so yesterday i decided to take on a little project and redo my headlights. It was super simple. set my Oven at 225 and put my headlight in one at a time for about 4-6 minutes. pull it out and work on it for a little bit with a flat head screwdriver and put it back in for a few minutes. It took my to do this twice for each headlight and then I finally got them apart. stripped the aluminum coating with some windex. then painted away. I really really like the way they look and it wasn't hard to do at all. I highly recommend doing it.






Some more pics to Show her off. Got a bath today\







Once my shifter comes in i'll be doing a diy on how to add a threaded shift **** to your mini.

 

Nice!

 

Nice! What paint did you use? It's looks like it has some good depth to it.

 

Thanks! At first i used some high temperature black paint used for grills and things of that sort. well it looked like crap and all i had lying around was a can of plastidip so i put a few coats of that on and it looked fantastic so i put a about 4-5 light coats of that on and i couldn't be happier with the results.

 

Best thing you can do for those halogens, short of a retrofit. I used PD on mine too.

 

I thought about purchasing the HID headlights and ballasts. I asked my MINI dealership when I took it in for an oil change Monday and she told me "they couldn't do that". I asked her why they couldn't since it's a MINI product and then she went on to explain it costs quite a bit. I don't think my mini service advisors are that smart but I'm ok with that. It means I'll be able to play dumb on future CEL's.

At the point I think I'm gonna leave my halogens alone. Ballasts and OEM HID bulbs get expensive to replace anyways and weigh more :P

 

It's not just a matter of factory HID ballasts and bulbs either. The wiring is different for both systems. With the factory xenons, there are level sensors on the suspension, and the whole system would have to be recoded by the dealership.

 

retrofit

 

Your headlights came out great! I'm going to be doing the same thing to my halogens in the spring.

Your car looks amazing....love the stance.

 

I've been wanting to do the same thing to my Xenon head lamps.

I'm just not particularly handy with an oven....or a heat gun....and I'm not patient...and I suck at spraying...always get orange peel....damn it.

 

Yes, retrofit from a place like The Retrofit Source, not OEM parts that are pricey and a pain.

 

I'm just going to sway away from them. Not worth the hassle imo. You can't just use the mini OEM hid housing with the bllasts and wiring them in? You have to use the auto leveling?