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

I might be the first to do the inner tinting on the headlights this weekend. Need to see how difficult it is to crack those suckers open. If it's easy, it's as good as done.

Sweet keep us posted. I'd be interested in trying it if its cheap/easy enough.

Wasn't able to do it today. Needed to do a few other things (ie: oil change, clean interior with magic eraser and buff the outside). The good news is that the parts I buffed came out great and the interior looks MUCH better now. There are a couple panels where the clearcoat has failed. Not looking forward to painting them. I'm going to try and DIY paint the front PS fender tomorrow. It's real ugly. If that works out like I hope, I'll move onto replacing the fuel filter. If I have time, I'll do the headlights after that.

i am also interested in doing this keep us posted man!

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.

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/

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.

wow i did this last year , in my mind

alright i got my rivy back a few days ago and just remembered to post some new pics.lol. but the pics i posted were before i sanded a little off the head lights so i didnt get a ticket but i think i might make them darker this summer..

_

Finished one of the corner lights today. PITA

You can see the after/before difference in this pic.

Hurry up! My dad has been telling me to tint my headlights...lol.

just because im faster then you

Faster than me huh?

LOL

Corey, who's Riv is that?

that would be my old rivi

I suppose that was before my time.

got any completed pics yet? HIDs should be in soon and want to do this at the same time

Should have pics up by Sunday. The corner lights are busting my balls. I need to paint the PS one tomorrow.

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.

for any one to scared to do this mod, hit me up in a MP i will do it for you

I just purchased some dark smoke vinyl to tint my front lower turn signals. anyone else done this?
I figured for $9 shipped for 24"X12" piece i can experiment some. i will post pics before and after and can do a mini write-up if there is interest.
should be in the mail tomorrow or sat.
those bright orange lenses stand out too much for my taste...


AFAIK as long as it flashes orange i'm legal right?

In my state, as long as the engaged signal lights can be seen from X number of feet away, they are legal.

I used spray tint to do my turn signals. I didn't want to mess with either taking the turn signals out, which seemed like it would be very time-consuming, or trying to fit some sheet of vinyl over the lights and cut around it somehow, which would be a nightmare to attempt (I would think, maybe not).

Regardless, I really like how my signals look now and you can still see them when they're flashing quite clearly even though I did them rather dark.

Here's a pic (not too bright, unfortunately) of the tint. It makes the car look 10x better from the front. I can see the lights through it really clearly. As long as it's orange and you can see it from a certain number of feet away (don't know abt. your state), you're ok.

got any pics of them on?
it does look 10X better blacked out. and your corner light are nice and white, did you replace them?

Look up at the Riv in the header. I did mine with the vinyl and it came out very well. I also did the tails and rear signals.

which color did you go with b/c that's perfect.