Headlight retrofit question

Hey all,

I'm in the process of retrofitting projectors into my 1st Gen (2000). I bought aftermarket headlamps and after reading that stripping the chrome from them with oven cleaner would expose black plastic, I found a tan plastic underneath. So I ran to home depot, bought matte finish spray paint, roughed up the housings with sandpaper and then sprayed them black.

Only after spraying them did I read kn the back that it should not be applied to surfaces that exceed 200F. Well I'll be baking them at 270F to get the lenses back on. Here's my question:

Will baking them mess up the paint finish?

Also, will it mess up the projectors being inside if the paint gets messed up in the process?

Looking to hear from people that have done this before.

Thank you!

 

Just because nobody as answered yet... Do you need to bake them? Can you use a heat gun instead?

 

I do have a heat gun. I suppose I could try to move the heat along the edge.

 

I bought some glass Hellas. But if thats the route you want to take. Use the same paint on something else the same plastic and find out. Let us kno the results.or use some epoxy or glue. I wouldn’t be surprised if the people that help people on here regularly haven’t done that.

 

kind of hard to evenly heat the entire seam with a heat gun

 

Get a knife under there?

 

I did end up using my heat gun to close them back up. I started with the corners, used the lo setting on the gun and just kinda moved it back and forth a little with the lense placed over the housing. When I saw the adhesive start to soften I pinched the lens and housing together from the edge with Chanel Lock tongue and groove pliers.

After holding it together for awhile, I moved along the sea a couple inches and did the same. Back and forth motion, melted the adhesive and pinched them together at the seam. I went all the way around doing this until I made it back to where I started.

The one thing I noticed is as I came around, the opposite side started to lift up. To keep it together, whenever I came to a spot on the sea that had a place for the metal clips, I popped the metal clip on and that would hold it together for me as I went around.

When I had come all the way around I pinched any area that still seemed like it wasn't pressed together completely. This seemed to work pretty well.

I got them installed but the cut off lines are crooked. It looks like I had the rotated in the housing too much. I don't want to do the work of aiming them so I'm hoping when I take it to a shop to aim them, that they will fix the rotation issue.

Also, I have not yet hooked up the panamera 2.0 shrouds and demon eyes. I think I know which wires to tap into for these items but I'm not sure. Maybe someone will know on here? Here's what I'm thinking:

Shrouds:

• Has 3 wires
  • One white (pwr)
  • One black (ground)
  • One orange (switchback orange)

I think the white power should tap into the corner lamp light. The black should go to any ground either wire or frame. The orange I'm thinking will tap into the bumper blinker light wire. Does this sound right?

Demon eyes

• Has 2 wires
  • One white (pwr)
  • One black (ground)

I think both would tap into the wires that run into the corner lamp. My only problem with this is they would stay on with the corner lamp even when the headlights are on but I want them to turn off when the headlights turn on. I only want the demon eyes on with one click of the stalk coming out of the steering column. Rhwu should be off with the lights off and off with the headlights on. Only on when I make that first click. Anyone know how I would do this?

I also want to add that I did not remove my bumper to install these. The only thing I removed from the bumper was the plate covering the underside so I could access some clips from underneath. Everywhere on the internet said you needed to remove the whole bumper but it can be done with it on, you just have to squeeze your hands in there and/or use picks to press the clips in the right place to release the front grill. I broke one but I replaced it with one bought on Amazon. This Amazon one sucked. When I popped it into the hole on the body, I was able to pull it out with my hand easily which means it's not doing much to hold the grill on. So if you do this job, I recommend you go to Toyota and buy some OEM clips. It's a pain but if you break more than a few of these you'll need them to hold the grill in place securely.

 

Pics for fun and reference.

I also want to add that the housings definitely don't fit like stock housings. The bottom of the lens protrudes out (forward) further than the small trim piece under the headlamp. I don't really care since it's not too noticeable with everything going on in the front.

Additionally, the shrouds can only be placed on the projector in one position and this position is not perfectly rotated. So it's like the 4 brighter lights on the shroud are rotated just a few degrees clockwise on the projector. I don't think I installed them incorrectly because the shroud has tabs that snap into slots on the projector and the projectors slots are fixed. Doesn't seem like I can do much about that. Again, I kinda don't care. Still looks better than foggy stock lenses.