Headlight mod

[rayray086]

OK guys, here's a little DIY I did myself (very lengthy, first time I ever tried writing one up) on "joey-modding" (VWVortex term) your headlights. Basically it gives your headlights that smoked/projector look, with the black surrounds.

http://rayray086.blogspot.com/2007/01/joey-modded-my-headlights.html

Before:
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2007/03/CIMG5046-2.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2007/03/CIMG4939-2.jpg

After:
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2007/03/CIMG5054-2.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2007/03/CIMG5446-2.jpg

I know that some of you guys would be interested! These can be done on pretty much any kind of headlights, but of course, the difficulty varies between different cars. Note that these may not be legal (modification to headlight units) and *may* affect your light output (however, mine still shines as bright as it did before), and that it's merely a guide so I assume no responsibility to what you do!

[SOHC]

thanks for sharing that Ray! oooohhh it looks so much better!
i reckon it won't affect the light output though
btw looks lovely with the eurolip and would be lovely DIY the badge with black!

[KI11Z]

wow, nice one :D

[DVR68U]

hey mate what did you use to colour it black ? texter than it will eventually fade off , and sometimes come of in sections after a while if you use silicon due to the gasses released when curing. ive had this done to my car for over 2yrs. what you wanna do is paint them ( but thats hard ) but nothing will really stick to the chrome. ive sanded my chrome on the outside back to the plastic and you can get better adhesion.
cheers brenton

[bboyskidz]

i did something like this (not so extreme) but i got out the parking lights from the headlights and sprayed them blue - tape around the connections and then stuck them (lightly) in the vice grip to hold them upright. only after i bought a new set (one broke in the process coz i dropped it) did i find out that you can get blue LED lights that do the same thing.

[bboyskidz]

hey mate what did you use to colour it black ? texter than it will eventually fade off , and sometimes come of in sections after a while if you use silicon due to the gasses released when curing. ive had this done to my car for over 2yrs. what you wanna do is paint them ( but thats hard ) but nothing will really stick to the chrome. ive sanded my chrome on the outside back to the plastic and you can get better adhesion.
cheers brenton
read the link...
http://rayray086.blogspot.com/2007/01/joey-modded-my-headlights.html

[MattyT]

A nice look u got there!

Considering I got pulled over and received very serious caution from the fuzz the other day over my smoked hella taillights, I'm sure theyd go absolutely bezerk if I smoked the fronts too j:

[rayray086]

hey mate what did you use to colour it black ? texter than it will eventually fade off , and sometimes come of in sections after a while if you use silicon due to the gasses released when curing. ive had this done to my car for over 2yrs. what you wanna do is paint them ( but thats hard ) but nothing will really stick to the chrome. ive sanded my chrome on the outside back to the plastic and you can get better adhesion.
cheers brenton

I pretty much painted it the way I would paint another part of a car - (plastic) primer, 2-3 coats of matte black, then a clear coat. A big bother to mask the reflective parts - they would peel if your masking tape was too sticky - so I used glad-wrap to cover most bits. There will be overspray, and some parts would be missed, so I used touch-up paint to cover up the parts I missed out, and acetone to get rid of the overspray. Works a charm.


A nice look u got there!

Considering I got pulled over and received very serious caution from the fuzz the other day over my smoked hella taillights, I'm sure theyd go absolutely bezerk if I smoked the fronts too j:

Haha tell them they're standard from the factory! Then again, they may retort that neons did too, sarcastically :rolleyes:

It's not exactly smoked, as the lens are untouched. If anything, it should be even clearer, as you'd be able to clean the inside after how-many-years it's been on the car.

[MattyT]

Wait a sec, the smoked hella tail lights are factory spec?

Ditto the side indicators too?

[rayray086]

Wait a sec, the smoked hella tail lights are factory spec?

Ditto the side indicators too?

The smoked Hella tail lights came factory on Mk3 GTI, VR6 and I think Mk3.5 cabrios (correct me someone if I'm wrong). Side indicators were not though. If you got smoked side indicators, they must've been aftermarket items.

[BlackVr6ix]

My VR6 has factory smoked rear lights and side markers.

[rayray086]

My VR6 has factory smoked rear lights and side markers.

Oh, my bad. I thought the only tinted parts were the rear lights!

[MattyT]

Very interesting, thanks guys!