Hi, I just want to get some opinion about painted headlight housing.
I have a SGM ISF and one of the headlight shows inner headlight oxidation.
I'll tackle the job and open the headlight lens to refinish the headlight, since the headlight lens will be off the car, I'm also thinking to paint the headlight housing. I know black out headlight may/may not look good depends on exterior color of the car therefore I'd like to get some opinion.

My options are leave it as it is, matte black or glossy black. thanks in advance.

 

leave it as is, that will look horrible.

painted housings are rice imo.

 

Really? did you know the 2011+ headlights come with blacked out housings Vs the 2008-2010?

 

borrowed the pic from member 4drScion on how 08-10 headlight looks like with black housing. the white exterior color really matches with black housing headlight.
I'm not sure if it would look good on a SGM exterior, also the color in the picture is matte black.
He posted a DIY procedure on ISX50 forum as well, thank you.

 

Of course, big difference between OEM and the diy stuff I've seen.

 

Its not that hard. Its hard to mess it up...

 

Matte black would look good IMO

 

Deff paint them

 

Well your opinion sucks. LOL


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FWIW, on cars that have their other trim pieces blacked out (i.e. window trim, grille and/or emblems - like the white one posted) I think the black housings (particularly the matte finish) look good. At the same token, I feel like from the factory the '08-'10 models with the chrome accents look great as well. So that probably doesn't help you much The best part and beauty of it all is...regardless of what you choose you're still driving an F

 

@RedlineAZ those look sick! Well done sir, your car looks great! Personal opinion here but the blacked out grille/emblem in your case (black car) would probably be too much - that little bit of chrome left is a nice accent. As is looks AMAZING IMO.

 

@RedlineAZ, these look amazing ! good job. I was thinking to paint them glossy black, but changed my mind to matte black. I already blacked out the grille and window trim will be my next project after I refinish headlight housing.

 

Thanks man! I was debating on blacking out the trim, but I decided against it, didn't want it to be too dark. What I may do is do away with the center emblem all together and get a different black grill insert that's badge-less but leave the outer grill trim chrome still. My wifes G37 coupe has that and it looks great.

 

I was going to have them done in semigloss black, then I decided to do matte, but in the process I confused my headlight guy and he did them in gloss for me lol. He is an aerospace engineer and the most meticulous person ever. If you saw his TT G35 sedan you would know what I'm talking about, not a spec of dust on the engine, everything is polished and wire tucked, even the non-visible parts. He custom made a set of dual projector headlights for his G, and has customized a lot of lights for me and people from the forums. Extremely pleased with the quality of work!

 

gloss looks good with black exterior, maybe matte would look dull with black.
Also, do you notice any light output reduction ?
I wonder how you can stand the heat in AR with all black out car. I heard the heat over there is ridiculously high that melts CDs inside the car.