How To: Black Head Light mod

Here goes something...using fusion spray paint

 

Subscribed

 

Here's a BHLM fail for everyone to watch out for.

Followed the steps but believe I failed to let the heat dissipate between the second last and last bake.





If anyone has any suggestions I'm open to them. I think my options are

1. Remove the oem lens after a good polish and swap it out.

2. Attempt to heat and meld the lens back (won't be perfect and definitely will be some light distortion)

3. By a new lens and try again (junk yard, ebay, Amazon etc...)

 

Probably best buying some Depos and sealing them with silicon, mine work great. Light output is the same as stock IMO. Plus, they're already blacked out

 

You don’t put the lens into the oven for any reason. The last few bakes should just be to let the paint cure and then just a short bake to heat up the new adhesive. Once you put the lens back on the housing, there’s no more oven use.

 

I did mine today out of boredom. I had the stock headlights laying around after I put in brand new OEM TRD Pro headlights. Now I don't know which I prefer...

 

Do you still have both headlights? TRD and BHLM?

 

I have the BHLM installed and sticking with them. I have the TRD Pros all boxed up ready for any takers.

 

Sending you a PM now

 

Sub

 

Which one is which? They look equally great and I can’t tell the difference.

 

Those are both my BHLM lights. I ended up keeping them until I got retrofits recently. I sold my pro headlights. Here is a pic of them.

 

What finish have you guys used for the bezel? I know a lot are matte, but i feel like a gloss or semigloss would look better, or closer to the shiny OEM look. Does anyone have pictures with a glossy black bezel?

 

I would think it depends how black you want them to look. I chose to do matte black because I did not do a retrofit. All of that left over chrome adds a lot of shine. The most I would do is satin. With a retrofit and a complete black out I think gloss might look good. The oem blacks look like satin bezels to me.

 

Anyone have any strong feelings about using a lens restoration kit before or after the baking process? Does it really matter?

 

Personally I'd do it after, that way any small scratches that you might add to the headlight lens during the mod can be addressed and you'll have the best possible outcome with the lens restoration.

 

I'd do it before. That way if it doesn't work as well as I'd hope I can just order replacement headlights and not do twice the work. The cutoff is going to blur a bit after headlight restore depending on brand. It's also going to become a regular routine. That's why I just opted to start with a new assembly.

 

Anyone ever try something like this?

 

Is that the stuff you apply over chrome or is it a straight up paint? Duplicate color makes a “shadow chrome” that you spray directly over the chrome of the headlight and just tints it darker. It would be great for this application and get a very similar result to my stock smoked headlights. Don’t use the stuff that is a paint though because you won’t get much of a chrome effect.

 

I was looking for the stuff to just tint over it. I dont know if this is the correct stuff for that, but I will be looking in to the "shadow chrome" stuff you mentioned. Thank you for your reply!