Blacking out your headlights

Tools needed:

10mm socket and wrench

Black Electrical Tape
Philips screw driver
Heat gun or blow dryer or Oven at 300F
Masking Tape or 3M Painters tape
Clear Exterior all purpose silicone

Duration:

5 hours give or take a few minutes (not including drying times)

1. Open the hood, take your 10mm socket and wrench and remove the 3 bolts
that hold the light assembly in place. One on the top outer corner and two
along the inner side.

2. Pull on the light assembly until it pops out of the retainer clip then unplug all
3 wire connectors.
3. Next remove and store all 4 bulbs from the headlight unit in a safe, dry area.

4. Take some black electrical tape to fold back the rubber flap to reveal the
sealant between the lens and the back housing. Shown below
5. Remove the two screws along the same side as the orange reflector.

6. Next take your heat gun or blow dryer and start in the smallest corner and
work your way around the seam breaking open the lens from the black
housing. This might take some time maybe 5 to 10 minutes to be able to pry
them apart it will be don’t be shy to use some muscle one this part as it will
take some to do pry them open.
7. Once they are apart you see they are in two pieces next take a Phillips screw
driver and remove the three screws from the back of the chrome piece in the
lens.

8. Next grab the largest side and pull out and then the chrome piece will side out
of the lens like so.
9. Now to remove the orange reflector remove the top screw using a Phillips
screw driver and the reflector should pop right out with a tug.

10. Now I heated the reflector up a bit using the heat gun to be able to remove it
from the chrome backing so I can paint that as well. There is two clips to
remove it and set the orange reflector aside.
11. Now take your masking tape and cover the areas you don’t want painted.

I didn’t paint the inner circles as it would be too blacked out for me this is a
preference thing…painting them black will not impede the light.

12. Now some will want to do light sanding and prime away and then paint but
for me I just picked up some high gloss, high heat black enamel paint that
bonds to anything and just went at it. I put 3 coats letting a hour in-between
for drying. Then after my last coat was dry I used the heat gun about a foot
away and lightly heated up the paint and let it cool for about 2 hours.
13. Once you put the lens back together I heated up the black glue and held it
together for a couple of minutes then I used some exterior clear silicone and
put on 3 coats letting the silicone harden after each coat around the seam.
Then you should have something very similar to this:

The whole project lasted about 5 hours (not including drying times), it was a fun and
somewhat easy project rated about 6 out of 10.