*DIY Smoking a lot of things... kidneys, headlight rings, hella lowbeams

[attack eagle]

DIY SMOKING THINGS

Just thought I would share my latest adventures involving black paint and a dislike of chrome...


I started off small:

Took off the kidneys (which were in less than show condition) and peeled off the loose bubbling chrome areas,
repaired the cracks which caused the chrome to fail, and painted them black...
Then I didn't really like the glossy finish, so after the tack coat and two or 3 good coats had dried,
I gave them 3 "overspray" coats to achieve a slightly textured finish.



i never liked the chrome headlight rings either so after a good cleaning with a scotchbrite pad and some oven cleaner,
followed by a hot water and soap wash and a wipe down with acetone, I sprayed them with some left over VHT caliper black.








Crappy driveway pictures of finished results








That was fine for about 1 day, and then someone posted those japanese vids where they are smoking Bosch headlights...
so I figured why not do it to my new lowbeam Hella lens assembies before I install them on the car?
ref: http://youtube.com/watch?v=GS-jyLGwWHs for smoking the lights.
see same user for videos of the disassembly of both highs and lows.


After numerous tries at 225, 250, and 275 degrees with no success, I decided to risk 300 degrees...
That was the magic number, as they peeled apart just as easy as in the youtube video.

Instead of scuffing or sanding the chrome and/or trying to paint over it (like in the video) for the smiley section,
I just took the smileys outside and sprayed `em with Heavy duty oven cleaner.
I then waited maybe two minutes for the magic of chemistry to do the work for me.
After a quick wash in hot soapy water and a wipe down with acetone, I wound up with this.


plain white plastic... ready for recieving Fusion black paint.

I have used Fusion paint on DSM headlights before.
I have found when painted directly over clean dry plastic, no primer/scuffing/clear etc are needed.














I just got home from Autozone where I picked up some 3m window weld to glue the lenses back in place
once they are dry and I am ready for reassembly.

Doing the highs will require that I find some sheet aluminum somewhere,
and I just do not have time to mess with them today.







ok first look...
not reglued yet, but everything is dry enough for dry reassembly test.













Teaser pic.
Just finished installing the lowbeams... too dark and too dirty to take a decent picture but...




actually they look pretty good IRL, but always bad with a flash :shrug:

They are technically legal too, unlike the smoked lenses you can buy that do NOT reflect orange.


It's needs a good wash still but...
finished!!! (for now... highbeams are next!!!)










update:

believe it or not, Light seemed cleaner and crisper when driving so I had to stop and take a look at the pattern on the garage door.

light pattern is better... no wasted light, cutoffs are very crisp, just a hint of wave action in the center of the pattern.
clean yellow orange shift on the right side of the pattern and a faint blue and purple shift on the left.
I LOVE IT!!!


now how much has to do with them being new lenses, and how much to do with smoking the smileys I dunno, but I was happy.

[jlwE34]

I'll say this for sure, you have more courage than I do.

[attack eagle]

erased

[MaxSteel]

Those smilies will look awesome! Are you the first to do this?

[E34N]

I went to the junkyard today to pick up some lights to try the same thing. I didn't find any good candidates, but I'm definitely going to do this too.

Of course I'll follow your documentation of the process before i tackle this mod.

[atl530i]

Very nice. I plan on doing my rings around the headlights. I like the way you did the headlights though. I've seen some pretty nasty headlights before, but yours came out extremely good. One guy I used to work with did his and they looked like ass. I think his were the US type lights though, so it never looked right.

And yes, chrome sucks

[MMmmmpower]

looks great, especially the smoked smileys

[TheGoldenOne]

put them on the car already!

[atl530i]

Finished pics tomorrow?? I'm curious to how the headlights will look.

[Dat Aus]

looking good mate, cant wait to see the end result. you've inspired me to paint my headlight and kidney surrounds when i finish school in a few weeks

[SC David]

Cool DIY. Can't wait to see how it looks on the car.

[DaveCN]

I know the structure of the units is a little different, but e30 guys have been smoking their smileys and accompanying high beams for a while.

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/show...ght=DIY+SMoked

There was a link to a great PDF template to make the crosshairs, but I think the link is broken.

[attack eagle]

put them on the car already!

Have to wait 24 hours to make sure the window weld is cured before I can even think about putting them on.

[TechnoM3Girl]

all of it looks really awesome...maybe i should try this first instead of buying all new ones.

[ironie]

Looks great Mate, Fine work.
But...you need clears or something now, it is too dark, a lack of contrast in my opinion, But of course to each thier own and if it is right to you, then it is perfect. Nice work in either case
Cheers
Ron

[HE53]

I've been working on this lately too Looks like I need to bump up the oven temp. I broke a high beam lens friday night.

[Analog]

Those lights are going to be sick.

[romeox929]

how many minutes did you leave it in the oven for and how did you rid of the left over glue around the lense and in the crevices of the housing?

[attack eagle]

3 minutes maybe 5 on one side and the other probably sat there for 10 minutes.
The glue is easy to cut free with a knife and hook tool.

[MacR]

Subscribed for pics! This may be my next project.

[offthewall]

i was planning on doing this but one of my euro lowbeams cracked.. some someone from the motherland send on my way? im willing to pay 30 bucks for a decent condition passenger side lowbeam... =/

[ILoveMPower]

Damn! Sweet!

Got any before pics of the headlight trim rings?

[WolfStrong]

Sexy as hell!

[OnlytheBest]

Don't tease us! Show us the goods! Ahhh!!!

[96cosmosM3]

The headlights look good. The turnsignals look really bad.