DIY: Painting your headlights

[cubefx]

I am resurrecting this post from the dead!!!!!
Here is the teaser for you......


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CUBE

[Kermit]

Nice!! Can't wait to see the finished product!!

[Smart Enuf]

One thing I'm unclear on with angel eyes: Can these be seen with the headlights on? If it's dark enough for headlights and the angel eyes, how can you view the angel eyes with the headlights on? Conversely, if it's too bright for the headlights, wouldn't it also be too bright for the angel eyes? Are these wired like the parking lights so that you can activate them without the headlights? I guess I'm just not clear on when and how exactly you would use these.

Having said that, I can't wait to see Cube's latest mod, too. I'll probably just end up adding it to the list of a thousand other mods I want to do but don't have the talent or time or both to do them.

[vpkb1998]

Originally Posted by Smart Enuf

One thing I'm unclear on with angel eyes: Can these be seen with the headlights on? If it's dark enough for headlights and the angel eyes, how can you view the angel eyes with the headlights on? Conversely, if it's too bright for the headlights, wouldn't it also be too bright for the angel eyes? Are these wired like the parking lights so that you can activate them without the headlights? I guess I'm just not clear on when and how exactly you would use these.

Having said that, I can't wait to see Cube's latest mod, too. I'll probably just end up adding it to the list of a thousand other mods I want to do but don't have the talent or time or both to do them.

You can see them at dawn and dust ;-) What matters, you can't see them while driving anyways. Nevertheless, they look cool.

[Toolman]

Hey cubefx - are you still around? I'd really like to know why you didn't like the red stripes you first did. Because I thought it looked amazingly fantastic, and have every intention of doing the same myself, since I have a red & black Smart also. Your re-paint looks good too, but I really love the first one with the red stripes.

[Toolman]

Thank you, cubefx, for your post, and for all the links to the various take aparts. I did mine the weekend before last. I tried the heatgun method first, but it started melting the plastic, without loosening the seam/joint, so instead I put the headlights in the oven, on a wet towel, at 200 degrees for 10 minutes - and THAT worked great! On both lights.

I was very happy about that particular aspect, because when someone helped me do my last lights, on my last car, we had so much trouble and kept putting the lights back in the oven over and over - the plastic lenses got fogged somewhat.

I suspect the wet towel is meant to help prevent that sort of thing?? In any case, my son is a great painter and did the actual spraying, while we both did the work of taking the car apart & putting it back together again. I've found it quite challenging to get an after-picture of my lights - the lenses catch reflections from EVERYWHERE and make it hard to see the black paint work, but I got some decent ones the other day while parked in front of a donut shop, whatever that might mean.

I wanted SO bad to do the red stripes like you did, but we were afraid we wouldn't get it perfect either (as you stated was the reason you didn't like yours) so we just stuck with the black. And when we were done - it looked like the lights had simply come that way!! I was SO happy. It would have cost me over $200 for black lights for my Focus - I tremble at the thought of what someone would charge for black smart lights - at least $400, I have no doubt.

The list of things one must do to take the car apart seems intimidating, but the instructions are very clear and easy to follow, and it's not hard at all. We ran into NO surprises or complications. We added two more horns while we were in there - I WILL get someone's attention if I feel the need to blow my horn!

http://www.smartcarofamerica.com/gal...ghts-after.jpg
http://www.smartcarofamerica.com/gal...9_1024x768.jpg
http://www.smartcarofamerica.com/gal...9_1024x768.jpg

[driftns2k]

nice DIY!