| | Write-Up: Tinting Headlights, Turn Signals, & Tail Lenses | |
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DEMonte1997 Fanatic

Name: Rick Age: 34 Location: CT Joined: 2009-03-03 Post Count: 1284 Merit: 31
 | Subject: Write-Up: Tinting Headlights, Turn Signals, & Tail Lenses Sun Mar 29, 2009 3:22 pm | |
| I tinted the headlights and corner lights on my car this weekend. They aren't in the car yet but will be mid-week. Here's a teaser pic.  FYI: The corner lights are a BITCH to get apart. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone else just because I mangled one of mine trying to separate it and ended up having to get another one. 
Last edited by DEMonte1997 on Mon Apr 06, 2009 6:59 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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ghost88 Member
Name: Abe Location: DC/DMV Area Joined: 2009-02-25 Post Count: 134 Merit: 6
 | Subject: Re: Write-Up: Tinting Headlights, Turn Signals, & Tail Lenses Tue Mar 31, 2009 9:40 am | |
| suscribed and waiting for some more pics and writeup. I just ordered a 55w 8k HID kit that should be here within the week and will be doing the tint at the same time.
How did you get the corner light out? I know theres a cppl clips but couldnt figure out how to work it out/ |
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DEMonte1997 Fanatic

Name: Rick Age: 34 Location: CT Joined: 2009-03-03 Post Count: 1284 Merit: 31
 | Subject: Re: Write-Up: Tinting Headlights, Turn Signals, & Tail Lenses Tue Mar 31, 2009 12:51 pm | |
| There's a 7mm bolt underneath it (you can see it in the gap above the bumper). After taking that out, there's a clip between the corner and the headlight. Stick a longer flathead screwdriver in there to pop that sucker and the lamp will come right out. Will have pics up soon. Just finishing up the corner pieces.  |
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palermocorey90 Addict

Name: Corey Age: 22 Location: Rome NY Joined: 2007-10-03 Post Count: 2968 Merit: -24
 | Subject: Re: Write-Up: Tinting Headlights, Turn Signals, & Tail Lenses Tue Mar 31, 2009 4:22 pm | |
| wow i did this last year , in my mind |
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DEMonte1997 Fanatic

Name: Rick Age: 34 Location: CT Joined: 2009-03-03 Post Count: 1284 Merit: 31
 | Subject: Re: Write-Up: Tinting Headlights, Turn Signals, & Tail Lenses Wed Apr 01, 2009 10:58 pm | |
| Finished one of the corner lights today. PITA You can see the after/before difference in this pic.  |
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TonySmooth89 Addict

Name: Anthony Age: 23 Location: Florida Joined: 2007-11-14 Post Count: 2411 Merit: 16
 | Subject: Re: Write-Up: Tinting Headlights, Turn Signals, & Tail Lenses Wed Apr 01, 2009 11:46 pm | |
| Hurry up! My dad has been telling me to tint my headlights...lol. |
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palermocorey90 Addict

Name: Corey Age: 22 Location: Rome NY Joined: 2007-10-03 Post Count: 2968 Merit: -24
 | Subject: Re: Write-Up: Tinting Headlights, Turn Signals, & Tail Lenses Thu Apr 02, 2009 9:55 am | |
|  just because im faster then you |
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DEMonte1997 Fanatic

Name: Rick Age: 34 Location: CT Joined: 2009-03-03 Post Count: 1284 Merit: 31
 | Subject: Re: Write-Up: Tinting Headlights, Turn Signals, & Tail Lenses Thu Apr 02, 2009 2:02 pm | |
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captshiner Enthusiast

Name: Andrew Age: 25 Location: Cincinnati, OH Joined: 2008-07-23 Post Count: 761 Merit: -1
 | Subject: Re: Write-Up: Tinting Headlights, Turn Signals, & Tail Lenses Thu Apr 02, 2009 2:49 pm | |
| Corey, who's Riv is that? |
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palermocorey90 Addict

Name: Corey Age: 22 Location: Rome NY Joined: 2007-10-03 Post Count: 2968 Merit: -24
 | Subject: Re: Write-Up: Tinting Headlights, Turn Signals, & Tail Lenses Thu Apr 02, 2009 7:42 pm | |
| that would be my old rivi |
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captshiner Enthusiast

Name: Andrew Age: 25 Location: Cincinnati, OH Joined: 2008-07-23 Post Count: 761 Merit: -1
 | Subject: Re: Write-Up: Tinting Headlights, Turn Signals, & Tail Lenses Thu Apr 02, 2009 10:11 pm | |
| I suppose that was before my time. |
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ghost88 Member
Name: Abe Location: DC/DMV Area Joined: 2009-02-25 Post Count: 134 Merit: 6
 | Subject: Re: Write-Up: Tinting Headlights, Turn Signals, & Tail Lenses Fri Apr 03, 2009 2:49 pm | |
| got any completed pics yet? HIDs should be in soon and want to do this at the same time |
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DEMonte1997 Fanatic

Name: Rick Age: 34 Location: CT Joined: 2009-03-03 Post Count: 1284 Merit: 31
 | Subject: Re: Write-Up: Tinting Headlights, Turn Signals, & Tail Lenses Fri Apr 03, 2009 4:02 pm | |
| Should have pics up by Sunday. The corner lights are busting my balls. I need to paint the PS one tomorrow. |
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DEMonte1997 Fanatic

Name: Rick Age: 34 Location: CT Joined: 2009-03-03 Post Count: 1284 Merit: 31
 | Subject: Re: Write-Up: Tinting Headlights, Turn Signals, & Tail Lenses Sun Apr 05, 2009 10:51 pm | |
| Two poor cell phone pics:   I'll hopefully have better cleaned up pics sometime by next weekend. The cornering lamps are much darker than they show up in the second pic. Write-up skinny is as follows: The first step is getting these lights out. First, you want to remove the cornering lights. There's a 7mm bolt under the lamp (you can see it in the gap under light). Take that out and then pop the clip that holds it to the headlight frame. You'll find that clip between the headlight and cornering light. There's a very small gap between the two but you can get a flathead screwdriver in there. Headlights are held in with a bunch of bolts. They are all 10mm if memory serves. You can loosen the bracket that holds the headlight to the frame first to give you more room. There's (4) fine threaded bolts that hold the bracket to the frame and (4) corse thread that hold the light to the bracket. Also a 10mm nut as well. I think that's it. Any issues, PM me. You need to get the headlights and corner lights (if you choose to do them as well) apart. Headlights are glued together so they come apart with some heat. I suggest using a hairdryer on the seam between the lens and the housing. Once you get a small area separated, use a razor blade to help cut the adhesive (while also using the hairdryer to help loosen up the glue). This will make your job a lot easier. Go SLOW. You don't want to damage anything. Once you get the headlight apart, you will want to clean up the mating surfaces of any remaining glue. Clean out the housing part (chrome) with some rubbing alcohol and tape off the forward facing portion with your favorite painter's tape. You only want to paint the pieces of chrome that do not face forward. I will include a pic of what I taped off tomorrow. For paint, I just used black rustoleum. You can go with flat, semi-gloss or gloss depending on what look you are going for. Once the paint has dried, you want to glue the lens back to the housing. I used DAP weatherproof acrylic caulk in black to do mine. The cornering lamp is very similar to the headlight but it is admittedly a bit more challenging depending on how nice you want it to look. To get it apart, you'll need to cut it. This piece is plastic welded so you can't just heat it up to separate the lens and housing. I used a Dremel with a cutting wheel to carefully cut along the seam of the pieces. If you go this route, you have to be slow and patient as the wheel heats up quick and it will melt the plastic as you go. Do very small portions and let the wheel cool off. Once these pieces are apart, you want to do the same as with the headlight part and clean off the mating surfaces. I painted the entire cornering light housing black because I don't really use that lamp for nighttime driving. Those off you who like to use it will need to keep the portion around the bulb non-painted to not affect the light output. Here's where things get interesting. When you put the pieces back together, you'll notice that the plastic on the lens doesn't look good where it was cut by the wheel. You probably could wetsand the mating surfaces to make this piece completely clear again but I didn't go that route. Instead, I painted around the outer edge of this piece on the outside (after the pieces were put together). I used painter's tape so there's a clean edge. I used Duplicolor flat black for this. Once the paint as dried, I take the tape off, re-clean the piece with rubbing alcohol and then clearcoat the entire piece. It came out decent. If I had access to professional painting supplies, it probably would have been better. *Also note that you are loosing about 2mm worth of plastic when you cut it with the wheel so you will want to use more adhesive between the two surfaces as to build up the space between the two pieces (to ensure proper fitment).* So there you have it. I probably left some stuff out but my head is a little groggy from playing at Dave & Busters all day. lol I'll add my disclaimer at the bottom that - this isn't the easiest thing to do and considering the importance of having properly working headlamps, this might not be a project that most of you will want to take on. I had already done my Regal's lights a long time ago courtesy of a very thorough write-up from BensGS on the Regal board. With that, I've had some experience doing this kind of thing. If you don't do much in the way of body work or you aren't very savvy with DIY, I wouldn't bother attempting this... well, unless you have an extra set of lamps that you can play with. Or you just like spending a lot of $$ on replacement lamps. HTH anyone looking to try this. |
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palermocorey90 Addict

Name: Corey Age: 22 Location: Rome NY Joined: 2007-10-03 Post Count: 2968 Merit: -24
 | Subject: Re: Write-Up: Tinting Headlights, Turn Signals, & Tail Lenses Wed Apr 08, 2009 6:59 pm | |
| for any one to scared to do this mod, hit me up in a MP i will do it for you |
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| | Write-Up: Tinting Headlights, Turn Signals, & Tail Lenses | |
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