Cleared + Painted Housing & Brushed-Aluminum Grille Frame *Pics*
 

Spent a longgg time working on them the past weekend, but the end results are well worth it imo! :D

Headlights: disassemble, bake, pop off orange diffuser, 4 layers of primer, wet sand, 3 layers of paint, wet sand, 2 layers of paint, wet sand, last layer of paint, wet sand, 3 layers of clear coat, wet sand, bake + reassemble.
you can imagine how long the painting alone took...

here are some pics, comments very welcomed! :)

http://files.subtledream.com/TL/IMG_0411.jpg
http://files.subtledream.com/TL/IMG_0414.jpg
http://files.subtledream.com/TL/IMG_0418.jpg
http://files.subtledream.com/TL/IMG_0419.jpg

THAT RIGHT THERE, IS FREAKIN BEAUTIFUL!!!! how long did it take youuu????? i gave up after i took it all apart.. it took too long, i was planning on painting it, but instead i just put everything back together and took a shower and fell asleep for the rest of the day

LOL.

let's see... i started on Saturday in the evening (7?), and by 11ish we had the headlights opened up and diffuser off, with 1 or 2 coats of primer on.
Sunday i spent 3-4 hours finishing up with the primer, added all the paint, and cleared coated it. Then later on that night, another hour and a half putting it all back together.

and this was with 3 people working on it (except for the painting part).

btw thanks for the compliment! :)

damn man, that looks frickin nice. thought about doin the same with my FRP, but i think it looks best on SSM and NBP. very very nice, especially on that grille, that looks soooooooooooo good.

aww man, i cant do that. hahaha im too busy with work even on weekends. and usually sunday are my "catch up with sleep" days. haha it still looks good, im happy i got that orange reflector off my car.

but man you did a great job. really nice look on your car. hopefully i'll be able to do that when the weather warms up a little here. its too cold even to stand out there trying to pull the bumper off.

Look Great just like mine..
Now only thing left to do is get Chrome amber bulb..:biggrin:

http://www.acurainspired.com/gallery...420_p31242.jpg

Yep! yours looks good too.
i didn't paint my grille frame though, but yeah. haha and for the light bulb, most likely not going to change it anytime soon, i don't mind the orange one at all. :)

Yeah... it was a LOT of work.
But its cool man, it looks great just cleared already! :D

thanksss! ;)
you know what i think would be hot on your FRP tho? body-colored housing! hmmm sizzzzzzzzzzle...

I have a 200 tl and ive thought of doin the same. THAT LOOKS AWESOME!!!!!! :bow:

wikid bro! props subtledreamer, wanna do mine? :p

both grilles look sick as hell...great job guys...i need to know how to take my headlites out...n i wana clear them...i do like the blacked out look alot...but i have a naples gold tl...CF hood soon n gunmetal rims too...

Nice work brother! And good job on such creative shots!

Very nice job. Good job on the photography as well.

Here's a good guy to get Silver Vision bulbs from cheap on eBay. I got mine from hime for my '02 tails. Good price and service. " ctlumination"

hey looks nice...when u take that difuser out theres a big hole in the headlight? i thought there was some kind of backing?

how did you get the brushed aluminum affect?

lloks awesome

all i need is an airplane ticket, a few letters to my professors, and some good company ;)

no big hole really, you can tell from one of the pics, just 2 small holes where the tabs of the orange diffuser used to be. it's not too noticable.

i appreciate the compliments you guys! :D

cool i'll check them out in a little bit :)

that top one is gonna be my new wall paper :D

Wow, I am honored bro! :toocool:

Would you like a larger version of it by any chance? :D

Looks great.

Ill be doing that soon to mine. im hoping to do it in a day :D ill be doing illtl's (brian) in a few weeks at teh same time (just clearing his)

OOOh, can you PM me a link?

looks terrific! I like!

sweet! that sounds good :D

PM sent. :)

thx man!

where did you get your guages from....I want some!!

AWESOME!! props to you man!! :bow:

how did u get the brushed aluminum effect on the grille?

are the headlights painted silver to match the color of the car or did u do the same brushed aluminum effect to them... cant really tell.

looks beautiful.....i was gonna do that this summer i had spoken to mr. about doing mine it looks beautiful good job man :thumbsup:

nice work, reminds me of mine. i skipped the primer step though as it was not necessary.

3 coats SSM, 2 coats clear.

http://photos.imageevent.com/mattg/a...0501190008.JPG

http://photos.imageevent.com/mattg/a...0501190009.JPG

i bought them from ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...spagename=WDVW

they can be a slight pain to install though. if you want i can give u the link to the DIY i wrote up.

thx guys!


yours looks great too!

yeah, i knew i could have just sprayed painted over the chrome but wanted to play safe, sanded down the chrome completely and then went with the steps i said. its worth the extra effort for piece of mind (that the paint wont chip and such) :)

brushed-alu: sorry man, i cannot disclose the info on doing that... :keke: <-- keke smiley* secret formula my friends and i figured out.

as for the paint, it was just a nice metallic silver spray i picked up from the local autostore (its pretty close to SSM). i wasn't trying to match the body color as i have HSM (heather mist) and it has a slight shade of gold. i simply wanted metallic silver housing and a fresh look on the grille, so im really happy with the results since it's exactly what i wanted them to be. :)

did the brushed aluminum effect by any chance involve a brillo pad?

p.s. thats pretty messed up you wont share that info... but w/e... only you can choose to disclose that information.

can u post a pic of the side of the headlight where the orange used to be? thanx

i completely scuffed the chrome w/ a grey scotchbrite pad befor i base coated it, and i know i got great adhesion. chipping really isn't a concern because the surface is behind a plastic cover. :D

but there is nothing wrong w/ you playing it extra safe.

you can tell from this pic that the orange diffuser is gone... see the hole connected to where the turn signal bulb is?

http://files.subtledream.com/TL/IMG_0419.jpg


: agree : <-- since the smileys still aren't working O__O


you make me feel bad now bro... u've got PM.

change the amber bulb to a chrome amber one... makes the cleared out look, look 10 times better... dont get those blue/ hyper white bulbs... they blink yellowish compared to the HID's and it just doesnt look right.

Very nice.... it is the best looking for UA4!!!

Wow SubtleDreamer, looks hot. :thumbsup:

[QUOTE=subtledreamer]you can tell from this pic that the orange diffuser is gone... see the hole connected to where the turn signal bulb is?

http://files.subtledream.com/TL/IMG_0419.jpg



: agree : <-- since the smileys still aren't working O__O
i can tell the diffusers gone but it looks like a black rectangular hole there now, did u paint it black? i thought there was chrome behind the diffuser?

Yeah, but it's not black where the diffuser used to be. The chrome was sanded down and silver paint was also sprayed in that area just like the rest of the housing. I guess it looks like it's black because the angle and lighting of the shot.

I'll post up a brighter shot in a little bit, stay tuned. :)

mmm thank you m'lady and mr. inspire :D

yeah i'll definately keep that in mind later, thx for the tip!

very hot!