^^^epic...

We'll see if our favorite prodigy comes through! Waiting for the "WTB unmodded headlights" thread he might post on Monday

 

Austin it will help to have an extra set of hands but it's doable solo. Just take your time and don't lose any nuts/bolts/etc.

 

To be honest with you, there are very few projects where an extra set of hands are warranted. Maybe aspec install or bleeding brakes...other than that, what you REALLY want is knowledge and confidence!

 

And for clearing/painting otherwise OEM headlights, its one of the easiest projects IMO. Taking the bumper and lights off the car without damaging anything is more time consuming for me.

 

^^^that right there is true. ALL my worry about being able to do it immediately stopped the second I pulled open the first lens. It was like...EUREKA! That's what i was worried about?

 

I actually got my first scrape on my Aspec front lip (I haven't told you guys yet). I visited my dealership and pulled into the Service Entrance. I was there longer than expected, so they had to pull my car around to get other cars that wanted to be service in. While they turned my car around, they scraped two black marks on the new front spoiler. Luckily, touchup paint worked fine...




Smart man! Matt, there is hope for you...LOL!

 

So Austin.. are you really going to do it yourself??

 

Idk it's pretty nerve racking just thinking about it.

I want it done though!

 

^you can do it man. just make sure you have all your supplies ready and good to go. dedicate your entire day to it, and take your time.

you got this.

 

Austin...take it a step at a time....

its not like you are a guinea pig....this mod has been done by a lot of members....all you need is time....take it nice and slow and your headlights shall be blacked out....

just remember, before you start, visualize how you would like to your headlights to look.....

 

Austin you will swap the lenses right? ZKW

 

yes

New lenses, and bulbs.

 

^wear gloves!

 

always do

 

 

Might as well...now is as good as any time:

Here are my lessons learned. Easier to type it here than to try and text you later:

1) don't rush and envision exactly what you're going to do
2) don't talk about fight club
3) Saturday night, remove bumper and headlights from car.
4) If you have time, I'd recommend you also open and paint your bezels Saturday night to give ample time for paint to dry.
5) to open 190 degrees at 9 minutes with no preheat...leave open to cool off between lights. now, this is the minimum time I was able to do it for...but it worked for me the first time (first is hardest). You also don't want the oem butyl stuff to get TOO soft cause when you pull apart it'll make little strings and once it sticks, it ain't coming off easily.
6) wear clothes you don't care about, the black butyl sucks. if possible, have someone ready with a screwdriver and papertowels to kinda cut the lines as you pull it apart to ensure it doesn't all on anything inside the lense.
7) Put the lense face down on something...do not wipe it down, do not touch it, do not sand it, do not jizz on it, do not let dust settle in it
8) Do not work in an environment with a lot of dust/dog hair etc...it will find a way in.
9) Paint your bezel...don't paint the reflector area of the turn signal/parking light, it KILLS reflectivity, especially with an LED bulb. The first time I did it, I taped off and used a razor to leave the back part of the reflector alone, but it still didn't shine well from the side. If you're going to put carbon fiber vinyl on the chrome corner area, make sure you have no bubbles, cut to fit and don't try and lift off and put back on repeatedly if possible.
10) Be patient (just a reminder). Paint your bezels and let dry overnight...DO follow the recommended drying time. 1 light tacky coat...then 1 coat every 15 minutes. Until it's good. Don't do too many coats to ensure it's nice and dry the next day.
11) Change out the projectors..this is easy enough...decide now if you want to paint the projector rings a darker gunmetal or anything.
12) Wait till Sunday morning to finish, new and fresh perspective, and everything will be dry. Use a pair of needle nose pliers to kinda snap off the back part of where they melted the little tabs that the chrome strip use to hold onto the amber diffuser. You'll see what I'm talking about...don't get frustrated and take your time, from the back, and push through once you've removed the melted material. This is where people break their chrome strip.
13) put it all back together...use a can of compressed air for any dust etc, and look in the light for any inadvertent fingerprints or hairs. heat up same as before...190, no preheat...at 8 or 9 minutes it should be soft enough to press back together...wear gloves you don't care about...the black stuff will get on it. Or no gloves so you can see where the butyl is on your hand to keep from smudging it. You can always clean it off the FRONT of the lens after but it's better to avoid that as much as possible.

START PRESSING BACK TOGETHER FROM THE OUTSIDE EDGE IN...it kinda clips into the end and pivots from that point and then you press the edges back together and work your way back toward part of light that's closer to center of car. (get it?) If the butyl starts getting too hard, back in oven for 5 minutes...this is not an exact process...so do it, press together, do it press together until you're able to bend all the tabs back into place (you'll see).

13) DO NOT put too much bytul. You want one small and single strand to run along the entire channel of the light. If you put too much, it will smoke up inside the lens when in the oven and make a fog that takes a while to go away. Use as little as possible to ensure there are no breaks in the butyl (only one seam, where you start and finish with it, and face it DOWN on the channel of the headlight, meaning start pulling and rolling thinner and putting into the channel from the bottom center...less chance of water ever getting in where you put them together)

14) Last thing I recommend is to run a blowdryer's hot air through the light assembly once you have it all put back together...I run a piece of garden hose, duct taped to a shop vac reducer...i lay it on the ground running for 10 minutes...hot air in the OEM fog bulb hole and coming out of the parking light hole...This helps a LOT with getting all the damp and humid air that's trapped in there OUT.

15) Put a little teflon tape around the base of all your bulbs to ensure a nice snug fit. Especially our fog bulbs are pretty loose to begin with and we don't want ANY new humidity in there.

you do NOT need to remove ballast/bulb etc...to put it in the oven.

expect some condensation in the coming months on cool mornings and when you wash the car...it takes quite some time for the lights to get acclimated and all the humidity to leave the light.

expect to find a hair or mosquito dead inside the light and don't focus on it. No matter how careful, you will have some imperfection but we still love you.

Good luck Austin...hope this helps.

 

great post...

mind = blasted

 

Thanks Anil. And Aaron. I should post that in the DIY section for others...
I was going through the steps and thinking of all the stuff I wish someone would have warned me about for the first...oh wait...2nd, or even 3RD time I had to redo my lights!

At least I never make the same mistake twice.

 

Yeah I'd post it there, dew it!

 

You're welcome...you little effer. You owe my job 20 minutes of my time for that post!

 

They're still paying you!

 

Make sure you have isopropyl alcohol to clean the bulbs with before install.

And what ever you do, DO NOT attempt to clean the inside of the headlight lens. You will scratch it and you wont be able to polish it out. If there is dust on it, blow it out with compressor air.

 

And don't touch bulbs with your finger, only touch the base. The oil and such on your fingers will mess up the bulbs.

 

if only there were pics with that great write up *cough* austin *cough*

 

Alcohol swabs came with the lights from Retrofit Resource

Obviously...

Are you suggesting I make the greatest DIY of all time?

 

Don't be a douche.

Oh wait...

 

 

U mad?

lol, just saying, it's a given to not touch headlight bulbs.

 

Some people wouldn't know that Austin, have you not seen some of the threads on the main 3G board...

 

^^^ I agree....some people dont....

a friend of mine forgot to remove the Styrofoam that came around the bulb....he was too eager to try it out and turned the lights on...instant melting was the final result LOL....

 

smh..

 

wow man...

 

..."obviously" says the guy that's pretty openly admitting he's afraid to tackle something that we've all put together step by step instructions on how to tackle.

Austin, do you know why the bulbs will be fuxored after being touched? The oil residue on your hand...when you heat oil...it gets very hot...hot enough to melt/crack the glass casing of the gases that make up your bulb.

on 2nd thought, let's make a joint DIY thread that we can have garaged...use my tips, and put pictures of the step you're on.

 

lol I know why. Knowing why a bulb can be damaged is different from ripping your headlights apart. You said it yourself, it's intimidating.

Sounds good, I'll have my camera and computer at the ready

 

Clearly Austin is all knowing

 

Yes, bow to me, minions!!

 

 

Guy thinks I need a camber kit, which I would agree, I want these tires to last a while.

Thank God he fixed my Toe, look at that shit

Before:



After:



I cropped them so it's easier to read but it's still fucked up.

 

How can you have -2* of camber at stock height??

 

Cause I'm not at stock height hurrr derrrr