Headlight Accent Painting failure.

7924 Views 11 Replies 7 Participants Last post by vinhtvu2, Nov 3, 2012

vinhtvu2

Discussion Starter · Nov 2, 2012

If you've ever considered painting the interior of your headlight... I'll go ahead and advices you not to.

If you ignore my advice and decide to do it anyway, well... read on to see how I failed at it and maybe you wont repeat my mistake.

First off, I tried heating it with a heat gun (kawasaki high temp), it was a VERY long and tedious task, but it was working, somewhat.

Well, I didn't want to wait that long, so I decided to try to do it in the oven. My headlight doesn't quite fit in the oven though, so I tilted it at an angle to make it fit.

250 degrees, 10 minutes. Took it out, there's a nice melted puddle and at the bottom lip of the headlight. The bottom edge of the headlight is bubbled up. No bueno :-(

There are a bazillions of screws and tabs that hold the inside accent pieces to the headlight housing, one of which requires a skiny at least 8" long small phillip head to get to.

It took me less than 10 minutes to take the front bumper off, 15 minutes to replace the two wheel wall that I burnt off joyriding without a front bumper, 25 minutes to install HIDs fog lights and headlights, and 5 HOURS to bake and do the headlights. Dont attempt this unless you have a whole day to spare, and TAKE your TIME.

Better yet, just buy the KDM set and call it a day. I kinda wish I did.

I'll post pictures later, WAY too tired and annoyed at myself right now. Had to vent that out there.

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TheGeekFreek

· #2 · Nov 2, 2012

Yeah, I really like the way they look but just SOO much work.. I might take a stab at it one day if I can get a pair of headlights from the junkyard to try it on first.

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ELS

· #3 · Nov 2, 2012 (Edited)

5 hours?! Whoa~~ I think I'd always have professionals do it. Also, if they screw up its on their dime, not yours. That's the best part. However you don't get the feeling of "I did it. It's MY work."

FYI: when our guys open up VT head lights, its usually: remove some screws, 5-7 minutes of heating, use a flathead to undo the clips holding the 2 pieces together, pull. Hard. And you are right about the bezel. Just about the whole headlight needs to be disassembled to get that thing off.

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vinhtvu2

Discussion Starter · #4 · Nov 2, 2012

Well, I finished it up anyway. 2 melted mishaps, one on each side. You'd think after screwing one side up, I wouldn't screw the other side up... well. A logical person probably wouldn't... but it was 3am and I was far from logical.

You be the judge, how bad did I F*** up.

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Hyundai Headlamp

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Hyundai Hyundai veloster

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Hood Hyundai veloster

The pictures make it look like the paint is darker on the headlights than the body, but that's just the lighting. It look like it matched pretty much perfectly.

I think I'm going to mask off the bottom where the melted part is, and do a strip of black plasti-dip to cover it up and see how that work. Hopefully that'll cover up my mishap.

I think it still look nice overall from 10ft away....... I might still go ahead and order a KDM headlight though... maybe if the price go down a little... exLedShop, Pm me with a price for a new set of KDM headlight, orange LEDs all around with red devil eyes, orange painted inserts, and I'll start saving up for it

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jjmichael65

· #5 · Nov 2, 2012

I like it!

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VeeTee

· #6 · Nov 2, 2012

:applause: and I LOVE the moustache, so good!!

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vtlover67

· #7 · Nov 2, 2012

I like it too! Maybe you can have someone do some pin stripe along the bottom border or edge of the light to cover up the meltdown places. Make it look like some eye shadow type of thing. In black or Vit C.

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vinhtvu2

Discussion Starter · #8 · Nov 2, 2012

Yeah, I think some black eyeliner would probably be okay. I'll see if I can use some vinyl wrap or plastidip and cover it up.

Also HIDs were installed on lows and fogs,and it look schaweeet! I'll have to try and get a good picture with them on. I tried this morning but that didn't work since the camera pretty much says "ERRMAGERRD TOO BRIGHT!!!!!!"

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Boots Ylectric

· #9 · Nov 2, 2012

I just keep debating doing mine. I succesfully did it on another car, just can't get the balls to do it on this one yet lol.

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vinhtvu2

Discussion Starter · #10 · Nov 2, 2012

Boots Ylectric said:
I just keep debating doing mine. I succesfully did it on another car, just can't get the balls to do it on this one yet lol.

I did it on plenty of other cars and motorcycle no problem. This one was much more difficult it seems.

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Boots Ylectric

· #11 · Nov 2, 2012

vinhtvu2 said:
I did it on plenty of other cars and motorcycle no problem. This one was much more difficult it seems.

Yeah, I definitely won't do the oven, that much I do know lol.

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vinhtvu2

Discussion Starter · #12 · Nov 3, 2012

It would've been fine in the oven... if it'd fit!!

Our headlight obnoxiously huge.

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