I have blackened the headlights and the corners, but I still have the stock
orange reflectors.
I had a how-to for the blackened headlamps, but it appears it went the way of the old site. Anyway, here goes...
Headlamp:
Remove headlamp housings off of the car. Remove your bulbs and put them in a safe place. The vibrations of the Dremil might cut down on their life slightly. Mark the lamps with an 'X' on the top, side and bottom (the black/clear joint). The 'X' will give you a reference when you assemble the lights. We must keep the lenses dead on as not to screw with our lamp pattern. Anyway, after you have made your 'X's mark around the lamp where you plan on cutting. I cut mine just behind the seam between the two sections. After the lamp is in two pieces, clean out the reflector with compressed air. You can use a vacuum but don't hit the reflector. Now tape off the sections of the lamps that won't take paint. Make sure to use BLUE tape. Normal masking tape will most likely remove your reflector. The unused sections, the part you will sand, is ribbed. The entire bottom of the lamp will be sanded, as will part of the low beam sides. You can try to sand the inside top of the lowbeam but you will find the metal diffuser will be a PITA to sand around. IIRC, the innermost section of the headlamp (near the grille), is also ribbed, sand that too, and the top of the highbeam. After your sanding is finished, clean out again with compressed air. Paint the color of choice, I used black. Let dry.
If you are going to polish your lenses, now would be a great time. Im not going to go into details about that though.
Anyway, after the water/polishing compound is off of the lenses, and the paint in the lamps have dried, its time to put them back together. Remove your tape, SLOWLY, as to not remove the reflector. After you have removed all the tape, double check for tape residue or fingerprints. Use a very soft, clean cloth to remove those. Line the cut edge with silicone (black for me) and run a tape 'X' from the lamp body, across the lens, and back to the lamp. This will make it harder for the lenses to move while they are drying. Make sure that your 'X's have been lined up, taking into consideration the amount of plastic that you would have removed.
I set the silicone section with the lamps on the car, but the bumper cover missing. This allowed me to get over to the school (level ground) to check the beam pattern before the silicone dried. If you mess up, you can always cut the silicone and redo this step. Don't overuse the silicone, you don't want it falling inside the lamp.
There is the headlamp.
Corner lamp:
Use your trusty Dremil again. Looking at the outside of the lamp, you will notice the grayish area where the clear was bonded to the grayish back. You will want to cut barely inside of that. Going around the side (reflector section) takes some time. You only have a fraction of an inch between the reflector and the lens. Try not to bump the lens with the cutoff wheel.
After the lens is apart, clean with compressed air and prepare to sand. The only sections of this lamp that will stay silver are directly behind the bulb. Everything else will be sanded. Take extra care with the corner lamps, the silver reflector comes off extra easy. Sand, tape, paint again. If you want to polish this lamp, now would be a good time.
After the reflector is dry, remove the tape, being EXTRA careful. You will probably remove some of the reflector anyway. If you have your hands on some clear silicone, I would use that around the reflector section and the black on the signal section. If you use black all the way around, you will more then likely get some black silicone into the reflector, and that looks bad. I did it.
Tape this lamp up the same way you did the headlamps.
I let all of my stuff dry overnight before driving the car a lot. I think I would have looked goofy with blue 'X's on my lamps too.
So, have fun, and PM me if you run into any problems.
