Painting Existing Headlight Assemblies?

June 28, 2004

Hey Guys, I want to change my 2002 Jetta GLS Headlights with Black or SMOKED ones. From looking at several of the ones out there it seems that the Reflective Silver interior housing that surrounds the actual bulbs is painted BLACK. Is there any way for me to remove the existing lights in the car now and open them up to paint over the silver areas myself? Has anyone attempted this before? Or am I plain crazy and Cheap? Just seems silly to spend $$$ if I can achieve the same look myself....CURIOUS...If I can indeed open up the housings I will use a Black spray Paint exclusively made for Plastic. From the looks of it I will need to remove alot of Plastic surrounding the two headlights to get them out?...Thanks, MikeyBoomer

June 30, 2004

I dont believe you will have very good luck getting the paint to stick. Try www.4apc.net

January 8, 2005

You can put the head lights in the oven at between 195-225 for between 5-10 min. At that point you can seperate the lense from the housing. If doing this just monitor the light while heating up. There is usually metal tabs as well that need to be popped off. Heating the light up will allow the sealent to soften up enough to seperate without hurting the lense or housing. This is a common practice on the Lexus SC's and the Toy Supras. Its not hard to do just dont over heat. When ready to reinstall the lense you can head them up again and the existing sealent should give you a good seal again. It wont take as long to heat the light up again due to the exposed sealent. If the sealant doesnt look like its going to be enough when ready to reinstall then use a high quality silicone and your set. It is a easy job but scares most people but if you do things right and be gental when sperating the lense than you should have no problems. Dont forget to remove the lights and any rubber or boots before doing this.