Painting headlights to mimic the blacked out "S" lights.

[Tekila]

just digging up an old thread......Im from Australia and have just bought an SRT8 300 in white, but the AUS version of the SRT has the chrome headlights. Is there anywhere apart from chryslerpartsdirect.com where you can purchase the black headlights? or is painting them my best option? would the local spray and panel shop be able to do this? (ie. is it an easy job) thanks, Brad

[blk300limited]

I might be tackling this black headlight job this coming Friday so if I don't start a thread on Saturday then I didn't get around to doing it.

I will also be using a heat gun instead of baking the headlights in order to minimize the amount of work that's needed in taking them apart. Plus, I don't want to harm the drl's. Anyway, hopefully I can make it happen. I'll be sure to take lots of pics along the way.

[Tekila]

Sounds good mate look forward to seeing photos.

I have tried a few panel shops and head light repairer shops here but they don't want to mess with breaking the seals unfortunately and I am too nervous and not savvy enough to do it myself!

[blk300limited]

Heres a little sneak peak of what I'm working on

[blk300limited]

Here's another quick update before I install the headlights.

[blk300limited]

Done! High res photos coming soon!

[Tekila]

Wow that looks awesome. Any chance you could post a brief tutorial?

[blk300limited]

Bake the headlights in the oven @240* for 15 minutes without the main headlight bulb and caps(there's a reason why you take the caps off. I'll explain why later), everything else can stay intact. Remove the headlight from the oven and Separate the lens from the back housing by holding onto the weather cap openings while simultaneously prying the lens using a flat head screw driver. Once that's done, remove seven screws to separate the drls and turn signal from the lens and the chrome frame that you want to paint black. There's no need for a painter's tape for masking anything off so as far as materials a concerned all you need is a can of spray paint.

once the paint is dry, reassemble the headlight and bake it with the lens and back housing together @ 240 for 10 min. Remove the headlight from the oven and the lens and back housing should come fully together like butter!

Let the headlight cool down and once cool reinstall the bulb and weather caps. Once that is done, reinstall the headlight back on the car and reattach the bumper cover.


High res pics and a better write up are coming either tonight or tomorrow.

I hope this helps...

[blk300limited]

One more thing. Temperature is key, reason being is that you don't want to damage any of the internal circuitry used for the DRL's. Also, most ovens internal thermometers are really inaccurate and and will require you to use a good external thermometer to ensure temps to get out of hand. I used this>>

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to keep my temps in check. I highly recommend you use something similar to keep you from damaging such expensive headlights. That is all...

[Patdow1]

Looks Awesome!