Headlights and Decals

[Truckin1999]

I finally got the right paint so I could paint my headlights. It is supposed to be a perfect match, which it is not. It is VERY close though. And after waiting so long to get it I figured I could live with it. It was a PITA to open those headlights housings, and I would not really recommend it to anyone. I tried to bake the first one, and got it too hot. That starts to damage the reflective coatings fast. Luckily I didn't do any serious damage to mine. The second headlight I only used the heat gun. It is a difficult and time consuming process. While I was in there I tinted the orange side markers. I was trying to locate the window tint paint for model cars, Testors I think, but at 11:00 on Saturday night it wasn't happening. I can't believe Meijer and Walmart no longer carry models and supplies. I ended up using an old 99 cent rattle-can of gloss black. Its been sitting on my shelf for years because it takes about 20 coats to cover anything. Worked perfectly as a transparent black. I used scuff pads to remove the chrome-look coating on the bezels, then painted them with a good adhesion promoter, followed by the paint matched base/clear. They came out pretty well I think. I could do better the next time round I'm sure. I also added the black mesh lower grilles. They have too much open area, and I'm not happy with them. I will be looking for a new mesh to make them again. I also added grafxwerks decals. Center caps (which are too small and need to be redone), blacked out the front arrowhead, and put a carbon fiber decal on the steering wheel, I put the Pontiac decals on my front calipers too. I will snap some pics of the decals now, and get them up in a few. Let me know what you guys think. I need a nice day to snap some better pics.

[ramenboy...]

looks good sean!my o4 has black headlights. i think pontiac switched to silver in o5. we could have traded! anyways, great job. there's another thread where we're trying to get halos for the vibe headlight. you could either do it yourself (bake the headlight, like you did) or send it to the co for them to do, which is what i'd probably opt for... my headlight baking is i'm sure worse than my freakin cooking

[hambox]

Headlights look great! This is a mod I'd like to do, as I have done it previously for my new beetle and really liked the results. Good job!

[darcmater]

Looks like they turned out very nice. Somethign I have thought about doing, but I am afraid I would end up just melting mine trying to open them : )

[WaveAction]

looked like it turned out really well

[lovemyraffe]

I would love to do this, but very afraid to destroy my headlights in the process.

[WaveAction]

get some spare headlights from a wreckers..may cost ya $100-150 for the both of them..but better to use those then ur originals and spend $500+ on new ones

[ajflan]

That looks awesome! I gave up doing this in the middle of trying to take apart the first light lol.

[hambox]

edit *Why am I getting duplicated posts, that are posted days apart??? *

[PHXLavaVibe]

Nice job! I did the same thing to mine...Although I strictly used the oven method.

[gp20mushii]

looks real good, i'm not brave enough to do it...

[kevera]

Why doesn't anyone put projectors in?????

[coldmm803]

sweet, can't wait to see more pics

[Amtron]

So did you ever get any more pics of these headlights?

[hckeynut15]

How did you remove the housing and lens? At work, to evaluate warranty with this type of hot melt, we have to heat the lamp to 80 degrees C for about 10 minutes. That's just hot enough to re-activate the viscosity in the hotmelt. Then, carefully remove the hooks holding the housing and lens together. I should warn you though, if this is done and when you're finished, your lamp starts to leak (take on water), it would void all warranties. At the plant, our warranty engineers will be able to tell if you've had the lamp apart. I have seen lamps at our shop with different painted extensions. That was pretty cool. One guy went out and bought auto paint to match the body and it looked great. Our company out of Battle Creek Michigan made the model you show, the one with the silver extension, tail lamps for those years and the current tail lamps (09) vibe.- Jim

[hckeynut15]

Yes, you're correct, the switch to the extension was around that time. We did however always metalize the extension, mask and then added black paint. During the minor model change, we just eliminated the black paint. My company made this headlamp for NUMMI in SanFran... Everybody that was involved was excited to see the new metalized extension, gray housing, and gray hotmelt.- Jim

[hckeynut15]

Projectors...A proven projector might be OK but, FMVSS laws require extensive testing of lamps prior to launch. Not to mention that during production, projectors add about $10~$20 per projector cost to the lamp. Considering that the vibe base cost is from $16 to $22 thou... Pontiac wouldn't part with loosing that money or, probably wouldn't consider upping the price and loosing the demographics they currently have. Good car for the price... Would look cool on the vehicle though. As an aftermarket thought... That's tough. The projector units usually require a stout mounting method to the reflector, which the current models do not have. This would probably result in a broken reflector in the field and loose parts in your headlamp after about a month or so. Probably not a great idea.- Jim