So does the Joey mod only work with Xenon headlamps or does it work with the good ol regular bulb headlamps???

 

MDL8440 it works with both. With halogen bulbs you have to leave some chrome due to reflective part needed for the bulb. In some ways I think I like how the halogen looks a little bit better than the Xenon. Flip back a few pages I have pics of mine up and I have the regular halogen bulbs.

 

Yep it works on the halogens (regular bulb). You just have to leave the reflective chrome part unpainted (as well as the turn signals reflective part) and paint the rest. It actually comes out really nice because at most angles the black paint is reflected into the housing so it all looks black, until you turn on the lights.

 

Has anyone, particularly on the pw minis out there, done his mod but used white instead of black? If so do you have pics?

 

There's a guy with an R53 on here that did just that and it looked amazing. He had gotten a PW color match. I can't seem to find the picture tho. Look around in the 1st Gen section for Joey Mods and I'm sure his is in there

 

Sorry the pic isn't very clear, I didn't finish until 2 am last night. My first attempt failed miserably, I rushed and did a terrible job with the spray paint. My second attempt went better but it is far from perfect. Down the road Ill prob try and do it again but for now I am satisfied with the results. I also did the Plasti Dip while i was there.

 

...in the middle of my Joey mod right now ...i have clear bra on my headlights (and car), -heating the lights up to 250 for 5mins didn't seem to bother the clear bra film.

...will post photos this week (when all is complete).

 

okay, completed one light last night, am going to start and finish the other light this coming wednesday.

Overall everything was very easy (thanks to all the helpful info on these forums).

One really annoying snag. I used "Frog Tape" to mask off my lights, -frog tape is a green colored version of the standard blue painters masking tape. It's marketed as being better than the blue tape as you supposedely get a cleaner edge -no bleed from paint under the tape. This proved to be a HUGE mistake for masking, as it left all kinds of gooey junk on the reflective portion of my light (I have halogen lights). In removing the gooey residue, i created tiny swirl marks on what was a pristine and super reflective surface. The swirls are only in a couple areas. Once I put everything back together you actually can't see the swirls very well as the lens of the outer light and the clear bra i have installed on the outside of the light make it difficult to get a super clear view of the inside of the lights. You'd only notice the swirls if you really got up close and looked for it. Yet knowing it's not perfect is really annoying me, and knowing where to look I find that is where I focus when I look at the light.

So, I am going to finish the other light (using blue masking tape). Then at some point I may repaint the reflective portion of the light w/ the swirl marks w/ chrome paint. -undecided on this,

My question, -does anyone know if the chrome paint they sell will give the same look as our stock painted chrome? Also, does this area get hot, -wondering if they sell a high temp chrome paint (I used high temp black for the painted portions). Wondering if anyone else has run into this? I may just do a test and paint some of the chrome on some other piece of plastic and compare before I red-do the reflective paint on the light w/ the swirls.

 

I wish I knew - if I was doing it over again w/ the halogens I'd cover the reflector with a piece of plastic and only tape the edges......then no swirls......that's what my intuition was back on page 8 but I never took my own advice....

I digress....

 

...okay, just got home from work and took a look at the light I've been obsessing over. It actually looks really good, -I can hardly tell. I think because I was up til midnight working on it I was just getting tired!

I'll live with it for awhile, -someday I may try to correct it though. yet not sure it's even necessary.

 

so the light i was worried about is great in comparrison to the other one I just completed. The tape I used took much of the reflective stuff off!! ..i used masking tape that i taped to my pants to remove some of the tack. Still took off the metallic. Went to the paint store, they don't have a paint that is as reflective as that stuff on our lights. I bought "chrome" paint, yet it's not really chrome but a bright silver.

I'll post photos when I can. Yet this is one Mod I wish I didn't do. ..at least mine are only halogens and can be replaced for $300 for both from various online vendors.

...

 

eR1c, you may want to go to a hobby store that carries plastic model cars and buy some Bare-Metal Foil, in the shiniest chrome they have.

Stuff is brilliant, very very thin with sticky back. Simply pat it on, rub it down, voila. Better than chrome paint, unless you go through the very time consuming process of using AlClad paint

 

Thank you so much, -going to try this out! -You've made my night... now I know there is an alternate solution ...to purchasing a new set of lights for $275 off ebay!

by the way, a word of caution for those doing the joey mod to Halogen lights, -be very careful of the reflective portion of your lights ...they chip extremely easily. ...my reflective stuff came off after peeling my masking tape away.

 

For future reference for those planning this mod...USE AUTOMOTIVE FINISH GRADE MASKING TAPE!

NOTHING you purchase at Home Depot is correct for this. Do yourself a favor, go to an automotive body supply store and get 3M brand either bright green or bright yellow masking tape that is meant specifically for this type of thing. Heck NAPA sells the automotive finish grade masking tape. Don't use the tan, blue...or any other color crap. I use the 3M blue plastic tape for edges(again it's automotive grade tape...NOT available at hardware stores) and the bright green stuff for large masking areas. '

This advice goes for this mod, or anything involving painting stuff on your car. No matter what it is. I can't stress this enough...and yes my job is a paint and body specialist and i'm ASE certified as well so i'm not just making crap up.

 

..actually not sure about bare metal foil, -i dont' think i'll be able to get a perfectly smooth surface w/ it.. it's so thin that I think it's going to wrinkly very easily.

 

..man I wish I knew this before I f'd up my lights!


well looks like I am going to replace the one, put a bid on a light on eBay. should set me back $80 or so. sucks, but oh well.

 

Ouch. Sorry you ran into problems with the mod. At least the replacement light isn't too expensive. Maybe someone on eBay will want to buy a partially chrome-less headlight and you can recoup some of the loss. :-/ I think Colin's recommendation should get inserted in the original how-to's to hopefully save some headache for other modders. In any case, I'm sure the end result is going to look awesome.

 

Thanks, yeah one light came out fine. Yeah, the reflective stuff flakes off really easily ...something you don't run into w/ the Xenon lights, since they don't use that reflective paint stuff like the Halogens.

anyway, looks like I am the only bidder in 4 days on eBay for the light, ..I think i'll get it for $80. -it's a fairly new light from an '09.

 

...okay, after much thought and some trial and error I have decided to replace both my lights and am posting some helpful tips for people doing a JOEY MOD WITH HALOGEN HEADLIGHTS.

I found that taking apart the lights was not a big deal, put each light in the oven for about 5-7min's at 250 and lights came apart quite easily. The issue I found, and what botched my 1st attempt at this mod was the VERY FRAGILE reflective material used to project the halogen light beam. I noticed that this reflective paint material scratches and peels off very easily. The first light I did suffered very minor swirl marks from rubbing a micro fiber cloth to remove fingerprints and some tape marks. Not a huge deal, yet not ideal. The second light suffered major issues after I removed the tape I used to mask this area. The tape peeled the reflective paint material with it (see 1st photo, attached).

I believe that this mod is probably easier for those with XENON lights as there is no reflective paint material to mask off, -your painting the entire interior housing.

My recommendation for the HALOGEN joey mod is to either avoid masking the reflective portion and do what i've done in (photo #2, that is only paint the lower plastic portion, thus you do not have to mask any of the fragile reflective paint, -because the lower portion unscrews from the rest of the housing so you can isolate that piece and paint it seperately). OR, use a very light tack automotive tape or cling wrap (syran wrap) for masking. In my opinion it's nice to keep all the reflective goodness. ..wish I did it this way in the first place, I would have avoided ruining my first set of lights. fortunately the Halogens are fairly inexpensive ..and much less than the XENON's, Halogens run about $100-170 on ebay each. I found 2 brand new OEM lights for $275 total w/ shipping and tax.

I'll post more photos when I finish the other light on my car and can take some daytime photos in the sun.

In my opinion this mod is still a great one and gives our cars a much more aggresive look. Yet i'd strongly warn anyone with halogens to be careful when taping or touching the reflective painted area in any way, -it scratches and flakes very very very easily.

Photo 1 shows the botched joey mod w/ peeled reflective material.
Photo 2 shows my revised version on a new light, -I only painted the lower ring, none of the refletive portion of the light.

 

Nice job the second time around, it looks great! Sorry you had to botch the first job to learn about the reflective stuff, but a lot of future Joey modders are going to thank you for passing along some education. Looking forward to seeing those daytime pics.

 

thanks!

 

So I have read all 21 pages of this thread and I still have a few questions. They might also sound really dumb to the experienced Mini folk.

First I know my xenon lights are auto adjusting, are all xenon lights auto adjusting?

Has anyone had any issues with their warranty after applying the Joey Mod?

 

okay, finally washed my car and took photos of the "After" Joey Mod.

..if you've read the above posts you can see that I botched the first set of lights doing this mod ...I believe this is a trickier mod for those with Halogen lighting (like myself) ...my advice is to be VERY CAREFUL AROUND THE REFLECTIVE MATERIAL in our lights. For second time around I chose to not paint any of the reflective material ..only the area that is already painted a silver color (but not reflective).

Here are URLs (from my gallery) to the new improved Joey Mod on my car (which I am totally loving). ...i think that the small amount of black I painted inside my light is actually sufficient for darkening the look of the lights. Also there is no question in my mind that I've lost any of the brightness at night when lights are on as I did not paint any of the reflective material. To compliment this mod I am thinking of putting some smoke lens tint over my lights and yellow tint over my fog lights (will post updated photos of that once I do it).


https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...//ppuser/51153
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...puser/size/big
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...puser/size/big
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...puser/size/big

 

Very cool. The last image I think showcases your work the best. The Joey mod really accentuates the blacked out headlight rings as well.

 

Glad the additional effort and patience worked out for the best! The results are stunning.