It sure if someone asked this, read most of Joey mods but didn't see the question appear. How long should you wait to bake the headlights after you paint them. Should you wait till their fully dry or do you put them in immediately? And also do most people just use Scott brite or just sandpaper?

 

I have done it with a matte high temp spray paint before, just cleaned the plastic that was to be painted, taped off what I didn't want painted, and a few light coats did the trick. I put it in an oven to soften the butyl sealant and pressed back together and left with zip ties wrapped around it over night to keep pressure on it. This was a few years ago for a Ford Ranger.

The last 2 times I did it to my MINI I didn't use the oven and I used plastidip for my "paint". I put the headlights in the sun (I live in FL, it warms up pretty good even in the winter when I did it) and pressed the lens back onto the housing and it has stayed on since (1-2 years). The MINI headlight seemed a bit more forgiving on the sealant than the Ford ones did.

 

I've only used a heat gun to open mine, and just waited for the paint to dry, nothing special here.
As far as de-chroming, yes, either just a scotch brite pad, or some alchahol or paint thinner, will actually remove the chrome down to the underlying plastic, just a scuffing with the pad is quicker though, remember, you're re-sealing them, so the only real elements they're subject to being affected by is heat, unlike re-finishing exterior chrome items, so prep doesn't "have" to be as good.

 

Thanks for the help guys... Im surprised plastidip wouldn't start peeling at all from the heat. I plan on doing then black since my car is midnight black.

I plan on just using the pad because I figured paint wouldn't stick as well to the chrome. I've read all the reviews and DIY and didn't find anything that seemed difficult. Did either of you guys run into any problems getting them apart or putting back together?

 

I baked mine a long time ago. I forgot how long I put them in there though. I'm not going to make any recommendations on temperature or time here though since you can really screw something up if you're not careful!

When I put them back together I bought a heat gun. Do yourself a favor and just buy one. It's a tool you'll surely use again on some other project.

As with any paint job, prep work should not be overlooked.

I'm not sure why someone would even use plastidip for this mod. You're already going to be scuffing the plastic housing for paint prep so there's no point in wanting to peel off the plastidip if you don't like the look. Talking about plastidip just makes me want to scream

I used a semi-glossy high temp paint on my housings to match my midnight black paint. Never any issues with the paint inside. The secret is all in the paint prep.

You can look in my signature to see pics of how it turned out.

 

I'll second the Semi or Satin paint for some reason the gloss just didn't look as good to me, may be my Pure Silver though, not sure.

I think one of the reasons for trying with plasti dip may be prep & reversal, plasti dip does a half way decent job of adhering to chrome with no scuffing, just a guess though.

 

Make a valid point. Since your already doing that much work, might as well just paint it instead of plasti dip. Would you recommend just using a heat gun to open it for precautions then? And do you remember what type of paint you used. Yours came out really nice so I wanna do it the same. Mine is also midnight black.

Going to be doing this Saturday and can't wait!

 

I only used PD because I am too lazy to scuff the plastic and I have cans of the stuff and didn't have spray paint.

I opened my headlights with 5-7 min of 200F in the oven. The dangerous part about a heat gun is that you can put too much heat directly into a part if you stay still or don't know what you are doing.