Painting Headlight reflectors and surrounds?

[oades 0]

I have recently removed my headlights and lenses, because i want to paint the reflectors and surrounds. Has anyone got any good tips on how to do this and what products will work the best? :scratch:

[C488ADO 0]

i used permanant marker.... look at build thread..

im sure any type of oil based paint would work best??

 

humbrol???

[mrbeige 0]

I used Hammerite on mine. Worked fine :)

[Riley 0]

Clickety click :)

 

Neil.

Edited April 24, 2013 by Riley

[oades 0]

Thanks for the advice, decided to go with the hammerite it worked a treat!! :notworthy:

[VAG-hag 0]

cool looking & very cheap mod!

 

may have to give it a go :D

[nmahi 0]

nice mod,might do this aswell

[Jay2 0]

Is it possible to re-do the silver around the bulb?

 

Some of it rubbed off leaving a nasty yellow undercoat(?) while I was cleaning them down before I painted the outside bits black as per the pics. :(

[vwdeviant 0]

Is it possible to re-do the silver around the bulb?

 

Some of it rubbed off leaving a nasty yellow undercoat(?) while I was cleaning them down before I painted the outside bits black as per the pics. :(

 

Fraid nothing that we've found yet works as well... also there's a possibility of MOT fail through beam pattern if you've rubbed off a lot...

 

Sorry for bad news... :shrug:

[davidwort 0]

Is it possible to re-do the silver around the bulb?

 

Some of it rubbed off leaving a nasty yellow undercoat(?) while I was cleaning them down before I painted the outside bits black as per the pics. :(

 

I looked into this years ago when new headlights were almost 200 quid from VW, unfortunately the chrome plating of plastic as a one off item was very expensive, and that's if you can even find a firm that would do it.

 

There is a product called 'MirraChrome Sprayable Chrome Paint' distributed by Autopaint International, which has retailers across the UK, not sure how much it is though, the distributor's website isn't working. Max power article about it

[ADZ_VR6 0]

I like these mods that dont cost anything just waiting for the paint to dry now :clap:

[VAG-hag 0]

^^^^

 

Good old yorkies!! :lol:

[ADZ_VR6 0]

done they look good back in wasnt too sure when i was building them back up :clap:

[scarlet_vr6 0]

rise from the depths, little thread!!

 

I've managed to collect a few headlights over the years and have finally got around to doing something with them. My plan is to take them all to pieces, clean them and then rebuild 2 with the best parts, but I thought I ought to do something with the reflectors whilst I've got them apart. I've looked at a few different threads but struggling to work out how much benefit there is in spending the best part of £100 getting them resilvered. I thought I'd have a go at cleaning the worst one of the reflectors first to see if I can manage it with removing any of the coating, but assuming I make a pig's ear of it (very likely), how easy is it to get a good finish on them when painting them? I've only ever painted the door handle inserts on my Jetta before and managed a reasonable finish but these look a lot more awkward to me, so any tips would be appreciated.