Painting headlights/cleaning the lenses

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BP90

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ok so a few people on the forum have already seen on my build thread that i painted my d22 headlights black. Here is a link to my build thread for those of you who haven’t seen them but would like to (hopefully the link works).

http://www.navara.asia/showthread.php?t=8801

riteeo so i know that lately theres been a few threads about people asking how to get their headlights apart to clean them so i figured i might aswell make a dyi how to thread on painting the headlights for those interested and for those who just want to clean any dust or mud out of the light casing. this is a fairly simple diy job, i have now done this to 4 different cars (2 vy commodores, 1 Ba falcon and my Navara) and will be doing it to a RA rodeo and have never had any issues with moisture in the headlights afterwards.

Equipment,
screwdriver set,
socket or spanner set (i used a socket set but it could be possible to do the job with a spanner set),
an oven (conventional or fan forced, i can get internal dimensions of my oven so people have an idea of the size needed for the headlight),
caulking gun,
selleys all-clear (or any clear silicone)
wet and dry sandpaper,
plastic primer,
undercoat primer,
the paint colour you want,
clear coat,

Removing the headlight.
to start off you need to remove your headlights from the car, i found this easiest by removing the grill which you just use a small flat blade screwdriver to carefully twist the clips so that the top of the gril comes away then use a flat blaade screwdriver to pry the bottom clips out of their holders. (sorry i dont have any pictures of this but its simple enough to work out). then once you have removed your grill and set aside out the road, you can remove you headlights, which are held in by 3 (ithink 10 or 12mm) bolts, theres one on top next to your 1/4 panel and 2 on the side closest to the centrew of the vehicle. once you have unbolted them you can unplug the wiring and remove the headlight.

once you have your headlight out you want to remove the wiring harness thats attached to the headlight, all your bulbs circled in green (thats your indicator,parker light and your high/lowbeam bulb) the big circle seal aroudn the headlight bulb and the 2 screws circled in red. dont touch the 2 bolts circled blue as they are your adjustment bolts.

IMG_0971copy.jpg

Baking the headlight.
ok once you have removed that its time to bake your headlights. you need a oven (mines only smallish but was big enough to fit one headlight at a time which really you only want to bake one at a time as you sort of have to take your time splitting them apart and they do tend to cool quite quickly). Now you want to preheat your oven to about 100-110degrees celcius you can use either fanforced or conventional, ive only used conventional but id say fan forced would give a more even heating. the idea of heating the headlight in the oven is to soften the headlight silicone seal enough so you can seperate the clear lense and the black back casing. it does take a lil time to do this as the silicone does cool so i put the first in for about 5-10mins or so (make sure you keep an eye on it) then take it out put the other in while i start to pry the 2 halves apart a flat blade screw driver helps in doing this (although becareful not to slip and shove it into your hand, have had this happen once or twice). also becareful not to break any of the clips that hold them togethor aroudn the outside of the join. once you get the clear an black halves apart you will be left with this. the 2 halves with the chrome bezell inside the chrome casing.
IMG_0968.jpg


IMG_0959.jpg
then you need to remove the 2 phillips head screws at the bottom of the chrome bezell that holds it into the clear lense, the carefully remove the bezell from the clear lense.

Cleaning.
now if your only wanting to clean your headlights not paint them then all you have to do now it clean the inside of the black casing, the clear lense and the chrome bezell (a warning proably best off using just fresh water to clean any mud or dirt out of your headlights as i know that such antiseptic wipes such as pine-o-clean wipes etc will actually damage the chrome finish on your bezell.

Painting.
however if you want to paint your headlights (which can be done in any colour, ive only ever done black but i have seen a few cars on the net with colour coded headlight bezells. so colour choice is upto you) now i used heatproof black and clear but used touch up plastic primer and undercoat primer, so im not sure if heatproof is really needed but thats what i use all the time just for a little piece of mind i guess.

you want to sand back as much of the chrome as you can off the bezell using about a 400grit wet and dry you can use a lighter grade but i used 400 and it was fairly smooth so i didnt bother going back over with a light grade. easier said then done im afraid except for where your parker and indicator bulbs go as you still want the chrome there so they reflect still. then tape up your indicator and parker bulb sections ( you will see i put tape over the orange indicator cover although your best to simply tape up the hole like i did with the parker light as its quite difficult to remove that orange cover after painting without damaging your paint.

IMG_0963.jpg

i put 2 light coats pf plastic primer down first, then 2 coats of undercoat primer, about 4-5 light even coats of the heatproof black and then roughly 3-4 light coats of heatproof clear. as for drying times it was usually about 10-15minutes between coats and then about 4hours to let dry after the final coat.

(will continue this on in next comment as you can only have 4 pics per post)
 
ok so once you have let it dry for an ample time (make sure you follow the drying times etc by your paint instructions as all are different). you can remove the masking tape from your indicator and parker areas and then clip back in your 2 orange covers (4 intotal) which will look like this
IMG_0967.jpg


Re-Assembling.
If you only cleaned your headlights then this is where you continue on from. then your ready to reassemble your headlights which is just inreverse. so you carefully put your bezell back into the clear lense and put in those 2 phillips head screws to secure it in place. then go back to your oven and preheat it again at 100-110, while that is heatng get your 2 halves of your headlight and reallign them togethor and push them togethor as far as you can which wont be far but then reheat and as the silicone gets hot you will be able to push them togethor far enough to get the clips back togethor. once you have both headlights back togethor you can put back in all your bulbs, rubber seals, wiring, those 2 screws that were circled red. once you have done this i like to just a precautionary measure i get some selleys all-clear and run it around the groove wherethe clear lense and black casing join just to make sure no moisture can get in, and with this i have never had any moisture in any of the headlights i have painted. then you have your finished headlight

IMG_0970.jpg

Re-Installing.
then you simply connect the headlight wiring loom back up to the headlights push them into place in the car bolt them back up and then reattach your grill. now for the grill i found it alot easier to remove them clips at the top from the radiator support put the into the grill then carefully push them back into the radiator support.

then your all done. i also took the oppurtunity while the headlights where out of the car to replace the bulbs with brighter ones as unbolting the headlights is a much easier option then removing the battery to get to the bulbs. for more pics of the painted headlights on my car you can go to page 10 on my build thread.

for any questions or info you need just ask away.

Bart
 
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Thanks fellas.

Also for anyone that was wondering a rough sort of price to do this.
Well if you didnt have any of the stuff (not including the tools like sockets and spanners etc)

Well
selleys allclear is about $9 from memory,
Sand paper- like $1-3 for 1 to 2 sheets of wet and dry.
Heatproof paint is bout $16 for the black and bout the same for the clear.
The touch up cans i used for the primers were about $7-8 each (in saying about the primer out of the 4times i have painted a set of headlight the navs were the first i primed and i only did it because i already had the primer sitting there from a previous job i had done. So primer isnt really neccesary i wouldnt think well it hasnt affected the other 3 sets of headlights without it so upto you).

So all up your lookin at about $50 (without primer), but then again its less then that cause you wont use a full can of any of the paints and you wont use all the selleys or the sand paper. So probly only a $15-25 job, which even at $50 is alot cheaper then those aftermarket black headlights and you dont have to worry about the headlights not fitting properly or having incorrect plugs.
 
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Its been a few years since this was done, how is everything holding up? the paint and sealer still in good nic? any leaks or fading?
 

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