Whats up man? Movin on up with the moderator status i see. Well i have a few questions for you on your blacked out head lights. And that is;
1. I know the steps are on the board and I will find those. But i want your oppinion was it hard to do? Do you think someone not that technically minded could do it?
2. You did it yourself correct? Did you need anyone else's help?
3. You live in the orlando area/ do you think we could ever meet up and maybe you help me work it out; i'm sure u've got a busy schedule and all, but i'm just offering a suggestion.

Being that you go to UCF i'm not sure how far from International Drive you are. Every satruday night a hella lot of people go up to Sonics (u know the fast food joint Sonics: America's Drive In). Sonics the one thats right next to Kirkman road. Its pretty much the import scene in orlando. Every saturday my crew and I meet up at Circuit City on the corner of Good Homes Road and Hwy 50. After we meet up for the Team Ground ZEro meeting we leave around 10-11PM and head up to Sonics on I-Drive. Close to 50 members in our import team called Ground Zero. I'm inviting you to come and meet with us once. Theres another guy with us he's got a 97 2.2 CL with some mods not many because he has just got teh car. I'm thikning between him me and hell maybe even you shit we can start our own Team CL within Ground Zero. But hey if you're not into the whole car club scene i do still think you should try to head out to Sonics on a saturday night normally after 10-11 PM is the best time to come but good luck finding someplace the park. Its crawling with imports. Its like a car show every satruday night! Anyway just sending out the invitation. Let me know wahts up???

 

You have a car club called Ground Zero down there? My boy is in a car club up here called Ground Zero, I thinking about joining. Isnt it ironic, dont you think

 

mistaken identity.

1stgenCL and me (1genCL) are different people. the headlights have been posted...... but here they are.

This is what I did.
Keep in mind that you will need a full day to do this. It takes approx. 1-1/2 just to disassemble and reassemble each light. Then there's the painting part.

Tool & supplies:

(2) flat head screwdrivers
utility knife
exacto knife
heat gun or hair drier
masking tape
grey spray primer
semi-gloss black spray paint

* Remove the headlight(s) from the vehicle.

* carefully remove the bulbs and set aside and take the headlight cluster(s) inside (since it takes a while, I did it in front of the TV)

* the plastic lense is held onto the body w/ a silicon type adhesive. Pick a starting point and heat up the seam with the heat gun/hair drier (if you use a heat gun be very careful, it can easily get too hot and you will melt something. You are attempting to make the adhesive soft. Stick a screwdriver into the seam and gently pry, go very slowly it is easy to bend or crack the housing. Once you get it started it will get a little easier. Sometimes the adhive will stretch away with the lense, use the utility knife to cut it. There may be 6 or 7 looped tabs that fold over another tab on the lense, just push the loop off with the screwdriver. Once you get the whole lense off, set it aside.

* the chrome surround piece should unscrew from the rest of the housing (I am not to certain of this b/c I have not taken apart a CL light......yet, I've only done 3 99-2000 civics and one 2001 civic)

* once the surround is seperated from the housing you may have to tape off and reflector areas that are attached to it (I had to tape off the small circular areas behind the parking/signal bulbs on the 2001 civic) just apply th masking tape and only press it on tight where the paint will stop. I applied the tape over the edge of the reflector(s) and used the exacto knife to trim it with more precision.

* once the surround is taped up you are ready to prime it. Since the plastic has a chrome foil coating, paint and primer does not like to stick to it. Apply extremely light coats of primer. The first 2 or 3 should hardly change the color. The primer like to bead up so apply the coat very thinly. DO NOT sand the surround, it will cause the foil to peel off. Continue to ad primer until the whole piece is grey.

* Start painting with the black (or whatever color you want) paint. You can apply this with regular coats since it will adhere well to the primer, but it's still best to add thin coats. Also note that you do not need a lot of paint on these parts, they will be in a sealed enviornments and won't chip or anything, so just put enough on them to make them black (or whatever color).

* Carefully remove any tape from the surround. Once again I used the exacto knife to cut around the edge of the tape this will help seperate the tape from the paint (at first I just started pulling the tape off and it started to peel a little of the chrome off)

* Now it's time to reassemble the light, remember to allow the paint to dry thoroughly before reassembling the lights, the fumes from the drying paint can fog the lense(s). Put the surround back into the housing and screw it back in place. Try not to touch visable spots (fingerprints show up good on black) Becarful not to bump the lense into the newly paint surround, for some reason the paint clings to the lense platic and it will peel right off (I did that too, had to repaint a small spot on one of them) Using the heat gun/hair drier re heat the adhiesive and squeeze the lense back onto the housing.

* Put the light bulbs back in and put the light back on the car.


now PM please. :P