Hey everyone,
I haven't posted a lot on here but I have been silently going to work on my CB.
I hope to post a complete thread of my CB7 rebuild and restoration.
I just completed the DIY Black Housing Project outlined in this awesome thread:
http://www.cb7tuner.com/vbb/showthre...ing+headlights
Thanks djcaz_aom!
Id like to add a few points though.
This is not acting as a separate diy thread! Just to improve upon an already exceptional thread! I believe in doing things right and with upmost quality so here are a few pointers for the diy.
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ _______________
1. When prepping your lamps to take the glass face off the housing, be sure to take the housing itself out of the black molding that allows you to bolt it onto the core support. ( i know sounds like a "DUH?" step in the process but it clears the air on the question).
Here is the black molding the housing sits in:
2. In the original thread that i went by, i didnt quite know what to do with the excess silicone from the original seal. If i was going to reseal my lamps i didnt want the fresh silicone to interfere with the older silicone just so the seal would stay intact. My advice is to use a wide flat head screw driver to scrape out the old sealant immediately after the headlight has been in the oven. Be careful because the sealant will get stringy and it likes to stick to the lamp so use a rag to guide the melted sealant away from the lamp.
This is so that the quality of the new seal is at its best. After finishing mine, i see it as a necessary step.
In this photo you can see that i scraped out all the silicone from the original seal:
<br />
3. Be prepared to spend a solid week on your project. You want to do it right the first time around so take your time! its ok to be slow your car isnt going anywhere!
I personally bought completely brand new oem Depot headlights for my project. I wanted to keep my original ones intact. but it is all up to you whether you want to buy separate ones or not.
<br />
Carefully take the time to cut each piece of tape to match the curves of the half moon reflective spheres in the back of the headlights.
This took me quite some time because you want to match the curves of the reflective half moons as best as possible. (See the photos for the areas you want to tape):
4. WIPE OFF ALL SURFACES BEFORE YOU PAINT! FINGERPRINTS AND SMUDGES WILL SHOW UP THROUGH THE PAINT. sorry for yelling... but really people this is a must!
Once your housings are taped its all about the coats. Be sure youre spraying in a well ventilated area but it has to be around room temperature! I realized this when i used Rustoleum Specialty High Heat spray paint and its advertised as a tough protective enamel. WRONG. Absolutely delicate as rice papers!
You want to spray in fair to warm weather so that the paint can properly stick to the surface. If it is too cold then the paint balls up on the surface and creates spots and doesnt cure correctly.
I personally sprayed 7 coats on each housing. Do what you feel works but if you want to do the fogged high beams then you absolutely need at least 5 coats because you will be putting tape on top of it and pulling it off.
Once you have your housings painted, put them in the oven on Bake at 225 degrees F, and for ten minutes. let them cool COMPLETELY then put them back in for another five minutes. The second time around hardens the surface of the paint and makes it less likely to scratch in the fogging process.
5. I understand that he didnt go into depth with the yellow brights in his thread but what i found is that its a lot more difficult than he described.
You want to take just as much time taping off the brights as you do the housing. However this is the REVERSE of taping out the half moons.
Tape off EVERYTHING but the half moon in the high beam side of the lamp:
Overspray is a cancer that WILL get in on the other side of the lamp so be sure to tape off every crack and even around the outer lip of the lamp.
He described the brights as using spray stained glass paint from Krylon. Yes! use this but it is impossible to find in the stores. I had to special order it online for 14 bucks but thats ok because its worth it and it works.
just google "Krylon Stained Glass Color" and it should pop up in the results.
BE VERY CONSERVATIVE WITH THE STAINED GLASS!
only do a max of 3 coats! Any more and the paint will begin to lose its translucence and it will defeat the purpose of having translucent paint! It begins to fog up and will be very very hard to make clear again.
Again spray in fair to warm weather or else it will bead up on the surface.
See how mine kind of beaded up here?
Its an odd fix if your paint is uneven or beads. you have to take a 1000 grit or higher sand paper and buff it out then repaint.
Once the high beams are painted, place the housings in the oven on Bake at 225 degrees F for 10 minutes. Take them out and let them cool and put them back in for another 5-10 minutes. Again this hardens the stained glass so that the heat from the lights doesnt affect the finish on the paint.
Also, if you put too much stained glass on them, the extra oven time will fix the dullness or the fogging in the paint.
__________________________________________________ _______
***I sincerely apologize for the long post but i feel that this is useful information that could help someone in their own DIY***
__________________________________________________ ________
Here is my housing after the highbeams painted and out of the oven:
6. After you do both lamps' housings and high beams all you have to do now is finish?.... NOOO
Once youre done with the painting its all about the polishing. You have fingerprints all over the inside of your housing and that WILL show through the front glass!
Take five minutes, some windex, and a microfiber towel and wipe off the low beam reflective backing that didnt get painted, take a dry microfiber towel and lightly wipe off the prints on the black housing, and then clean the inside of the glass.
Once your babies are polished you can use some clear silicone sealant. I used Permatex Clear RTV Silicone Adhesive Sealant. Works great.
Apply a fat, continuous bead of silicone in the crevice of the housing where the glass sits in. Be sure to use a fair amount of silicone because you took out the old seal!
Firmly press on the glass face and put the clips on. Place it in the oven for 8-10 minutes on Bake at 225 degrees F. No need to put in twice, the silicone will harden once cooled.
then BOOM!
Beautiful!!
The two together!
Side note:
Once my lights were installed i realized that the fogged brights werent as yellow as i had liked so i took some old high beam lights and sprayed the stained glass on them.
It is a sketchy alternative but in order to do this you have to:
1.Have a spare set! dont use your current ones just incase they break.
2. Spray up to 5 coats! Yes five, you want yellow right? follow the previous painting steps though. take your time.
3. once dried you cant put them in the oven to cure because the plastic will melt. So take them to your car and plug them in without putting them inside the lamp!
they will heat up and start to smoke! its ok! let them heat up and smoke because its curing. once they stop smoking let them cool down and put them in!.
Some More Photos:
Thanks everyone! and if anyone knows how i can tag the person who made the original DIY Black Housing Thread let me know so he knows i posted this. Maybe he could consolidate the threads to make it simpler? thanks guys.
CB7 Love
I haven't posted a lot on here but I have been silently going to work on my CB.
I hope to post a complete thread of my CB7 rebuild and restoration.
I just completed the DIY Black Housing Project outlined in this awesome thread:
http://www.cb7tuner.com/vbb/showthre...ing+headlights
Thanks djcaz_aom!
Id like to add a few points though.
This is not acting as a separate diy thread! Just to improve upon an already exceptional thread! I believe in doing things right and with upmost quality so here are a few pointers for the diy.
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ _______________
1. When prepping your lamps to take the glass face off the housing, be sure to take the housing itself out of the black molding that allows you to bolt it onto the core support. ( i know sounds like a "DUH?" step in the process but it clears the air on the question).
Here is the black molding the housing sits in:
2. In the original thread that i went by, i didnt quite know what to do with the excess silicone from the original seal. If i was going to reseal my lamps i didnt want the fresh silicone to interfere with the older silicone just so the seal would stay intact. My advice is to use a wide flat head screw driver to scrape out the old sealant immediately after the headlight has been in the oven. Be careful because the sealant will get stringy and it likes to stick to the lamp so use a rag to guide the melted sealant away from the lamp.
This is so that the quality of the new seal is at its best. After finishing mine, i see it as a necessary step.
In this photo you can see that i scraped out all the silicone from the original seal:
<br />
3. Be prepared to spend a solid week on your project. You want to do it right the first time around so take your time! its ok to be slow your car isnt going anywhere!
I personally bought completely brand new oem Depot headlights for my project. I wanted to keep my original ones intact. but it is all up to you whether you want to buy separate ones or not.
<br />
Carefully take the time to cut each piece of tape to match the curves of the half moon reflective spheres in the back of the headlights.
This took me quite some time because you want to match the curves of the reflective half moons as best as possible. (See the photos for the areas you want to tape):
4. WIPE OFF ALL SURFACES BEFORE YOU PAINT! FINGERPRINTS AND SMUDGES WILL SHOW UP THROUGH THE PAINT. sorry for yelling... but really people this is a must!
Once your housings are taped its all about the coats. Be sure youre spraying in a well ventilated area but it has to be around room temperature! I realized this when i used Rustoleum Specialty High Heat spray paint and its advertised as a tough protective enamel. WRONG. Absolutely delicate as rice papers!
You want to spray in fair to warm weather so that the paint can properly stick to the surface. If it is too cold then the paint balls up on the surface and creates spots and doesnt cure correctly.
I personally sprayed 7 coats on each housing. Do what you feel works but if you want to do the fogged high beams then you absolutely need at least 5 coats because you will be putting tape on top of it and pulling it off.
Once you have your housings painted, put them in the oven on Bake at 225 degrees F, and for ten minutes. let them cool COMPLETELY then put them back in for another five minutes. The second time around hardens the surface of the paint and makes it less likely to scratch in the fogging process.
5. I understand that he didnt go into depth with the yellow brights in his thread but what i found is that its a lot more difficult than he described.
You want to take just as much time taping off the brights as you do the housing. However this is the REVERSE of taping out the half moons.
Tape off EVERYTHING but the half moon in the high beam side of the lamp:
Overspray is a cancer that WILL get in on the other side of the lamp so be sure to tape off every crack and even around the outer lip of the lamp.
He described the brights as using spray stained glass paint from Krylon. Yes! use this but it is impossible to find in the stores. I had to special order it online for 14 bucks but thats ok because its worth it and it works.
just google "Krylon Stained Glass Color" and it should pop up in the results.
BE VERY CONSERVATIVE WITH THE STAINED GLASS!
only do a max of 3 coats! Any more and the paint will begin to lose its translucence and it will defeat the purpose of having translucent paint! It begins to fog up and will be very very hard to make clear again.
Again spray in fair to warm weather or else it will bead up on the surface.
See how mine kind of beaded up here?
Its an odd fix if your paint is uneven or beads. you have to take a 1000 grit or higher sand paper and buff it out then repaint.
Once the high beams are painted, place the housings in the oven on Bake at 225 degrees F for 10 minutes. Take them out and let them cool and put them back in for another 5-10 minutes. Again this hardens the stained glass so that the heat from the lights doesnt affect the finish on the paint.
Also, if you put too much stained glass on them, the extra oven time will fix the dullness or the fogging in the paint.
__________________________________________________ _______
***I sincerely apologize for the long post but i feel that this is useful information that could help someone in their own DIY***
__________________________________________________ ________
Here is my housing after the highbeams painted and out of the oven:
6. After you do both lamps' housings and high beams all you have to do now is finish?.... NOOO
Once youre done with the painting its all about the polishing. You have fingerprints all over the inside of your housing and that WILL show through the front glass!
Take five minutes, some windex, and a microfiber towel and wipe off the low beam reflective backing that didnt get painted, take a dry microfiber towel and lightly wipe off the prints on the black housing, and then clean the inside of the glass.
Once your babies are polished you can use some clear silicone sealant. I used Permatex Clear RTV Silicone Adhesive Sealant. Works great.
Apply a fat, continuous bead of silicone in the crevice of the housing where the glass sits in. Be sure to use a fair amount of silicone because you took out the old seal!
Firmly press on the glass face and put the clips on. Place it in the oven for 8-10 minutes on Bake at 225 degrees F. No need to put in twice, the silicone will harden once cooled.
then BOOM!
Beautiful!!
The two together!
Side note:
Once my lights were installed i realized that the fogged brights werent as yellow as i had liked so i took some old high beam lights and sprayed the stained glass on them.
It is a sketchy alternative but in order to do this you have to:
1.Have a spare set! dont use your current ones just incase they break.
2. Spray up to 5 coats! Yes five, you want yellow right? follow the previous painting steps though. take your time.
3. once dried you cant put them in the oven to cure because the plastic will melt. So take them to your car and plug them in without putting them inside the lamp!
they will heat up and start to smoke! its ok! let them heat up and smoke because its curing. once they stop smoking let them cool down and put them in!.
Some More Photos:
Thanks everyone! and if anyone knows how i can tag the person who made the original DIY Black Housing Thread let me know so he knows i posted this. Maybe he could consolidate the threads to make it simpler? thanks guys.
CB7 Love
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