Painting Headlight Surrounds How-To

[bugasm99]

Here is the Procedure for blacking out the housings in your headlights. The procedure isnt long, but it can be screwed up so be careful. I appologize i dont have any pictures as of right now, But I will try and get some and post them up when I get a chance.

1) Headlight removal~ This can be done looking under the hood to the front sides of the engine bay and unlatching the headlights. Unlatch the hooked metal clip that wraps around the headlight, and thenlift the lever upwards while gently pulling at the lense from the front of the car. Once pulled forward unlatch the wiring harness from the back-underside of the headlight housing. Repeat on the other side to have both sides removed.

2) Separating the housing~ On the outside of the headlight housing you will find 4 clips that hold the lens and front half of the housing to the back half. work your way around the housing unlatching all 4 before trying to pull the front off. With the housing separated, place the back half somewhere it wont get broken, and mark the front half "right" or "left" depending on what side you start with.

3) Lense removal~ At this point it is also a good idea to mark the clear lense itself what side of the car it is from, and also put a small hash mark on the top of the lense and housing so that it is easier to reassmble the lense later on. Take a hairdryer and slowly work your way around the outside front edge of the clear lense. You should be able to see a white silicon caulk like glue under the lense. This is what you are trying to heat up. As it gets warmed up you should be able to slowly separate the lense from the housing.

4) Painting~ At this point you want to clean the inside of the housing as best you can. I wouldnt use too harsh of a cleaner as not to harm the housing. Use a good primer and lay a few coats on the inside of the housing. There really is no need to mask anything off as you want this whole portion painted. Once the primer has dried you are ready to paint. I used satin black but at this point it is really up to you. You can use flat or gloss black, or any color of your choice.

5) Re-Assembly~ Once the paint has dried and you are satisfied with the look, you will need to once again heat up the glue using the hairdryer/ heater. With the glue soft again you shoudl be able to slide the lense back into the front housing. You will see that the housing has a groove and the Lense has a ridge that should slide right into the groove. Just make sure that you used your hash mark from before to make sure you have the lense on the housing the right way. With everything cooled down you shoudl be able to then snap the front housing back together with the back of the housing and check out your fine handy work.

6) Reinstalling~ To reinstall the headlight first reattach the wiring harness onto the housing. Place the housing back into the whole in the front of your car and make sure the two pins on either side of the housing slide into the grooves on the inside of the hole. Put gentle pressure on the front of the headlight pulling pushing down on the lever on the inside of your engine bay. This may take some finageling since it can be kinda of PITA. once seated in the car rehook the metal latch around the inner housing and you are good to go.

These directions are for both headlights and I recommend you do both at the same time as it will be much easier and faster. I wish you luck to anywho attempts this, but feel it is a good mod that dramatically changes the look of the front of your car