Hey guys so I bought my 350z and the previous owner took clearcoat with some black paint and painted the headlights. Well now no inspection shop will pass me. Anyone know how to get the black off without ruining the headlights?

Heres a picture

 

Paint thinner or acetone should take it off. They might have sanded the headlights down first, which means they will look like crap until you clear them again. Try the method posted here recently for headlight uv coating restoration, gave a nice idea for putting some clear back on without any actual paintwork.

 

People like the painted lights. You could just but a new set and sell your set. You might make some money too.. Might be a little too much work though. Up to you.

 

i wouldnt recommend using acetone/paint thinner on clear plastic. you will actually end up burning the lens.

just use sandpapers to remove the paint. 600>1000>1500>2000>3000grits

hopefully that helps

 

Is the paint on the inside or outside?

 

try something along the lines of spray paint remover, or something that takes sprayed paint off. if it was professionally painted, then your best bet is acetone. do not use anything harsher like aircraft remover or your lights will look like swiss cheese

 

youre never going to get a good finish once the lights have had the UV hardcoat sanded off.
Buy a set of 03-05 DEPO brand complete halogen headlights from ebay, 175 bucks shipped, warm your oven to 250 degrees adn put themn in there for 1o minutes.. take teh lenses off them and replace the current w brand new clear ones.. far far easier a job too i can assure you. ONLY sounds scary.

 

OP, you're going to need to do something about those wheels too. It doesn't look like they were made for a RWD car given their sunkeness

 

yup sandpaper should work. or sell them and upgrade to 06-08 bixenons.

 

I say find a local through CL or something and trade them out, shouldn't be that hard

 

sandpaper but i like the look dont you