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Inner headlight scratched: can i paint?

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Old Feb 15, 2006 | 11:28 AM
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Default Inner headlight scratched: can i paint?

One of my turn signal bulbs fell out of its socket and ended up inside the headlight assembly. After a few days of driving (haven't had the time to take it apart), it ended up leaving some minor (but visible) scratches on the lower (flat / bottom) surface of the headlight. Now what? Can i paint the damn thing?
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Old Feb 15, 2006 | 09:11 PM
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^
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Old Feb 15, 2006 | 09:13 PM
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yea, take it apart, and do the black housing headlight diy. Its worth it i must say. Black housing is sexy
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Old Feb 15, 2006 | 09:19 PM
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i know what youre talking about. My headlight got the same problem when i got back from painting it. You can paint but make sure to find one that can do a good job or it will leak and frost up your light.
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Old Feb 16, 2006 | 06:56 AM
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Originally Posted by LiLxDooD
yea, take it apart, and do the black housing headlight diy. Its worth it i must say. Black housing is sexy
Link? How about red housing, to match the car? And how would this affect the brightness?
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Old Feb 16, 2006 | 09:24 AM
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Originally Posted by d!abolic
Link? How about red housing, to match the car? And how would this affect the brightness?
It wont affect brightness, but your housing will light up red. The light being put out will still be blue/white
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Old Feb 20, 2006 | 08:01 PM
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Originally Posted by supra crazy
It wont affect brightness, but your housing will light up red. The light being put out will still be blue/white
What exactly do you mean by 'light up red'? Why would this happen if the light is projected onto the road? Isn't this how Lambo, Ferrari, Z06 headlights perform? And once again, how the hell do i do this? Pics?
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Old Feb 20, 2006 | 08:04 PM
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the light reflect to the painting house panel and you will see the same color. For example, i paint mine DB, so look from the side, i'll see blue color. Look straight then i just see the light.
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Old Feb 20, 2006 | 08:10 PM
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Just make sure you dont paint the headlight reflector part!
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Old Feb 20, 2006 | 08:11 PM
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I just did a search and couldn't find a single thread about painting the ENTIRE housing. Many people seem to paint parts, but i couldn't find anyone who painted ALL the reflective surfaces and made the headlights look like Ferrari, Lambo, Z06, etc. Am i alone on this?
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Old Feb 20, 2006 | 08:14 PM
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I painted the entire housing last year. Here is the pix of lighting reflection.
Attached Thumbnails Inner headlight scratched: can i paint?-blue.jpg  
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Old Feb 20, 2006 | 08:24 PM
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Originally Posted by Bubble
I painted the entire housing last year. Here is the pix of lighting reflection.
That doesn't look like the entire thing. I see a lot of reflective chrome surfaces.

Below is what i'm talking about:


Last edited by d!abolic; Feb 20, 2006 at 08:27 PM.
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Old Feb 20, 2006 | 08:28 PM
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oh, you want to paint the whole thing just like clearcorner stuff? are you doing it by yourself?
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Old Feb 21, 2006 | 03:42 AM
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If you painted the chrome reflecting part where the lowbeams are you'd most likely lose a decent ammount of light output. Our projectors aren't sealed projectors like on that ferrari... our's are actually just a reflector type headlight with a small lense suspended in front of it.

You could probably do what you're planning with an '06 headlight, but i wouldn't with the 03-05 headlights. It doesn't seem like you care all too much about light output since you're also running 12,000k hid's, so you could still just give it a shot and see if you like it.

But to get an idea of the output, shine a flashlight into a mirror/chrome so it bounces off to the ground or wall, it'll reflect nice and bright... now shine that flashlight onto the side of your car, you'd have to have a smooth as glass finish to get decent reflection onto the ground.
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Old Feb 21, 2006 | 09:43 PM
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****... well, what choice have i got? The damn thing got scratched up by the bulb that fell out. I'm not buying new headlights. Other ideas? And has ANYONE ever done this? I do care about light output. Not a lot, but my 12000's are still bright as ****. By how many % would the light output decrease if i did this?

Originally Posted by dkny_boi
If you painted the chrome reflecting part where the lowbeams are you'd most likely lose a decent ammount of light output. Our projectors aren't sealed projectors like on that ferrari... our's are actually just a reflector type headlight with a small lense suspended in front of it.

You could probably do what you're planning with an '06 headlight, but i wouldn't with the 03-05 headlights. It doesn't seem like you care all too much about light output since you're also running 12,000k hid's, so you could still just give it a shot and see if you like it.

But to get an idea of the output, shine a flashlight into a mirror/chrome so it bounces off to the ground or wall, it'll reflect nice and bright... now shine that flashlight onto the side of your car, you'd have to have a smooth as glass finish to get decent reflection onto the ground.
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Old Feb 21, 2006 | 09:45 PM
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Originally Posted by Bubble
oh, you want to paint the whole thing just like clearcorner stuff? are you doing it by yourself?
Oh, so they do this? Yea, i'd have to do it myself though, assuming it's not too hard. I've never painted anything like this before. I can't afford to get someone else to do it, as i imagine that it'd cost the same to just buy new headlights.
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Old Feb 21, 2006 | 09:47 PM
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If i read correctly it's just the shelf directly underneath the signal bulb that's scratched right? If that's the case, i've seen ppl painted their housing black, and also painted that shelf... just don't need to pain the part that's reflecting light forward. The shelf doesn't reflect the light in any useful way anyways.
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