DIY: VIDEO!! Baking 370z Headlights for Paint, LED's etc
 

Hey guys, just got both of my headlights open for painting the housings as many have done here on the forum, and I recorded the WHOLE process including stripping the headlight of everything necessary to put it in the oven, showing you everything you'll need to get the job done, and the actual "opening" process itself. I've recently been PM'ing as many people as possible who have successfully and unsuccessfully opened their headlights using the oven method to see what works and what doesn't, as well as what I learned myself from getting the process wrong the first time.

The videos should explain everything, however if there is anything I missed or that you are concerned about just ask on this page so it can be displayed for everyone and I'll get back with answers ASAP.

This is a series of 3 videos because I do not skip anything or speed up the video and youtube limits your videos to around 10 minutes, there is just short of 30 minutes of video so there you go.

I'm not going to have all 3 videos on this page until late tonight or tomorrow as I just don't have enough time to upload/post it all before work, so there will be some missing pieces to the puzzle until I get off work tonight and upload the last video.

FIRST VIDEO

Stripping your Headlights for the Oven (part 1)



Video 2





Video 3



Baking your headlight and opening it

Please read the videos Description







NOTE!!!!


VERY IMPORTANT!!!

I took out the HID's ALL WRONG..... If you take them out the way I did in the video you may damage your hid bulb or the silver assembly attached to it.

THE PROPER WAY to take them out is, after removing the circular plastic piece by rotating it, giving you access to the HID assembly, you simply need to rotate the large silver piece and it comes right out AND THEN you will be able to remove you actual HID bulb separately from the larger silver square-ish shaped block by pinching those wires right behind the bulb to free it from the housing. This may sound confusing but once you just rotate the large silver block from the bulb it will be very obvious.

What I did was simply yank the whole thing out (silver block with HID attached) which is not smart lol however I had done no research at the time on stripping these or switching HID bulbs out.


ALSO IMPORTANT!!!!


If you place a towel underneath your light when taking it apart, MAKE SURE it is a Micro Fiber towel and not just any towel lying around, like we used. The reason I say this is, you will get scratches on your lens from the downward pressure placed on the light combined with the fact that it is hot out of the oven.... YOU WILL SCRATCH YOUR LENS so again, use a soft, clean microfiber towel and do not set your lens down on the carpet while its hot or that may also cause scratches.


IF YOU DO SCRATCH YOUR LENS

Its not the end of the world, you will just have to use some polishing compound with a microfiber applicator pad to get them out, possibly using some rubbing compound before the polish..... If thats not enough and the scratches are too deep, you will have to get a headlight restoration kit that includes fine grit sandpaper and wet sand it before using your polishing compound.

It will be easier to do this after you have painted and reassembled your lights but before putting them back on the car, or you will have to mask off your painted surfaces around the headlight to avoid scuffing your paint with the sandpaper as well as not getting any plastic restoration compounds from touching your paint as well.

Twist this off!! Do not pull it
Attachment 62859

Light after opening
Attachment 62860

5 screws (maybe 6) will be holding your housings, shrouds, and reflector to the lens, remove those, then you can take everything apart. I recommend practicing putting these parts back together a few times before painting them because if you aren't careful you'll scratch one of your painted surfaces trying to get these back together.
Attachment 62861

Most people do not paint this little plastic piece
Attachment 62862

Nothing will get completed before installing a professional paint booth in someone else's garage!
Attachment 62863


After first coat.

Reflector, which by the way do not try to take the reflector apart from the silver/chrome piece it is attached to or you will most likely break it, just paint it all the same color, or mask off the silver/chrome edge if you do not want it painted.
Attachment 62864

Housing.
DO LIGHT COATS!!
You can do as many coats as you feel necessary I suppose but do the light and from the recommended distance away from your surface or your paint will run, DO NOT try to get every little nook and cranny on the first few coats, just take your time, do one angle LIGHTLY, then after 10-15 minutes, do another angle lightly, until it is all covered and your happy.

Cannot stress the light coats enough, when I did my door handles, I tried to do too much in one coat and it started to run, so I had to sand it and prep it for paint again the next day.
Attachment 62865

Blinker shroud.
I placed my blinker shroud on a small Dixie cup so I could get a better angle on it and good coverage. You will have to mask off the clear lens because it does not come apart.
Attachment 62866

HID shroud.
For this I just set it straight on newspaper, this shot might have been after a few coats. Again, just do light coats. I was worried about getting good coverage in the "ridged circle" area but just spray at different angles and after a few coats everything will look great.
Attachment 62867


Here's everything back in the kitchen, ready for reassembly after being painted. I'm pretty sure I only let the paint dry for an hour or so before we put these pieces back together and tossed the housings back in the oven.
Attachment 62868

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JUST TRYING TO SHOW YOU GUYS AS MANY PICTURES AS POSSIBLE!!

These are iPhone pics so excuse the resolution and quality.

When you are ready to put your lights back together make sure there is no dust on ANYTHING before putting them in the oven or it will be inside after they are back together. Just press them together as good as you can before placing them in the oven at 250 degrees for 10 minutes, the same way to took them apart. After the 10 minutes in the oven, immediately press them back together and put pressure on every area (best with 2 people) and have one person screw in all screws while the other is holding the light with pressure. I did not use any additional sealant, there really is a lot of silicon on both sides of your housing once they're separated and I did not feel the need to add anymore, as well as many others who have done this.

NOTE: when you pull your lights from the oven for reassembly, there will be moisture on your HID lens, which promptly dries and leaves no marks, it's just the heat pulling in moisture from the rag you had wet under your light in the oven.
Attachment 62871


Now time for putting them back on your car.
Attachment 62872

Perfect match!
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Attachment 62874

BEFORE: YUCK!!!
http://images.us.viewbook.com/8e97bb...8d16_large.jpg


AFTER: OOOOH!

http://images.us.viewbook.com/0bd7ba...4cbc_large.jpg

First!!!! Get rocked Clint!!!

FIRST!!!! Get rocked Nina!!!

very nice, Westin :tup:

:icon23: :p glad to see this was the highlight of your day :bowrofl:

I got this **** on endless repeat. :happydance:

Y U ALWAYS NO ON TOPIC?!?!?!

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1359675648

To be fair, how often am I on topic? :D

I'll check out the first video later Westin.

All 3 videos are finally up!

This is an awesome write up. Thanks for taking the time to put it together.

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Subd


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No problem, had fun putting this together. When I do the next set for some local guys (hopefully soon), I'm
going to redo the first 2 videos and make it only 1 detailed video now that I'm confident on the whole process and know how to do it quickly.

Sub!!

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

I'll be your guinea pig!!!!! :icon17:

Hey Westin, you want me to like, merge your posts together?

:gtfo2:

Cheater!!!

It all looks good Westin, we just need to get you a hood now!!!

You doing halos in yours? If so, then yes, we do yours first!!! :p

h8rs gonna h8

You're a butt

Mam, I would ask you to stay on topic please... :shakes head:

Looks great, thanks Frost!

wow NICE work. looks so smuch sexier :tup: im too afraid to do that myself. I wish i lived in texas so you could've helped me out! hahaha

Having a second person helps a lot for both tear down and reassembly so if you ever decide to give a shot, make sure to have a helper imo.

What ever you do, DON'T be afraid to hit it with some heat. I helped him with the initial headlight where we tried different heat levels under 250 degrees and nothing worked. The black silicone crap is more like tar and impossible to work with unless it is hot.





Also, Westin, its pronounced Dalla Z, not Dallas. Get yo ganksta on son!!! :happydance:

Huh?

Go home, Clint.

You're drunk.

You all are drunk now shut up! Cool that Devin helped you. Danielle would be like "Get your damn headlight out of the oven. I wanna make a pizza." :ughdance:

Nice job maybe now with this video ill grow some cahones and do it. When you were pulling the lens apart I was thinking..."don't break don't break!!!" +1

Headlight Mod!
 

Thanks man for the videos! This helps A LOT! I will be doing my lights soon. I also subscribed to your YouTube channel!

great videos! I took my orange reflector apart and painted behind it black for a darkened look. Its easy to take apart if you are careful, and then after putting it back together, I used my soldering iron in a couple small spots to spot weld it back together.
http://imageshack.us/a/img27/9630/lensq.jpg

Hey guys thanks for all the comments!

Mike those look great, I was wanting to paint that chrome part around the reflector black, and just smoke the reflector, but after trying to get them apart for a few seconds I was like, "nah better not" haha they sounded like they would crack! Thanks for your post, nice to know it can be done without ruining either the reflector or the other piece attached to it.

In the end what I did was just paint the whole thing black, and it looks great, however some may prefer keeping the reflector orange and just painting the outer edge.

Thanks for these videos, they certainly helped out a lot. I had no clue what I was doing for the most part other than "well this looks like I need to take it off". I ended up adding LEDs and black housing the chrome, it all worked flawlessly! I ended up painting the top of the amber like Mike did as well... it looks way better since the top of the headlight actually has a line that blends with it. Pic on the other thread if anyone is interested

Nice write up! Thank you :tiphat:

yeah, the orange reflector is actually two pieces, joined where the 90 degree is. You take the top one off first, then the smaller bottom one. THey are just held in with a couple of plastic heat welds on the outside and some small tabs inside. Then use a soldering iron to reweld them together after painting.

Great write up.

What kind of paints did you use, ESP for the blue?

Great documentation and effort! Repped!

I used Krylon fusion (fusion adheres to plastics, regular Krylon paint does not) gloss black in a spray can for the housings after wiping them down with prep solvent which may or may not be necessary, but I had ordered it with my paint so I used it in case there were oils from my hands/fingers on the housing, and to help get it all dry from the solvent in the small corner area I used my rocket blower I have for my camera lenses.

Attachment 63513

You want to make sure all your cleaning agent is 100000% dry (exaggeration duh) before you lay down your first coat or it will not look pretty.

That was all I did for the housings. Clean, then probably 6-7 coats total of gloss black because I did light coats from different angles each time to get every little crease/crevice. no sanding or clear coat afterwards for me, I believe most people do the same, I don't know if clear coat works as well with the Krylon "fusion" as their regular Krylon paint or if its just as effective, however I will tell you when I painted my door handles and emblems, the clear left it looking more dull and less glossy, most likely because I didn't follow up with light sanding/polish afterwards but I'll never know.

For the color matched paint, I ordered it from Automotive Touchup. Their stuff is excellent! As you can see its a perfect match.

Go to their site and put in your make, model, year, and what not and it will pull up the factory paint codes that you can order in spray cans, paint pens, buckets, however you want it, you can get it.

When I did my shrouds I also used their

gray scuff pad $1-2(gray is their lightest scuff pad I believe, they have them rated by color), followed up with the

prep solvent $2-3 before doing my few coats of

adhesion promoter $7,

base coat (your paint color) $20ish, and lastly used their

Clear coat $7 as well to finish it off and that was that.

I think
That's all the supplies but I'll look back and see

Thank you!

Tada,

I found my pics I took of everything woohooo!


Note: I did not use the primer.

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Not sure why I didn't include those in the main post.

bump

So I decided to open up my headlights this weekend for painting and this Video was perfect. My first time around opening the headlights was frustrating. I have a gas stove and oven in which I put the temp at 250 for 11 mins the first time. I was able to barely seperate the headlight enough to get the screw driver in there. I had to put it back in for 5 mins then another 6 mins in order to finally get it apart. For the second headlight, I decided to go with 250 for 15 mins. Low and behold, it came apart in less than 3 mins. I realized that scoring the entire headlight with the screw driver helped the most just like it was mentioned in the video even before trying to pull it apart.. After scoring around the light, then I would start to pull apart from the front and it was a breeze.

Also, if you don't hear that crackle sound when your scoring the headlight, you know you need to put it back in the oven.

Thanks for the great videos, it was the confidence booster I needed to do this myself. I'm half way there, now just paint and put back together and hopefully all is well.

Nice man, thanks for the comments and your contribution to the thread as well.

Let us know how it goes, your past the scary part, take your time on the paint and then just put everything back together slowly to not scratch your newly painted surfaces. I put mine back together and baked them just an hour or two after painting.

When you reheat and put the main screws back in , mine seem to go in fine but keep turning and never get completely tight to the point it stops turning. Did anyone else's do this as well or do I need to force the lens in closer? From what I can tell everything lines up and there is just a tiny gap all the way around. From what i remember it was like that to begin with just enough space to get the screwdriver in.

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