Given a lot of you may have done/seen this before. just contributing
credits : honda-acura - westcoaststyle

Tools/Supplies
- Dupi-Color Gunmetal spray paint
- Alchohol and clean rag
- Heat gun/blowdryer (prefer the heat gun)
- Old kitchen knife that you can destroy
- Oven big enough to fit the headlight on a tray in
- PATIENCE


The Process
First things first:

Remove the headlights from the car by taking off the front bumper (center plastic clips, 2 lower 10mm bolts, 2 screws under the bumper, 2 screws at each fender)
Then, remove the headlights by taking off the 4 10mm bolts from each headlight. Don't forget to disconnect the headlight connector and the corner bulb (once the headlight is free).
Ok, the headlights are now off the car and ready to be disected.

- Don't put in for too long! you'll melt the clips to the point of where they won't clip back into place
- Start by removing the light bulb from the housing.
- Preheat the oven to 325 deg.
- When the oven is ready, place the headlight housing onto a baking sheet and put it in the oven for appx. 2 min (you may need to repeat this step until the silicon is plyable enough to work with)




- Remove the housing from the oven (with the pan it's on)
- Place the housing on the counter or whatever surface you choose (we used a towel) and put the baking sheet in another spot as you will be using it again
- Use the blunt side of the knife to pry the outer plastic piece away from the housing. You will need to use the heat gun/blowdryer at this point to help you get it apart. Also, be aware of the little clips and be sure to unclip them without breaking or melting them





- With the clear housing now off, remove the 2 phillips-head screws holding the reflective piece to the clear lense and pull the chrome housing from the clear lense, but be careful to not get the silicon on the chrome piece



- Prepping the housing is easy, but requires patience: use the alchohol and rag and wipe all over the chrome piece. I rubbed enough to where the chrome was actually rubbing off. You will be painting over this part so that does not matter. BE SURE! to wipe into the crevaces very well or the paint will not stick.



- Let the alchohol dry COMPLETELY! and begin painting the housing by spraying very lightly. Do not spray a thick coat on yet, apply a VERY light coat and give it a couple of minutes to dry.



- When the first coat has set for a few minutes, apply a second, thicker coat, but be careful not to overwhelm one area as the paint will run and ruin your project. After this coat is applied, you may want to go work on your other headlight to give this housing enough time to dry.
- Keep applying coats until you are satisfied with the result



back on track...
- Reinstall the painted piece into the clear housing and screw it down
- be careful not to get silicon on the painted piece as it will show through and make you very mad
- use the heat gun/blowdryer on the main housing edges to heat the silicon back up -- do this on the clear housing as well
- with both edges sticky, reinstall the clear housing back onto the main housing.
- use the heat gun/blowdryer to help you get the snaps back on
- with the housing as far on as you can get, place the headlight back onto the baking sheet and into the oven for another couple of minutes
- when you remove it, immediately place the headlight into clamps or have something to hold it together (we used an old towel, wrapped the headlight in the towel and duct taped around the towel as tighly as we could for about 10 minutes)



Here's how they turned out.

This post was last modified: 10-31-2007 05:18 PM by hookedonponics.

My personal Results - I need to refinish the headlights they have a lot of haze but it was pretty fun and easy to do with good results









good luck

This post was last modified: 10-31-2007 05:14 PM by hookedonponics.

not to bad, i did mine also..

Good re~write up

deff..gonna use these instruction and do my headlights....

i painted mine black the first time i did them. then the next time i painted them gunmetal after i dremeled out the back of the housing to put a city light socket in them.

here's how mine look.