I joined the 'blacked out headlights' club...
03-26-09, 06:02 PM
#1
I joined the 'blacked out headlights' club...
So, I pulled the bumper off to do 3K fogs, and figured, Hey, why not bake the headlights and black 'em out while I'm at it? 
I had experience with the culinary art of headlights, back when I did a retrofit on my 5th gen Prelude, so I was familiar with the oven process. I just put 'em in for 10 minutes with the oven on 200F. No warping or any weird things. After I pulled them out I'd just start one end with a screwdriver and use the kung-fu grip to open them the rest of the way. I find running a screwdriver all the way around the headlight tends to warp the housing making them less sealed when reassembling them. I'd just like to say at this time how much of a nightmare all the wiring/hardware is that's attached to the headlight. Ridiculous.
Honestly, the hardest part of this project was getting the bumper back on perfect. It took some tweaking and old-fashioned brute force in spots to get it to line up.
I also apologize for the pictures - I took them with my iPhone and today was a cloudy day, so there's a lot of reflection, but hopefully you can get the idea. The paint is straight up flat black Krylon from the CarQuest store. As far as surface prep, there was none. I kept my grimy hands off the face and set 'em in the sun; let good even spray-strokes do the rest.
I put about 3 coats ~15 minutes apart. I also left the side reflector alone because it would look ghetto spraypainted.
I'll try to get some better pics later...
I had experience with the culinary art of headlights, back when I did a retrofit on my 5th gen Prelude, so I was familiar with the oven process. I just put 'em in for 10 minutes with the oven on 200F. No warping or any weird things. After I pulled them out I'd just start one end with a screwdriver and use the kung-fu grip to open them the rest of the way. I find running a screwdriver all the way around the headlight tends to warp the housing making them less sealed when reassembling them. I'd just like to say at this time how much of a nightmare all the wiring/hardware is that's attached to the headlight. Ridiculous.
Honestly, the hardest part of this project was getting the bumper back on perfect. It took some tweaking and old-fashioned brute force in spots to get it to line up.
I also apologize for the pictures - I took them with my iPhone and today was a cloudy day, so there's a lot of reflection, but hopefully you can get the idea. The paint is straight up flat black Krylon from the CarQuest store. As far as surface prep, there was none. I kept my grimy hands off the face and set 'em in the sun; let good even spray-strokes do the rest.
I put about 3 coats ~15 minutes apart. I also left the side reflector alone because it would look ghetto spraypainted.I'll try to get some better pics later...
