I got a hold of the broken headlight (from the accident) from the body shop yesterday to learn about how the headlight is assembled from the factory.
The projector reflector assembly is ceramic, and it shattered all over the place like a broken vase. The 6500K Ultinon bulb was dangling and bouncing all over inside, so it's useless now.
Anyhow, the black paint is very thin and flakes off the chrome surface. I can scratch parts of it off with my finger. I don't know what kind of paint it is either. I've never tried Krylon Fusion, so please let me know if it is anything close to it.
I ran my finger nails across the "burned" surface of the paint. It felt caramelized and thick, so I couldn't scratch the stuff off.
Learning this, would it be possible to spray the underside surface with something to reduce heat passing through the upper "painted" surface? I would probably focus on the delicate sections, or spray the whole thing.
Anyhow, I'm still on the fence about modding my own headlights. I barely tried test fitting the headlight, and so far it doesn't seem to fit the oven. I have another contact to see if he can work on the headlights. The last resort is a big heatgun. O_o
If any of you guys are comfortable drilling holes, soldering, working with PCBs, etc., and would like to volunteer (not for free, of course) for this project please PM me. I'm better with electrical stuff, so I'm not very crafty.