peakpowermotoring

Hey guys, I got bored today because it was my day off so I decided to blackout my headlights and grill... Here are the pics.

racersky

i wish I could do that but I'm still afraid to put my headlight in an oven.
I'm a wuss I guess.

robeaneee

what did you use to tape up the blinker well? did you strip any of hte chrome?

us000011

Now you need to remove those ugly road lights!!! See recent posts from C-n-L (us000011) on replacing with the 03 fairings.

Also, you might consider the black chrome emblems.

Sun Diego CL-S

Ho-lee smokes! that looks friggin awesome. i've been thinking of getting that done since i never found a pic of a black cl w/that done. did u take pics of this during the process? did u have to use paint? what tools did you use? what did you use for the corners? are those 2003 headlights?

I also want to hit up the chrome around the side windows. btw, the chrome emblem still looks fine. the black emblem would look nice too but that'll do.
you did a heck of a job, mang!

peakpowermotoring

Thanks guys... Unfortunantly when i was taking the 3m masking tape off the corner blinker part and some of the sticky residue stayed on the chrome part. So me being the idiot that I am sometimes I thought WD40 would clean it off. Boy was I wrong, it cleaned the chrome right off. So if you look at my right headlight some of the blinker chrome is white because of the WD40. As for the paint, I used just regular flat black paint without that high temp crap. I thought it looked really clean so I left it like that. I was going to use my black metal flake which I used for the grill but I thought flat black looked much nicer.

All Mine

Spray or brush paint? Would a glossy black paint work well, too?

peakpowermotoring

Only spray comes out that clean, glossy works too but I love the way flat black looks because it wont glare due to the fact that the cover is plastic and its shiny as well.

All Mine

Good point. What did you use to mask everything off? I may do mine tomorrow. Any particular brand of paint to use?

peakpowermotoring

I always use 3m masking tape. I think 3m products are awesome, I've been using their masking tape for years now and I've never had a problem of paint seeping through...

All Mine

So cut some news paper and tape it off, and spray? Pretty much?

All Mine

Is it a P.I.T.A to get the bumper and headlights out?

peakpowermotoring

Actually the part you want to paint is a seperate piece its not connected to the chrome inside housing. So you can use the 3m tape and then cut just cut out the edges of the shapes you want. The bumper and headlights are actually fairly easy to take out, the most time consuming part is the headlight being in the oven. Make sure to take the HID ballast and bulb out and also any other light bulb off before putting the headlight in the oven. Also put foil underneath the headlight when you place it in the oven so the plastic doesnt melt if it touches the metal grill part. Someone did a good writeup on this once they said put it in there for 30 mins at 200 degrees. Thats exactly what I did and it came out perfect.

Lord Helmet

^^^ Mee too.. I guess it's a good thing I like mine the way they are just as much. One thing for sure though, as soon as I see condensation actually living in there permanately. I'm doing it!

peakpowermotoring

Its really easy guys trust me...

KahRupt-CL-S03

Looks really good, job!
I see your oven got to your lights before you got to it (melted the bottom of your housing)
FYI tip for you guys doing this, if your going to bake your lights wet a towel and put it where you lay the headlamp, do one at a time, and keep them in there for no more than 3 mins. Very easy, just a pain in the @ss to clean that gunk residue.

peakpowermotoring

I was hoping nobody would notice that small part but yea it did kinda melt that sucker, but i dont mind... Also what i found a little annoying was the silicone it got all over the place...

nxthole72

This is my first post just got a 01 CL-Type S Black on Black. I want to Black out my Grill like yours. How do you do that and same with the headlights?

Thanks
Jeff

peakpowermotoring

Its faily simple, take off your bumper and lights. Remove all the bulbs and HID ballasts from the headlamps. Place it in your oven with foil underneath it and dont let the headlight touch any part of the oven. Put it in there for 20 minutes at 200 degrees. When you take it out the silicone should be weak enough for you to pry open the lens. Once you open the lens there are two small screws that seperate the lens and inner housing. Remove the two screws and you can start masking and painting them. Remember though when you are putting the headlight back together re-silicone it. As for the grill, there are about 6 10mm nuts you need to remove to remove the entire grill. Once removed there are almost 12-16 screws holding the acura emblem and the chrome pieces. Remove those and you can start sanding and painting. Good luck

sjsharks11

i just did my lights, its good to put a wet towel under the light while its in thw oven,also I
noticed you painted the light under the blinker, looks cool. I used silverstar 1157's looks
awesome