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Painting OEM euro h4 headlamp housings

Posted: April 24th, 2008, 3:30 pm
by Mooneggs
what's up gang, I am considering painting a set of my glass headlamps black inside except for the refelective part of course...

before I get flamed, i've done some extensive searching on google, etc looking for pics... Since I moved I lost all my favorites on my computer so I have no links...

I realize not many ppl on the board actually have these lights but I know we all have image banks on our computers of our favorite mx-3's... so if you have a pic of this please post or email it to me!

much appreciated!

also are there any exact instructions for removing the glass headlamp lense? I'm guessing I have 2 options - oven or hairdryer... any suggestions or experience, please post!

I saw this pic on ebay today...
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OK i've just found this thread on the UK forums about getting them apart...
http://www.uk-mx3.com//forum/viewtopic.php?t=1101" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Re: looking for pics of euro OEM headlights painted black

Posted: April 24th, 2008, 6:01 pm
by Savin
Here's a link. Some have the painted housings.
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=64330

Hope this helps. It took me forever to find it too, I thought I saw these in a video, but it was just pictures, lol

Re: looking for pics of euro OEM headlights painted black

Posted: April 24th, 2008, 8:03 pm
by WhiteFinish
A lot of dutch members did them

Look on mazdamx-3.nl search for: " koplamp"

Re: looking for pics of euro OEM headlights painted black

Posted: April 24th, 2008, 8:08 pm
by Mooneggs
wow you guys rock! those meet pics are amazing!

I found this on the NL forum...

http://www.mazdamx-3.nl/?url=/forum/vie ... php?t=6540" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

it's exactly what I need! I just need to figure out if I leave the whole second reflective piece chrome or do the little corner that is not reflective paint it black as well... hmmmm

decisions decisions :welder:

Re: Painting OEM euro h4 headlamp housings

Posted: May 19th, 2008, 2:40 pm
by Mooneggs
OK so this weekend I decided to tackle this project... after using the pics from the NL thread I also found this thread which was what I used to take off the glass lenses:

http://www.mx-3.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=40062" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

it was pretty straightforward but I have had experience taking apart signals, taillights, etc before. Some of the tar was stuck on REALLY WELL so it was difficult.

And of course here's a ton of pics.... It's pretty straightforward... bake the headlight, take off the lense, remove the reflector, sand down the inside of the housing, paint the inside of the housing, paint around back of reflector (if so desired), reinstall the reflector, reinstall the lense and you're done :D

You'll also notice that I did not paint the small corner on the reflector piece. I felt this was TOO stealthy and wasn't the look I was going for. The paint I used is actualy a high temp engine paint in low gloss black. I figure this will fade over time to a nice flat black... and if not it still looks cool!

I ended up not using the mini tire iron, just 2 flat heads the scissors and the table knife to remove the lenses :lol: my cat supervised and monitored my performance 8)
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a few more pics throughout... for comparision...
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Tonight I am going home to bake the lenses back onto the housings - I hope it goes well! I'll post a few more final pics tomorrow!

Re: Painting OEM euro h4 headlamp housings

Posted: May 19th, 2008, 2:48 pm
by Steve_SK
Brilliant work!! As usual. :wink:

Re: Painting OEM euro h4 headlamp housings

Posted: May 20th, 2008, 2:08 am
by jrors
Great job Mooneggs! :2thumbsup: Look foward to seeing pics of your car with the lights installed.

Re: Painting OEM euro h4 headlamp housings

Posted: May 20th, 2008, 5:07 am
by marcdh
:2thumbsup: Excellent work, this is getting done to my black beast :) Supervisor cat looks pretty strict :shock: VHT good choice ;)

Re: Painting OEM euro h4 headlamp housings

Posted: May 20th, 2008, 6:21 am
by hotsiit
:2thumbsup: Looks great! Now sell me one of your spare sets so I can do the same thing :wink:
:D

Re: Painting OEM euro h4 headlamp housings

Posted: May 20th, 2008, 6:34 am
by Kirk95gs
Good work Mark!

Re: Painting OEM euro h4 headlamp housings

Posted: May 21st, 2008, 5:37 pm
by mazdanut08
Those head lights look amazing, I want to get my hands on a set of those and do the same.

Re: Painting OEM euro h4 headlamp housings

Posted: May 21st, 2008, 6:19 pm
by Ukrman
looks awesome man

Re: Painting OEM euro h4 headlamp housings

Posted: May 24th, 2008, 6:24 am
by OutlaW
U are learning the way of the force my son ...
great job moon :wink:

Re: Painting OEM euro h4 headlamp housings

Posted: May 24th, 2008, 8:17 am
by Ryan
Figure it would look just as good with my stock canadian plastic lenses?

Re: Painting OEM euro h4 headlamp housings

Posted: May 24th, 2008, 8:50 pm
by Mikal
Get some pics of the finished product, because if these are as easy as it look to do I'm going to do it asap. Also nice document of pics and procedure.