Celica Forums General Discussion Exterior Winter project complete!

minor project...took me most of the day to do today. I had a ton of condensation in my passenger side headlight that was freezing and caused my low beam to blow and it just looked ugly..see pic

so then i decided i should take both out and clean them...and paint the insides, as well as put on a mesh grill to replace the toyota one...and the lack of the one on the bottom...

bumper off...

baking in the oven...

taken apart...

painted and reassembled...

and with grill...

another shot..

and last one...what do you guys think?

I still need to buy clear corners, chromium turn signals, new high beams, lows, and fogs...that will be later

sweet...turned real-ee clean

thanks...the best part was i got it done before my parents got home...so instead of them coming home and saying "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING YOU'RE GONNA FUCK SOMETHING UP" they just said..."so, what did you do today?" ha ha ha ha.

i like it! good work

that loooks REALLY good now...good job

i love that, i hate when they come home and yell... expecially about the car, when they dont even help me pay for it, ha ha screw that

What color did you use. It looks kinda metallic.

ooo,pretty pretty!

looks great. how hard was it to remove the front bumper

nice

I used graphite color. It's spray paint made by duplicolor and it's made for painting rims...there's a pic of a wheel on the can and it's made for metal and plastic...it turned out really good and i think it would look killer with any color car.

The bumper removal was really easy. I've never done any sort of car work whatsoever before i bought my celica...and it didn't take long at all. It's honestly as hard to undo the plastic clips for the engine plastics as it is to unbolt the bumper. It's all very straightforward and easy to do. Timing from the time i pulled my car into the garage...i would say it takes maybe...30-40 mins to take the bumper off? something like that i suppose. For me anyway...I don't think it's beyond ANYONE'S skill level.

Niccce I likey

Did you use black mesh?
If so how does that black mesh look on silver?

The mesh well...I was hoping to buy some off of ebay for $10...but i wanted it done today so i ran to autozone and found some from APC...(it was $35 but i figured i saved waiting 2 weeks for the auction to end and shipping...) It was chrome colored which i decided was too ricey, so i used the same graphite colored paint i used for my headlights and painted the diamond mesh with that. I think it looks better than what black would...but i think the black would look fine too.

Wow, nice job.
That's is going to be my next project here shortly, when I get some time off from work. lol I need a vacation.

cool looks really clean

How long did you put it in the oven? and what paint did you used?

I heated up the oven to 300 degrees and put em in for 15 minutes exactly. I was afraid at first so i tried 275 degrees for 15 mins but that didn't work. It's very important that you turn off the oven right before you put them in. This way it's really easy to just pry em apart with help from a friend and a butterknife (worked better than a screwdriver for me).

The paint i used was DupliColor high performance wheel coating or something to that effect...graphite color. I needed three coats to get good enough coverage.

Nice info, , and finally what glue did you used for put them back?

now all you need is a grill on the front bumper. looks nice.

"now all you need is a grill on the front bumper. looks nice."
---I just put one in

A lot of guys say you can just use the epoxy that is already sealing them together, and that will be enough, but i bought some clear silicone sealer at walmart for like $3. You'll find it where they sell caulking and that sort of stuff. It doesn't shrink and it's watertight and pretty all-purpose...so i just laid a thin line of that around the seal on each one before heating them up and squeezing them together.

that's hot man, impressive for only one day's work

i love how my parents still say that even though they need me to help them fix their cars when something goes wrong

yeah honestly...a week after i bought my celi i wanted to put on my TRD exhaust...and they were afraid so they wanted me to take it to a shop to have it done. I think it's just parents that honestly don't know anythin about it...so they are afraid that you'll screw up something that you worked so hard for. They don't always realize it's a good way to learn stuff and everything. They were actually sorta proud of me or whatever that i did that which was weird...but...well as long as they don't see you doing it it's good in my experience...lol

http://www.autobarn.net/dupwpseries.html


This is the paint

that looks hott

that looks hardcore. i hope i wont have to do that

great job man

Excellent work, I will need to do that as well.

yes that is the paint...

BTW thanks for the props guys! I have to give credit to robare on here...I used his suggestion for temperature, time, and type of paint...very cool and helpful guy

so when you resealed the head lights. Did you throw them back in the oven so to seal them correctly??

yeah well if you can picture it one side of the headlight is shaped sorta like a "U" and the other side is like an "I" or something so it seals...i put a line of silicon in the bottom of the "U"...then pressed them together but they still needed to be pushed another 3/4" or so...so i heated them up for 8:30 at 300 degrees (again turning the oven off right when i put them in). Then i just had a friend squeeze them together while i screwed in the 3 screws holding it together...and it sealed up pretty cleanly.

Oh yeah and wear gloves...it gets pretty hot..lol

another pic in the daytime..

asome. great job. love the painted ones. also nice little install guide

thanks man...yeah i love the painted style too...i think it's sooo much better than any overlay or cover...but then again you do the work for it. The widebody orange and Carbon Fiber celica has the headlights painted like this too...and man it goes well with carbon fiber... I just wish i had the money