How To: BLACKED OUT HEADLIGHTS

[Nizmo4X2]

AKA my headlights are wesley sniped.... just thought id break down the street term for you old folks.

Well i must say this is one of those mods that has a rewarding finish but exhausting and almost not worth the work. I cant count up the hours it took because i bought an extra set of lights and took my time over a few weeks. I would say you need to devote one full sunday of work.

Heres the best i can do for a write-up.... think of it more as helpfull tips

screw driver (philips and flat), size 10 socket, primer, acrylic paint, purple "duck" tape, muscle power to pull apart lights, tube of 3m super weatherstrip and asket adhesive or rubber silicone (RTV)

Lets assume you have the lights out

1. Set oven at 275

2. remove 4 screws from the back of the headlight housing

3. set on a damp towel in the oven for 10-12 minutes

4. remove headlight with extreme care from oven and set on a towel on the counter

5. work fast!! the adhesive you were trying to melt in hardening fast, so now take a flat head and start to pry at where the tabs are. eventually you make a gap to actually pull the lens from the housing with your hands. watch not to break any tabs or distort the housing. luckily when i noticed mine distorted a little it was still hot even to mold back into shape. this will make sense once your actually attempting this step. (it might be a good idea to clean the silicone out of the grooves in the headlight housing, see step 10)

6. seperate all pieces and remove all bulbs and amber lens, be carefull! the amber lenses are known to break their tabs and fall out into the lens. i didnt want to take the chance so i took rubber silicone to the tabs to make sure they never move.

7. tape off any portions you want to remain chrome, just try to stay symmetrical with the tape. IMPORTANT: the only tape i found that didnt remove the chrome when peeled off was DUCKS purple tape. (Duck Tape brand Duct Tape and More! Duck Products Home)

8. No lesson for painting.... preference mostly. Sanding, clean, primer, paint, and clear coat (optional). If you over spray or mess up, acetone is a life saver. it will strip the chrome though.

9. Now that everytihng is painted, make sure to clean everything. Dont be like me and have the smallest piece of paper towel stuck in the headlight now.

10. Repeat step one, and start to lay a bead of rtv silicone or gasket maker in the grooves of the headlight housing and then press the lens back into the housing as much as possible. Everything needs to be lined up right and sealed right. If not done right, in certain weather consitions these lights can fog up.

11. Screw those 4 screws back in and bake in the oven at 10 more minutes.

12. Carefully remove headlight and place on a towel. I took vice grips and clamped down the edges on the housing and lens to squeeze together the housing better. This defitnly gave me more room to tighten the screws from the previous step.

13. Reinstall and enjoy. PM me with any ?'s.

also see: Blacked out Headlight Mod Finally finished check it out

O heres some pics.

[FewMo]

Yeah that looks nice. I used to have a 2006 Hyundai Tiburon and that was a popular mod to do. The first time I put the light in the oven I was a bit concerned...haha

[Pro2X]

I did the same thing you did with the blinker part but I didnt like it so I redid mine and made the blinker part painted so that the only chrome was behind the main headlight bulb.

[ToddG]

Nice job, looks good.
Great write up, I'm sure that will help folks out wanting to do this mod.
Thanks for sharing!

[zoomzoom]

An additional tip which made it easier for me. Once you initially get the housing apart, use a razor blade to cut the sealant apart rather than pulling and spreading it apart. This keeps the sealant in the original location in the original thickness all around the housing. Pulling apart can start to get messy as the sealant starts to get stringy and sticking to everything. Then you don't need to add any additional silicone or anything. Just heat up and squeeze back together. No leaks in mine without any additional silicone needed.

[HarshReality001]

ooooohhh...... that looks so badass..... maybe a nice, inexpensive winter mod for me?

thanks for the write-up!!!