Painted the headlight housings - alternative to blackout

[Toy4R4Me]

I was never big on the black headlights on a silver car look, so I decided to try painting the headlight housings with Duplicolor Metalcast Smoke instead. I was trying to go for a black chrome appearance. The metalcase is supposed to be a translucent paint for shiny faux chrome plastic surfaces. Didn't really come out that way, but it still looks good I think. It's more of a gunmetal finish than a smoked finish, but I think it still works better with the silver than black.

here's the old/new

with the reflector

driver side

passenger side

truck

not sure how this happened, but I think the pass side came out a little darker than the right. Still, a good DIY job.

 

[Spiggie]

Looks great! :bluejump: Care to post instructions in detail as to how you did this? I think im going to try it out

 

[Trevloc]

i think the black headlights look way better than the chrome on silver

i didnt do mine myself tho, these were purchased.

 

[Toy4R4Me]

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/accessories/12065-jdm-blacked-headlights-diy-guide.html


http://www.toyota-4runner.org/4th-gen-t4rs/53629-another-blacked-out-headlight-thread-diy-lots-pics.html

^ I used both of those threads for instructions. I sprayed 2 light coats of smoke and then 2 heavy then followed with 3 coats of clear. If I were to do it again I'd use a different paint because the metalcast isn't really the smoke color it's advertised to be. Apparently people have gotten good results with Tamiya smoke model paint. Or, you could just go for a gloss gunmetal. Either way i'd suggest over the metalcast.

 

[Toy4R4Me]

I should also add that all I did to prep the surface of the housings was wash it down with dish soap, and that probably wasn't even necessary considering it's been in a sealed unit til now. The paint seemed to have no trouble adhering, but I'll keep y'all posted on how the paint holds up.

Also, as a word of advice, if you're going for a smoke color (or anything but black really) get both housings out first and spray them side by side so the painting will be equal.

 

[zstampe]

Mine.....

At least we all have "unique" runners in this thread, I mean you NEVER see silver ones lol......

 

[gaterose]

For anyone interested in black chrome look, if you use VHT nightshadez and do a couple of light coats it will give that effect.

That's how I did my first set of headlights and my badges. I now have matte black headlights but my badges are still black chrome.

It doesn't work well on the toyota grille emblem because I don't think nightshadez can take that much abuse and if you keep recoating it will eventually be black, but it has held up well on the doors and hatch.

edit: it's also great in the headlights because they have their own "microenvironment" and don't get hit by bugs or rain.

 

[T4RUSAF]

I am/was going to use the same stuff when I finish my retro but now I'm not sure. It looks much more darker than when I tested my pieces, but I probably didn't do nearly as many coats as you. Still looks good but from your pics it looks black.

 

[4runnerlabr]

What color/brand would you use if you were trying to duplicate the smoked chrome look of the sport edition headlights?

 

[rockwall]

Great job! How do you like the PIAA driving lights? do you run on the road with them or just off road?

 

[Toy4R4Me]

@gaterose - do you have any pics of your headlights after you used the VHT stuff? I know people use that to tint taillights, but I thought i'd read somewhere when I was researching for this project that it didn't work well on headlight housings.

@T4RUSAF - like I said, I wouldn't really recommend the metalcast. It's not as dark as it looks in the pictures, but it's still darker than I anticipated. And I didn't put a ton of coats on to make it dark- this paint isn't very good at covering evenly so I just kept doing coats until it didn't look blotchy- which ended up being about four coats. Other people have had trouble with this paint being blotchy as well. I'd suggest the tamiya smoke model paint - a guy on the Nissan Titan forums used it with good results:

@4runnerlabr - I'd try the Tamiya as mentioned above or maybe the VHT that gaterose is suggesting. The metalcast is not the right paint for a light smoke look.

@rockwall - I'm happy with them, though they're way overpriced. Those are actually fog lights, which work alright. If I were to do it again I'd get the All Terrain Pattern lights instead or I'd mount the lights lower and they work better as fog lights; I have them mounted a big high for that application. I run them on road in fog/rain.

 

[gaterose]

@gaterose - do you have any pics of your headlights after you used the VHT stuff? I know people use that to tint taillights, but I thought i'd read somewhere when I was researching for this project that it didn't work well on headlight housings.

I sold my headlights to 04runnerSR5 here maybe you can get him to take a picture?

This is the only image I have and you can't tell at all... I will try to take some close ups of the badges tomorrow but it doesn't show up that well in pics.