I did the Joey Mod today on my R56! Thanks to everyone in this thread for sharing their experiences, it was super easy to do it and the result looks fantastic!

Tools needed:
*10mm hex socket and ratchet [to remove headlights from car]
*T-10 torx to remove turn signal lens from headlight housing
*T-20 torx to remove headlight washer and bezel from housing
*large slotted screwdriver to pry off retainer clips and pry apart housing
*#00 steel wool
*spray paint for plastic [I used textured black finish]

Step 1: Remove headlights from car. 4 bolts per headlight, piece of cake


Step 2: Tear apart the headlight bits. Remove headlight and turn signal access panels, take out turn signal bulb, remove washer
Step 3: Remove two retaining clips [one on top, one behind headlight washer]
Step 4: Preheat kitchen oven. Put headlight into oven [I have a natural gas oven] at 250F for 5 minutes.
Step 5: Remove headlight with oven mitts and immediately pry apart polycarbonate lens from ABS housing, remembering to unclip the handful of plastic retainer clips. The RTV [sic] is super gooey. If you don't get the headlight warm enough the RTV will be very stringy. Don't get the headlight too hot as the polycarbonate will start to melt!




Step 6: Remove bezel from lens
Step 7: Remove turn signal housing from bezel
Step 8: Use steel wool to roughen chrome on bezel, wash with soapy water when finished. Repeat for headlight washer chrome.


Step 9: Paint bezels and headlight washers. Use 3 light coats as this type of paint loves to run when applies even slightly too thick. Let it all dry.


Step 10: Reassemble the bezel and turn signal and lens.


Step 11: Squish lens to housing and compress the RTV as much as possible
Step 12: Put assembly back into oven @ 250F for 4 minutes to reheat RTV.
Step 13: Remove with oven mitts and immediately compress the RTV as much as possible.
Step 14: Snap on the two retaining clips and bolt on the headlight washers


Step 15: Bolt headlights back into the car and perform headlight alignment with both headlight pattern and fitment against bonnet.

Taa Daa!

Here is my old setup: Lamin-X "gunsmoke" tint. Looked great but blocked WAY too much light. It looked like I had old dingy halogen headlights at night.



Now the new Joey-Mod!



Cheers!
Ryan

 

Awesome! It's lookin' good. So are you planning on blacking out anything else? My door handles were my final blackout...at least for now. That was a bit of a chore but for me, but well worth it.

 

I did the mod yesterday. What a pain taping off the projector. Like the look though.

 

with DIY vinyl headlight wrap

 

That turned out nice!

 

I may be biased, but that is one sexy color and a good choice in striping

Goodjob with the joey. It is probably the most rewarding mod because it makes such a difference in the look.

 

Thanks! No plans to black out anything else major. I want to keep the chrome rings around everything. The only tweak from here is the side scuttle; thinking along the lines of the JCW accessory scuttle with the mesh insert with a chrome surround.

 

Looks awesome Ryan! Who would've thunk that Home Economics class would've paid off! :-)

 

Here is mine. Yes body matching rings coming soon.

 

mitemini, that looks fresh! Is that an orange mini or am I totally color blind?

 

Very Nice. I like the body colored ring.

 

i just did mine today and love it but my driver side blinker isnt working! i get an extra chime every time i start the engine i checked to see if i forgot to plug wires back up and cant find my mistake any ideas? please!

 

Somehow the wire is not connected at some point. I know when I had my boot handle off while painting, I would get that chime and symbol telling that a light was out (it was unplugged)

I would check around and make sure everywhere is connected. Maybe the bulb isn't in all the way or while taking it apart something disconnected it. You will find it

 

i hope... i checked all the wires yesterday and couldnt see anything unpluged im going to shove it back in the oven and pull it apart again for a more extensive look i have to do it any ways because i did the most stupid thing and didnt clean the lens peice so now when you look at the lights you can see dirt

 

fixed my blinker so heres my joey mod pic i also painted trim rings for head and tail lights painted grill and gas cap also

 

Looks Nice. What turned out to be the problem with the blinker?

 

Hey aren't you the one I met at Mickey and MINI 4 this past weekend?

 

it turned out that i had twisted the black cross shaped peice on the back of the blinker fiddling around and lossened it...i took the whole assembly apart looking for the problem and noticed that piece was loose and told my self thats probably the problem since its so easy to look over and fix and it was!


and yes it was me at micky mini 4

 

Ryephile-

Can you please post some more pictures of your car with the Joey Mod? I have a Lightning Blue and may do this mod this weekend.

 

Checkercoop,
you were at MIckey and MINI 4? I completely missed your MINI!?! Man, I wanted to see it up close....

 

Yeah I was there on fri from 230-5, then I did the midnight run from old town. Saturday I was there in the morning for the morning run, then did the scavenger hunt till 5. After that headed home. I know I saw yours but I have to look through some pics and see if its in there. Definitely on another local meet

 

Ok, i think i have finally decided to do this...only one problem..does anybody have a pic of a CR/CR with white stripes with a black mod? i also want to black out all my chrome but i dont know how it would look with white stripes bumper to bumper. Also on a side note, A. where does one get DIY viynal for wraps? or B. what is the best method/paint to use on the chrome pieces(headlight and tail light rings, boot handle, grill sourround and door handels) Thanks!

 

You know what might look cool is doing a white Joey mod instead of black. It would be a subtle difference from the chrome but might look killer since you have white stripes. Do the halo (if you have Xenons) in CR and the rest in white ... might look cool.

Anyway, to answer your question about the paint: I would highly recommend the Krylon Fusion brand. It's a bit more expensive (by a few dollars) but it is excellent. I didn't even sand mine ... just cleaned the chrome and then covered with two coats. Just be careful not to scratch the paint before it's completely hardened otherwise you'll have to do another coat.

 

ok, so white is not a bad idea...it might not look too bad with the rings blacked out...anybody like playing with photoshop and could whip up a few examples if i supplied a pic?

 

White would look pretty ugly. Not trying to offend....just sharing an opinion since you're still undecided.