Well, had the day off and my Krylon Fusion Satin Black paint from UPS, so I decided to do some painting. First, I cleaned the Cowl real well. damn little rubber edges broke apart. Then using many many light coats, I finally finished and it looks awesome:

Before and after

 

Next, I decided to do the headlights. I have done 4 other sets, 3 Acura and 1 Mitsubishi, so I figured no problem. These Headlights were by far the hardest of all. the seal sucks compared to the other lights. i was able to re-use the factory sealant easily on all other lights I have done. anyway, after tons of prying, baking, taping, painting in light coats, and an hour of peeling out the old glue, I finally had a finished product. came out great, and totally worth it. I will eventually be buying HD headlights, but it is a great chap substitution for now:








I have half a can of Niteshades left from tinting the tail lights on my old ranger, so I am debating doing the tails today. we'll see how motivated I get

 

looks great

on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being most difficult, how hard were the headlights to get open.

i am wanting to try it so bad, but doesnt sound easy lol.

did u sand the headlights at all before painting ?

are you going for the fogs next ?

it never ends .......

 

my truck is crazy dirty, so ignore that!

 

Its not technically hard, just sealed damn tight, once you get the first bit apart, its easy for the rest, just re-heat a couple of times. it did take me a few hours to complete tho

I didnt sand the headlights and never have. the paint bonds to it just fine.

and, yes fogs will be tinted
trying to remove all chrome. after fogs come black emblems w/ ford blue writing

 

its gunna look sweet,

same oven method with the fogs i assume ?

 

I dont want to lose the light output on the fogs, so I am just going to find a heat resistant tint and put it on the front

oh, and i would say headlights are 9/10 for initial prying, but once you get a little, 1/10 for the rest. getting all the glue out was a PITA, and I used Amazing Goop to re-seal them

 

I know that nearly everyone who paints their heads uses the Krylon Fusion Satin Black since it usually brings the best results, but I seem to remember one guy who mentioned using the Gloss Black. What do you think this would look like?

I only ask because I will be installing custom halos around both the headlight and blinker reflectors, and I don't think it'll look good on a satin background. I think that a glossy surface around it would make it stand out a lot more - especially in the daytime or using them at shows, daytime running lights, etc. Anyone have good reasons as to why I SHOULDN'T use gloss instead of satin?

BTW, looks good blue...I'm following a similar path in getting rid of chrome and going PTM as well. Let us know if you paint your emblems or use the Patriot decals for them?...

 

I will use the patriot decals, but am going to clearcoat over them. the SoCal sun can be brutal without some protection.

as far as Gloss black, it will look great. only reason I used Satin is because I had some left from painting the cowl. I have used Duplicolor gloss every other time and it looks great. i was debating buying gloss and going that route also, but i liked the look it gave the cowl, and it matches the grill. sounds like a cool project, would love so see it when done! i have seen gloss black lights on here and they look great

 

Stock HD headlights are gloss black, so either satin or gloss would look good. Also, i see a lot of people don't paint the small cone in the middle (the piece that aims the light). HD lights have this piece painted black and i think it looks better.

 

hey trueblueFX4,

You say you are going to tint the lenses on your fogs, well here is anouther option maybe. I did my fogs apart after i did my head lights and the fogs are a joke compared to the insanely difficult time it is to get the headlights apart. But anyway, I took my fogs apart and painted only the tops and bottoms, not the reflectors so i didn't lookse and light and i think they look awesome, much better than a black lens.

heres a pic so you can see what i mean,

but like i said, just an idea:



SouthernStyle

 

just got finished opening up the headlights, you weren't kidding 9/10 seemed about right, but once you got a corner open it was pretty easy. i finished the first one , i thought i was done, until i saw the 2nd one there

took about 1 1/2 hours, wasnt too bad, just hope i can get them back together lol

 

My first one took probably 2 hours to pry apart...lol 2nd light was maybe 5 minutes.

 

Save yourself some headache, dont re-use the factory glue. scrape it all out and do a fresh seal with rtv silicone or Amazing goop. chances are very good the factory stuff wont re-seal completely