Painting 3rd Gen Front Marker Housings

[octanejunkie]

In preparation for my "Black Out" project, featuring a projector retrofit, I decided to paint the insides of my front corner markers today.

Parts List:
Mechanix Gloves, or similar
Plastic putty knives (optional)
2" Blue Painters Tape
000 steel wool
Plastic adhesion promoter or primer
Black paint (need not be high heat)

How I did it:
I removed the marker housings from the vehicle (won't detail that process here) and left the bulbs and wires hanging on the vehicle.

After doing some research and getting advice from folks here, I decided to try use a heat gun to open the corners. This did not pan out well. I could not get the glue heated evenly enough, nor enough, and I did set out to try to pry them apart. This was a big mistake. DO NOT TRY TO PRY YOUR MARKER HOUSINGS APART. The best bet, just like the headlamps, baking them in the oven is your best bet.

TIP: You should REMOVE THE HEX STUD AND BREATHER HOSE BEFORE BAKING. The hex stud takes a 10mm wrench or socket and the breather hose pulls off easily by hand. Mark the breather so you remember which end connects to the housing and which end is free and blow the breather out with air once off the housing.

That being said, and again heeding the advice of those that have melted theirs, I oven-baked mine low and slow. I set my oven to 200°F and verified using a non-contact digital infrared thermometer. Once I got the middle of the oven to a stable temp, baked my housings one at a time.

 

[octanejunkie]

Baking the Housings

I then placed the housing, lens up, on a small piece of 2x4 so as not to melt the plastic on the metal inside the over, which gets well over 300° - the wood will not burn at 200-300°F but you may want to use something else that's nonflammable at that temp if you have it handy.

TIP: If you do use wood, make sure the wood you use clean and chemical/pesticide free and DO NOT use pressure treated (green seal) or other chemical prepared lumber due to the potential of noxious outgassing.

.

The Bake
I baked the housing, lens up, for 8 mins, but this was not enough to get the glue to separate - it is generously glued from the factory. Working upwards in intervals of +3 minutes at a time I found that about 15-6 minutes was about right. I monitored the housing temp during the heating using my infrared digital thermometer to make sure it didn't overheat on the first pass. On the second housing I just went by time alone once I knew I had a stable temp.

WEARING MECHANIX GLOVES I was able to pry the lenses off the housings by hand. BE SURE TO WEAR GLOVES, while not hot enough to melt the plastic, the housings do come out hot enough to burn your hands. There is a trick to pulling the lenses out of the housing and it's important that you heed this trick.

DO NOT PULL STRAIGHT UP on the lens, it is inserted into the housing on a diagonal. If you look at the edge of the lens that is closest to the headlamp, you will see that it is clear of the housing by about a 1/4" - this is where you can start to separate the lens form the housing, but DO NOT pull straight up, you will crack the lens (ask me how I know).

I started the lens out of the housing by pulling up, yes, but I also wedged a plastic putty knife ($0.90 at Home Depot) in between the housing and lens from the opposite side, wheel well side, and gently pried it while pulling up and away on the exposed headlight edge. A third hand would be handy, but if you are methodical you can separate the lens. If the glue just won't let go, you can put the assembly back in the oven for a few minutes and take another stab at it. Which I did a few times.

NOTE: I glued the piece that chipped off back with Crazy Glue (or similar) but this is hardly visible from the outside, although it is a critical glue surface, so you probably want to put it back if possible
.

 

[octanejunkie]

Prepping for Paint

Once separated, I put the second housing in the oven and began to prep the inside of the first one for paint. I taped off the housing first, to keep the glue from getting contaminates in it, using 2" blue painters tape, I went around the housing/reflector starting with the headlamp edge. We are mainly concerned with protecting the glue and housing from overspray.

While I was taping the first housing off, the second housing was on a wood block inside the oven, set at 200°F, with a timer set for 15 minutes.

I prepared the reflective surface inside the first housing with 000 steel wool to get a mild tooth on it (don't want this debris in the glue, which is why I taped it off first) and then blew it out with air and mopped with an alcohol soaked rag to get any remaining dust out. Then the timer for my second housing went off.

Wearing mechanix gloves again, I pried the second housing apart with much more ease, but still managed to crack a chip off of the lens off (inside the headlamp edge, perpendicular glue edge) - it turns out 16+ year-old plastic gets brittle.

TIP: while pulling the lens diagonally out of the housing (away from the wheel well side) you want to keep the hot glue from sagging into housing, onto the reflective surface. Be weary of that, removing dried glue off the reflective surface may cause damage to the material you are trying to paint (ask me how I know)

With the second housing separated, I taped it off just like the first one and scuffed the reflector with steel wool then mopped it out with alcohol. Before painting I took a microfiber cloth to both reflectors and checked the tape for a good seal, and turned the oven off.

 

[octanejunkie]

Painting

Using an adhesion promotor as primer, I sprayed 3-4 light passes from all angles to both housings, allowing 3 mins on a timer between passes. After the fourth pass, I waited another 3 mins and went straight to black using a flat black (fast drying spray enamel, $2 at Home Depot). I did 4-5 light coats of black, getting good coverage from all angles in a well-ventilated space; waiting 3-timed minutes between coats.

TIP: be sure to spray at all angles from about 6-8 inches, and shake the can in between passes. Rotate the housings so you can get the inside corners of the reflector properly. You don't need to go crazy here because this will end back up behind mottled plastic lenses, so minor imperfections will not be seen.

For the last coat I applied a semi-wet coat, focusing on all the inside corners first, then the larger surfaces. The key with a wet coat is to flood the surface so imperfections are filled, but not so much to get runs in the paint. But again, minor imperfections will not be visible.

The paint I used dries in about an hour, so I put the housings back in the still warm oven to dry (oven door cracked at the top to vent) and set a timer for one hour and started drafting this post - and cracked a beer. I probably could have/should have removed the tape right after painting, but I was careful when applying it, not to tape directly on the glue in the housing.

After an hour both the oven and the housings were cool to the touch and the paint was dry to the touch, so I carefully removed the tape and reheated the oven to my stable 200°F set point. While the oven was preheating, I cleaned the inside of the lenses with windex and a lint-free cloth, paying special attention not to get the cloth stuck against the somewhat tacky glue.

NOTE: when cool, the glue actually hardens quite a bit but it will still snag loose fibers, dust, debris, etc. So treat it "surgically" but don't go crazy (masks and gowns not required) LOL

 

[octanejunkie]

Sealing the housings back up

I again used my 2x4 blocks and placed the housings and lenses, glue side up, into the oven for 10 minutes - it was at this time that the glue was hot and starting to sag, so I wanted to move fast before the glue sagged out of position on either part.

WEARING MECHANIX GLOVES, I pushed the lenses into the housings diagonally, making sure not to get the glue from the lens edges on the outside of the housing. Once the lens starts to seat inside the housing, you want to move fast to get it into position and then "wrap" the outside edges of the housing around the lens - you will just have to do this to know what I mean.

While I was working on reseating the first lens/housing combo, I left the second one in the oven with the door open, to keep it warm but not overheat it. I repeated the procedure of inserting the second lens diagonally into the second housing and pressured all the edges by hand, wearing gloves.

The glue starts to set and harden pretty much right away so if you feel you've not seated the lens into the housing well, put it back in the oven for 3-4 mins and then pressure fit it again. I pretty much got it right the first try and didn't try to disassemble them again - I suspect you could, but it would get messy.

TIP: you really want to keep the glue in the parts it comes off on and not lose any. Once dried, this glue is NOT easy to get off any surface, it is super sticky and hardens worse than chewing gum in carpet. Think and look before acting.

With both housings painted, reassembled and cool. I reinstalled the hex studs, paying careful attention to threading them back into the housings. The studs are plastic so DO NOT CROSS THREAD THEM, go slow and turn as many turns by hand before using a 10mm wrench or socket to install them and don't over tighten, use common sense and hand pressure only, you do not want to strip the fine threads on these studs. The breather will snap back on, but pay attention to the mark you put on the tube so you get it back on the same way.

Now proudly walk the completed, painted housings back to your vehicle, reinstall the bulbs and snap the housings back onto the vehicle and screw them down.

LAST TIP: when chasing the brass marker housing screw into the plastic of the headlamp boss, start the screw backwards, counterclockwise, LIKE YOU ARE LOOSENING IT, until you feel the thread jump, then turn slowly clockwise to tighten and you should be in the same thread - you don't want to cross-thread metal to plastic as the plastic will never heal. If you don't fee the thread jump the first time, keep turning and vary the downward pressure on the screwdriver, and DO NOT USE A POWER DRIVER OR DRILL, hand tools only.

That's it, good luck and happy marker housing painting :thumb:
Next step in my Black Out project will be rims, then the headlamp/projector retrofits once my parts from DDM arrive

Here's the painted housing installed back on the vehicle with a red T10 LED bulb in the marker housing

 

[4runner001]

Great thread! I just finished mine yesterday and could have used this haha.

I melted the first housing and had to buy another set...

Was much easier the second time around. However, I do have some glue showing after putting them back together. The headlights are much easier than the corner lights.

 

[nissanh]

What is the purpose of darkening the "MARKER"? It is there for a purpose.

I thought you are painting the reflecting surface.

 

[Twisted Sid]

I hope you're not planning on running those red corner lights permanently. That's a good fast way to get pulled over

 

[infantry503]

Funny question but can this process be used to paint the headlight also? Would I need hi temp paint or would just duplicolor thats millennium silver work just fine? Doing my retrofit in a few weeks and want to know if this is a good way to get away from the chrome housing. Also do you know if painting the headlight housings affects the light output?

 

[octanejunkie]

I did the same with my headlight reflectors, [MENTION=83264]infantry503[/MENTION], with neither special preparation nor materials; just plain black primer.

Painting the reflector will not affect the lighting capability at all since the projector projects and does not rely on the stock reflector.

Do allow time for proper painting and drying time. Maybe Brian can chime in about painting shrouds, I left mine chrome; much to my regret.

 

[infantry503]

Epic!!!

 

[ivopivo]

I did the same with my headlight reflectors, [MENTION=83264]infantry503[/MENTION], with neither special preparation nor materials; just plain black primer.

Painting the reflector will not affect the lighting capability at all since the projector projects and does not rely on the stock reflector.

Do allow time for proper painting and drying time. Maybe Brian can chime in about painting shrouds, I left mine chrome; much to my regret.

Sorry if I missed it, but what headlights are those, oem or aftermarket? If oem, what year?

I'm doing a ton of research now as I really need better light output on my 97 Limited, especially since it has a small hole in the passenger headlight!

 

[octanejunkie]

Sorry if I missed it, but what headlights are those, oem or aftermarket? If oem, what year?

I'm doing a ton of research now as I really need better light output on my 97 Limited, especially since it has a small hole in the passenger headlight!

Those are 99 clear lens headlights with retrofit projectors

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[Denis_Ruso]

Those are 99 clear lens headlights with retrofit projectors

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

How would one procure these "clear lens 99s"... mine's a 97

 

[octanejunkie]

How would one procure these "clear lens 99s"... mine's a 97

Aftermarket from Amazon or parts houses or junkyard

 

[Denis_Ruso]

Aftermarket from Amazon or parts houses or junkyard

Always been tentative about aftermarket due to previous experience with fogging up. Maybe junkyard OEM might be the way to go.

 

[octanejunkie]

Always been tentative about aftermarket due to previous experience with fogging up. Maybe junkyard OEM might be the way to go.

Junk yard is very hit or miss, as you probably know. I have yet to find a single cherry headlight at the junk yard, but I have found 99+ lenses that are worth pulling off otherwise broken headlights.

You can also look for people parting out on forums and CL

 

[Denis_Ruso]

Junk yard is very hit or miss, as you probably know. I have yet to find a single cherry headlight at the junk yard, but I have found 99+ lenses that are worth pulling off otherwise broken headlights.

You can also look for people parting out on forums and CL

Great tips. This project s a bit on the backburner for me but soon. Just finishing up my sleeping platform this week so that's my car money this month.

I don't think I'm worried about them being perfect. Wish my truck was clean and looked like a mall crawler. But I bought it salvage title, so I wouldn't hesitate to trail it. Truck's gets bushes and branches to the face regularly so ruining a perfectly clean set of clears would be a shame.

 

[ivopivo]

Those are 99 clear lens headlights with retrofit projectors

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

Yeah I meant to ask mainly about the lens as I too want to retrofit some projectors inside. I'm off to read a bit, but may PM you with some questions if you don't mind.

 

[JZiggy]

Always been tentative about aftermarket due to previous experience with fogging up. Maybe junkyard OEM might be the way to go.

I've been running "Depo" brand headlights for a year, so far so good. My truck's on the left and it's twin is on the right with OEM headlights.