Celica Forums General Discussion Exterior Pics of headlights PAINTED :)

hey there peeps i finally broke down and did the ole oven trick today and painted the inside of my headlights graphite, matches my gunmetal rims and my soon to be carbon fiber raised hood scoop

i followed the guide posted by RoB at celicagarage http://www.celicagarage.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1185


i HIGHLY reccomend this HowTo, i followed it exactly and i ended up with perfect results, heres some pics of the process

the problem that drove me to do this ...


my car before...























headlights apart...











insides removed...








second inside getting ready for paint...








the paint i used...


always had the instructions handy ...





my helper ... helped me bend the tabs back with the heat gun...





the final product...



i will take some daytime pics tomorrow.

looks good i really want to do this

Thats looks really good.. Nice job

thanks man it took all day but it was worth it

Looks really nice. Good job

freaking nice!

nice...i may have to do this now.

yee i now what ill be doin next after i finished with gauges and the rest of dash

i thought condensation was a common problem with people who painted their headlights but you got it before...weird whats up with that? and it always seems to be the right side. i only got condensation after i painted them but i learned to live with it

they turned out nice. good job
i really like how the celica looks with black housing

damn that bad ass...

That looks so awesome! I loved how mine look after I was done. the best part is that it's underneath the plastic cover and looks totally clean & custom! Nice shot of your helper! I wasn't sure if they had the same paint in the USA but it looks like they do.

i love it!!!

that looks really good...i wanna see the daytime pics

damn everyone is doing this. its super seksi

Hey Joey, did you use a silicone sealer when you got finished? that could be the reason why you're still getting condensation.

Nice job .

Bat-

Lookin nice man and your car looks sweet too

Hey is that the only color for that & where did you buy it at?

If only someone out there was able to buy an extra set of Celica Headlights, do the blackout paint job...then start selling it /w exchange for stock headlights...then keep going like that. It would be a sweet deal, I'd pay good money for that! Cause the real JDM headlights are way too expensive.

looks badass haha i used the same stuff to paint my wheels lol

i shouldnt have anymore condensation, after i reheated the lights and put them backtogether i ran a bead of silicone arround the lights on the outside to makesure i had a 100% seal

Nice !

now imagine how the TRD headlights would look...

i need to redo mine with the same color..cuz i used Testor Black and it don't show the rigid line at all..too dark..
how many coat did you put on??

look nicesssss..

nice job, im considering doing that to mine now.

NO. thats probably the reason why...i did add some later but i still get condensation. its not sealed well along the lower edge of the headlight so that might be why, i'm just too lazy to take off my bumper again

nice job

Sweet job...ur thread looks exactly like mine did oh about 2.5 weeks ago...lol...except my condensation was way worse...and was frozen..haha. But i used the same paint...used silicone sealer...and yeah it definitely looks amazing...soooo much better than stock and well worth the labor. Congrats!

oh and i also used the same guide...thanks robare

i think i know why you dont see any of the "ridges" on yours, i think you painted the top of the insert, the smooth side, we painted the inside of our inserts on the ribbed side

yours...



mine...

i will take some daytime pics when it stops being windy and rainy as hell out there

No problemo. But the real credit goes to this guy...

http://members.inteliport.net/~easye/headlights.htm he's the one with the balls big enough to do it in the first place! Then... more props to this guy...
(tony)

https://celicahobby.com/ubbthreads/thread.f_1869867144_0_collapsed_2__1.html

When I read the first link, I really wanted to do it but I wasn't too crazy about the headlights being all pried apart so that kept me from doing it. But when I read the second link and seen how he was able to get it apart & keep the light all clean and smooth, that made me want to do it! I just took pics along the way, adding any tips & mistakes to avoid. It's definately one of my favorite mods!!! Soooo awesome looking. All for the price of a can of paint!

very nice job man!!

maybe ill get enough balls to do it one day, dont want to screw anything up...

clean

i just finished doing mine about aan hour ago i used the graphite paint only $4.88 at auto zone and it looks sweet!! i love it for anyone hesitating to do this mod it is definetly worth it! i had no help at all and it took me about 5 hours the long part is waiting for the paint to dry but its a easy mod to do just follow the instructions step by step. It looks like c/f to me but yea i love them!

i've waited on this one for a long time because i didn't want to f*** anything up, but i guess it looks pretty easy, and i have absolutely no money after buying rims

ok i have a question

when you have to heat them up, what do you put the headlight on?
i put in a towel, but it burns and made the towel damp, but then it gets condensation and still burns...am i using the wrong type or something?
is there any other way, someone run it by me again.

billy, my towel burned also, parents thought i was lighting the house on fire, thats normal, just use an old towel. second of all a couple pictures down i see you took off the water overflow relieve valves, was this in the instructions and necessary? because i didn't do that..but it still works fine so i guess its all good

did it smoke your oven up though? im afraid to do that shit.

mine look like that , but they came like it

I put a towel on a cookie tray. I think I only heated my oven up to 350. Then right after I put the light (on the towel on the tray) in the oven, I turned the oven offf & let it cool for 15 minutes with the light in. No smoke or anything.

Be sure to take the cookie sheet with the towel out of the oven or it will scorch when you reheat the oven. I learned this the hard way. Use an old towel. Yeah I was hesitant at first but enough people had done it that I felt confident enough to do it. The results are SOOOO worth it.

yep between my first and second light i smoked up the kitchen with the towel in, but if you put the towel in after you heat up the oven you will have nuthing burn, even at 350 degrees you can comfortably place the headlight and towel in with your bare hands without them feeling too hot, just avoid the sides of the oven.

thanks, i'll do it again today