actually looks brighter but i mite be seeing things. LOL. only thing that sucks is that crackling plastic lense that u see with my lights on but i still say it looks aight for wat its worth.
I would list tools to say what I used to complete the task but I used so many tools I don't really know. LOL. for the most part i used:
- Needle nose Pliers
- 10mm socket
- phillips screw driver
- flathead screw driver
- small 10mm flat wrenches
- heat gun
- oven
some other stuff but cant remember
So i started with the basics Club Lexus DIYs n a heat gun.
After referencing some DIYs I wanted to get a good look at those OEM lights and remember em cuz they will nvr be the same again.
I def want to get rid of the water under the light and jus clean things up
So first thing first, I had to loosen up the bumper. Thanks to the two DIY headlight removal posts on here i was able to get the lights out with little to no problem. the only snag i had was with these screws
they are wedged around the fender and hold the bumper in place. you dnt need to take these out but u could mess up the light by trynna yank it out but if u twist and turn it u can get it out.
I highly recommend following the other headlight removal DIYs so you can get the headlight out cuz i dnt want to misguide anyone with my half *** instructions for removing the light.
After getting the light out the next dangerous step that a lot of people dont want to do (i was scared myself) but it has to be done. BAKING THE LIGHT!!!
I had seen a bunch of different recommendations for baking lights but i didnt want to mess up my only set of headlights cuz i def cant afford new ones. So i followed the DIY from ORACLE HALO LIGHTING for how to bake lights. They said to put the light centered in the oven with the rack close to the bottom. Set the oven to 250 and let the light sit in there for 10-15 min. I felt like that was a lil high and a lil long so i baked it at 210degrees for like 10 minutes.
BEFORE PLACING THE LIGHT IN THE OVEN MAKE SURE YOU REMOVE THE THREE SCREWS ON THE BACK THAT HOLD THE LENSE TO THE HOUSING. OTHERWISE YOU WILL NOT GET THE LENSE OFF AND YOU WILL MESS SOMETHING UP!!
so back to the DIY...after baking ur light the epoxy seal should be pretty pliable and when you pull back the tabs around the light, its about 4-5, you should be able to take it off.
Dont be afraid to put sum force into it, but not too much you dont wanna break it. And be careful not to let hot epoxy stretch and get on the chrome housing. I did this and it does not end good, i had to sand this crap off and its still some traces left but not too noticeable.
After you get the lense off it shuld look lyk this
There is a screw in the middle you can use a phillips to get out that shuld be rly easy to pull out. when I got to this point I decided to pull out that amber piece in the turning signal.
this was a lot easier than trynna crack it out with a screw driver n a hammer. When you pull it out it shuld look like this.
They are a pretty solid disc n could be used for something else. IDK what but its a lot cooler than lil cracked amber pieces everywhere. LOL
Next step is prep for paint. I used 1000 grit sand paper to rough up the chrome surface before painting it black. This is where the heat gun came in handy. Im in MD and its a lil cold around this time of year so I had to heat the housing to make sure the paint sticks
since i was trying to speed the process a bit i also used the heat gun to dry between coats. I only recommend this if you hav previous experience heating plastic becuz if not u can melt ur housing. I sprayed about 4 light coats and heat gunned the housing between coats to dry quickly. If you do it right then it shuld come out like this
I had a lot of experience painting so i would say dont do this unless ur very confident or have money to buy new lights when u mess these up. while i let the lights dry i attempted to clean the inside n outside of the lenses.
This stuff is nice but my lights r kinda at a point of no return so even thou they were cleared up better than before they still have some rough spots.
after cleaning the lense it was time to reassemble.
at this point i recommend trying to get those screws in the back of the housing to hold the lense down when you put it back in the oven.
this a pic when i actually baked the lights the first time around but it shows how to put the light in. dnt try to lay it on the back, i did this n the top of the oven melted a lil line in the lense cover, nothing serious but not cool.
when you rebake the light same, same temp and time make sure u allow lots of pressure on the back to push the lenses back into the housing. then rescrew and tighten everything. push down all the clips and make it snug
when your done it should look something like this of course if you paint it black
It takes a lot of patience, more like about 5 hours of patience. but it can be done. u can paint these any color and I'm sure it will look great. With these steps you could change the regular lights to look like the sport design lights. I did this all for around $12 for paint. great learning experience and would def do it again.
after you reinstall make sure everything is tight and in the right spot. My motto is if you dont have any screws left when you thnk your done, your done...unless u lost one. but i didnt
Here are some finish product pics. i hope this helps someone
My lights still shine with the same brightness, it actually looks brighter but i mite be seeing things. LOL. only thing that sucks is that crackling plastic lense that u see with my lights on but i still say it looks aight for wat its worth.
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n1ck (10-06-18)
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In any event good job 
11-07-09, 05:16 PM
#15
I used to have spacers until my tire started rubbing the wheel wells, but i have stiffer springs on now so i might put them back on. I had 5mm in the front and 15mm in the back. i will prolly jus sell the 15mm ones and put the 5mm on the back to push em out the right amount.
AND THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR THE POSITIVE FEEDBACK.
Im trynna do big things with the GS before it freezes over out here
AND THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR THE POSITIVE FEEDBACK.
Im trynna do big things with the GS before it freezes over out here
Last edited by BP_VVt-i; 11-07-09 at 05:19 PM. Reason: typo