DIY: Opening and painting the headlight housing
05-25-2011, 12:09 PM
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DIY: Opening and painting the headlight housing Well some of guys wanted to do this on your own instead of ordering them from me and since these forums have been so good to me when I needed help I wanted to help you guys out that are planning to do this! As Shady said I should name this something so I will just call it the Persian-V mod or the Aladdin/Prince of Persia headlight mod lol keeeding! 
This is my first guide so please let me know what I can do better and ask me when confused! Sorry I don't have a lot of pics for this project I kind of decided to write this up after I installed all my stuff already
WARNING!!!- Please take caution when doing this and I am not responsible for any broken plastic, cracked lens, condensation problems and so on! When doing this mod please be patient and when one side doesn't work out work on another side and come back to it later. PLEASE PLEASE don't hesitate to Pm me or ask on here if you have any questions or are stuck on a part of the project, I will do my best to help you out! I don't want to see a bunch of broken headlights that would be no fun!
What you need:
Your favorite flathead screwdriver
A heat gun - I got mine at home depot for about 20 bucks
Black Rtv Silicone, trust me I went through many different kind of things and this stuff seals so much better than the others! Here's a pic of only a couple that failed!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54121596@N03/5757870562/
Here is what you should use
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54121596@N03/5757327713/
If you guys want to try other stuff be my guest! If it works out great post it up so others can see what else is out there, the color of silicone shouldn't matter whether it be black or clear because no body will see it so don't worry about that!
Some torx bits for some of the bolts to the washer and housing
Lots of medium sized clips, I used about 8-10 on each headlight
You will need patience so find a good time to do this and don't hurry through it!
The Process:
Begin by taking the bumper off, cadillacfaqs is your friend here! The headlight is mounted by two bolts and one nut on each side. One bolt at the top, one bolt on the side of the light and a nut on the bottom. These all should be 10mm. After this be sure to unplug the headlights and give them a slight tug, they are kind of stuck in there so carefully pull them out and tug at them when you need to. Don't pull very hard on them!
Now you have the headlight get a nice work bench like this,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54121596@N03/5757328145/And start by heating the lights. After a while you will feel the black part start to soften so when that happens get your flathead and carefully push it back and stick your flathead between the black edge and the lens. Slowly start prying down, heating the headlight when you need to. Start moving around the washer area and part of the headlight slowly doing this until you can start to feel the lens freeing from the silicone. Use the flathead has a lever and slowly start removing the lens from the sealant slowly piece by piece!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54121596@N03/5757328021/
If you break the black surrounding edge don't worry about it the thing is pretty easy to break, whats's important is keeping where the sealant has been attached in one piece so that you can reseal properly!
Now that some of the lens is free, move your way around both sides of the lights until you reach the plastic piece on both sides. Here you will pull the plastic back and carefully heat just the black piece below it. DON"T HEAT THAT PLASTIC!! you will deform it and it will be such a pain trying to put that back on when reinstalling. While you heat have the plastic pulled back a bit. Slowly and carefully keep prying between the lens and the black edges. as your lens frees itself the you can see that you will be able to take the plastic off when you get the chance take it off so you can work more freely. Keep prying and heating and move around the headlight until you can fully free the lens from the silicone. Once it feels that a lot of the lens is free from the sealant, heat up the whole headlight and slowly pull the lens away from the housing.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54121596@N03/5759050104/
Now on the housing there are three torx bolts holding it down to the lens, remove these and you have three parts now. The lens, the housing, and the actual headlight assembly.
Be sure to remove all the old sealant!!!
Paint what you would like to paint, I used flat black on the housing and gloss on everything else. Careful not to paint the high beam reflector unless you don't really care for high beams since our hid's do a damn good job.
Now once you have done everything you want to do let's start reassembly. Be sure to completely clean that inside lens or you are going to see specks of dust and it will be annoying! Now is a good time to get a nice portable heater and leave it on, so that it dries the lens after you clean it, KEEP THE HEATER ON THROUGHOUT THE REASSEMBLY! Bolt the housing back to the lens when you feel it is as clean as you can make it and now you have the headlight lens and the assembly, first start by putting silicone along the assembly where the old sealant sat, be sure to get a lot of it's edges and just pour silicone on the surrounding, a nice even thick coat all around the assembly, now put the silicone on the plastic of the lens that the old sealant sat on, with the heater still on, get a friend, double check everything, put the headlight lens and assembly together again, have your buddy hold the light down and start clipping on all the spots you see you can!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54121596@N03/5757327483/
Keep that heater on while you let the silicone dry over night, maybe for an hour or two be sure that it doesn't get too hot or the lens will melt ( 200 degrees Fahrenheit or so is the melting point of it I believe. ) The reason for this is to keep the headlight dry and try to avoid condensation, it will happen no matter how hard you try to avoid sometimes and thats life. It is ok just be sure it is not an actual leak with water running around your headlight that would not be good!
Now 24 hours alter you have your new headlight!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54121596@N03/5757327273/
Enjoy! Please please don't forget that you can always ask me if you're confused or just stuck I will try my best to help you out.
For those just wanting to order these, I will have the info up sometime later today with interior and fog light ordering processes also.
Good luck and remember be patient and take breaks, don't struggle and force your way through or you will end up with a broken headlight!!
This is my first guide so please let me know what I can do better and ask me when confused! Sorry I don't have a lot of pics for this project I kind of decided to write this up after I installed all my stuff already
WARNING!!!- Please take caution when doing this and I am not responsible for any broken plastic, cracked lens, condensation problems and so on! When doing this mod please be patient and when one side doesn't work out work on another side and come back to it later. PLEASE PLEASE don't hesitate to Pm me or ask on here if you have any questions or are stuck on a part of the project, I will do my best to help you out! I don't want to see a bunch of broken headlights that would be no fun!
What you need:
Your favorite flathead screwdriver
A heat gun - I got mine at home depot for about 20 bucks
Black Rtv Silicone, trust me I went through many different kind of things and this stuff seals so much better than the others! Here's a pic of only a couple that failed!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54121596@N03/5757870562/
Here is what you should use
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54121596@N03/5757327713/
If you guys want to try other stuff be my guest! If it works out great post it up so others can see what else is out there, the color of silicone shouldn't matter whether it be black or clear because no body will see it so don't worry about that!
Some torx bits for some of the bolts to the washer and housing
Lots of medium sized clips, I used about 8-10 on each headlight
You will need patience so find a good time to do this and don't hurry through it!
The Process:
Begin by taking the bumper off, cadillacfaqs is your friend here! The headlight is mounted by two bolts and one nut on each side. One bolt at the top, one bolt on the side of the light and a nut on the bottom. These all should be 10mm. After this be sure to unplug the headlights and give them a slight tug, they are kind of stuck in there so carefully pull them out and tug at them when you need to. Don't pull very hard on them!
Now you have the headlight get a nice work bench like this,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54121596@N03/5757328145/And start by heating the lights. After a while you will feel the black part start to soften so when that happens get your flathead and carefully push it back and stick your flathead between the black edge and the lens. Slowly start prying down, heating the headlight when you need to. Start moving around the washer area and part of the headlight slowly doing this until you can start to feel the lens freeing from the silicone. Use the flathead has a lever and slowly start removing the lens from the sealant slowly piece by piece!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54121596@N03/5757328021/
If you break the black surrounding edge don't worry about it the thing is pretty easy to break, whats's important is keeping where the sealant has been attached in one piece so that you can reseal properly!
Now that some of the lens is free, move your way around both sides of the lights until you reach the plastic piece on both sides. Here you will pull the plastic back and carefully heat just the black piece below it. DON"T HEAT THAT PLASTIC!! you will deform it and it will be such a pain trying to put that back on when reinstalling. While you heat have the plastic pulled back a bit. Slowly and carefully keep prying between the lens and the black edges. as your lens frees itself the you can see that you will be able to take the plastic off when you get the chance take it off so you can work more freely. Keep prying and heating and move around the headlight until you can fully free the lens from the silicone. Once it feels that a lot of the lens is free from the sealant, heat up the whole headlight and slowly pull the lens away from the housing.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54121596@N03/5759050104/
Now on the housing there are three torx bolts holding it down to the lens, remove these and you have three parts now. The lens, the housing, and the actual headlight assembly.
Be sure to remove all the old sealant!!!
Paint what you would like to paint, I used flat black on the housing and gloss on everything else. Careful not to paint the high beam reflector unless you don't really care for high beams since our hid's do a damn good job.
Now once you have done everything you want to do let's start reassembly. Be sure to completely clean that inside lens or you are going to see specks of dust and it will be annoying! Now is a good time to get a nice portable heater and leave it on, so that it dries the lens after you clean it, KEEP THE HEATER ON THROUGHOUT THE REASSEMBLY! Bolt the housing back to the lens when you feel it is as clean as you can make it and now you have the headlight lens and the assembly, first start by putting silicone along the assembly where the old sealant sat, be sure to get a lot of it's edges and just pour silicone on the surrounding, a nice even thick coat all around the assembly, now put the silicone on the plastic of the lens that the old sealant sat on, with the heater still on, get a friend, double check everything, put the headlight lens and assembly together again, have your buddy hold the light down and start clipping on all the spots you see you can!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54121596@N03/5757327483/
Keep that heater on while you let the silicone dry over night, maybe for an hour or two be sure that it doesn't get too hot or the lens will melt ( 200 degrees Fahrenheit or so is the melting point of it I believe. ) The reason for this is to keep the headlight dry and try to avoid condensation, it will happen no matter how hard you try to avoid sometimes and thats life. It is ok just be sure it is not an actual leak with water running around your headlight that would not be good!
Now 24 hours alter you have your new headlight!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54121596@N03/5757327273/
Enjoy! Please please don't forget that you can always ask me if you're confused or just stuck I will try my best to help you out.
For those just wanting to order these, I will have the info up sometime later today with interior and fog light ordering processes also.
Good luck and remember be patient and take breaks, don't struggle and force your way through or you will end up with a broken headlight!!
05-25-2011, 05:46 PM
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Nice job. The flat black looks great. But...I hope that the silicone isnt being used to hold the lense to the housing. That black RTV sealant has little to no adhesive properties and will not securely bond the two pieces together...well, for long that is! 
Other than that, great job.
Other than that, great job.
05-25-2011, 09:23 PM
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I am also interested in the use of the rtv as a bonding agent. There are plenty of 3M epoxies that are more than enough for this application.
Also, I wonder what these look like on a platinum V.
Also, I wonder what these look like on a platinum V.
05-25-2011, 09:34 PM
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if ur worried about the rtv being a bonding agent.... well my headlights on my camaro have been done for about 6 years.... never leaked a bit after i did them.... but i used toyotas F.I.P.G. this **** is the bomb if u ever have to use anything like that or help seal up ur motor...
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05-25-2011, 10:41 PM
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Hey guys thanks for the compliments!
The rtv has produced great results! I have used them on my fogs for 2 years now and they are holding great! It does say great adhesion on the back of the packet too.
What kind of bad experiences have you had with it?
A lot of other people who have messed with their lights used RTV also such as mystic, I do have plastic epoxy bonding for those who feel uncomfortable with the RTV but be ready to never take your headlights apart again with that.
Just let me know how you feel and what you guys used but RTV has been good to me thus far
The rtv has produced great results! I have used them on my fogs for 2 years now and they are holding great! It does say great adhesion on the back of the packet too.
What kind of bad experiences have you had with it?
A lot of other people who have messed with their lights used RTV also such as mystic, I do have plastic epoxy bonding for those who feel uncomfortable with the RTV but be ready to never take your headlights apart again with that.
Just let me know how you feel and what you guys used but RTV has been good to me thus far
05-25-2011, 10:52 PM
#10
FWIW-Over on a ford truck forum I am a member on they have a guy that does this exact same service for ford trucks, EXCEPT he puts the headlight in a 200 degree oven for a period of time and he says they come open very easy after the glue is heated, FWIW.
Just offering a tip....
Just offering a tip....
05-26-2011, 07:31 AM
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Persian, its not that I've had bad experiences with black rtv. It works great for what its intended to do. It will adhere to both surfaces well and create a water tight seal...but....if there is ever any outward pressure in the lense, it will pull right away from the housing. If youve ever taken apart an engine or other part that is sealed up with this stuff, you will find that it doesn't take much force at all to pull it apart. I hope you never have this problem, but its something to keep in mind for future jobs.
05-26-2011, 04:17 PM
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I use the oven on mine when I did my cars.(Test fit the headlight on the 2x4's in the oven first to make sure you have enough room) Preheat the oven to 300 with the rack in the lowest setting. After the oven is preheated place two pieces of 2x4's (cut to fit in the oven) on the bottom rack and place the headlight on top of them with the clear part facing up making sure the the headlight isn't coming in contact with the oven, close the door and set the timer to 12 minutes. When the timer is done, pull the headlight out with a towel (turn off oven and take the wood out) and then follow what Persian-V said with the flat head screwdriver (minus the heat gun) and I used the black rtv also and has always worked great, no leaks!
05-26-2011, 11:24 PM
#15
Persian-V mod
also props for offering the service of modding fogs..deff gotta rid the V1 world of orange DRLS.. i have been Pm'd before to do more sets of smoked fogs but have never wanted the responsibility.. well done
05-27-2011, 05:25 PM
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08-27-2012, 08:58 PM
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I realize this is a old thread but are there any replacement lenses available? I would love to do the mod to my black V but also replace the lenses as they are sand blasted from highway driving.
