Been smoking a lot... kidneys, headlights, trim rings

[attack eagle]

Just thought I would share my latest adventures involving black paint and a dislike of chrome...





I started off small:



Took off the kidneys (which were in less than show condition) and peeled off the loose bubbling chrome areas,

repaired the cracks which caused the chrome to fail, and painted them black...

Then I didn't really like the glossy finish, so after the tack coat and two or 3 good coats had dried,

I gave them 3 "overspray" coats to achieve a slightly textured finish.







i never liked the chrome headlight rings either so after a good cleaning with a scotchbrite pad and some oven cleaner,

followed by a hot water and soap wash and a wipe down with acetone, I sprayed them with some left over VHT caliper black.





Crappy driveway pictures of finished results

[attack eagle]

That was fine for about 1 day, and then someone posted some japanese vids where they are smoking Bosch headlights...

so I figured why not do it to my new lowbeam Hella lens assembies before I install them on the car?

ref: http://youtube.com/watch?v=GS-jyLGwWHs for smoking the lights.

see same user for videos of the disassembly of both highs and lows.





After numerous tries at 225, 250, and 275 degrees with no success, I decided to risk 300 degrees...

That was the magic number, as they peeled apart just as easy as in the youtube video.


Instead of scuffing or sanding the chrome and/or trying to paint over it (like in the video) for the smiley section,
I just took the smileys outside and sprayed `em with Heavy duty oven cleaner.

I then waited maybe two minutes for the magic of chemistry to do the work for me.
After a quick wash in hot soapy water and a wipe down with acetone, I wound up with this.





plain white plastic... ready for recieving Fusion black paint.

I have used Fusion paint on DSM headlights before, and I found that when painted directly over clean dry plastic,
no primer/scuffing/clear etc are needed.

[attack eagle]

cont>









I just got home from Autozone where I picked up some 3m window weld to glue the lenses back in place. Well, once they are dry and I am ready for reassembly.



Doing the highs will require that I find some sheet aluminum somewhere,

and I just do not have time to mess with them today.

[Jon K]

How do the headlights look assembled now?

[attack eagle]

ok first look...

not reglued yet, but everything is dry enough for dry reassembly test.

[Jon K]

hmm

pics on car will make me decide!

[attack eagle]

That may be a couple of days. I have a lot of work to do aroundthe house as well as some reading to do for school. PLus I want to let the window weld set up for at least 24 hours.
should look just like antriebs or any other smoked smileys.

[Milkboot]

I am very interested in this myself, Haven't gotten off my ass to do much of anything to the car yet, mainly because the paint would put it to shame

[Rory535i]

cool. i've actually bought another set of headlights to do this to. are you gonna make the metal crosshair for the high beams?

[attack eagle]

at some point, yes. I just don't have much time right now, as we just moved 2 weeks ago and I returned to school (after a 9 year hiatus) last week... and I need to find aluminum sheet as well.