B7 A4 Satin Black Headlights! muahahahah!

[Bryson]

bored with my audi (been stock since purchased in july 2006) i decided it was time to get creative. on my last car which was a bmw 328i, you could buy affordable aftermaket headlights to give the car a different look, but as we all know, theres no such deal for the B7, i've opened the headlights up before to rotate the lense on the projector so that the little line on the lense sits vertical, rather than horizontal, giving the light a "cat-eye" look. But ofcourse i didnt do it to make my ride look like a cat[O_O] i did it to sharpen the cut-off line. It also took some tinkering with shield spacing and bending to acive a nice color on the line, which the factory beam lacks. Heres a in-depth how-to i did on hidplanet.
http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/view...hlight=#368298

anyways, back to the thread, yesterday i was bored, and determined, so i got to it....

sorry for the poor quality pics (cell phone was all i had)


and voila!!!




i like the stealth look it gives the front end, and im delighted to say it came out perfect! no scratches, no runs or drips, looks like audi made them!
heres some shots of when i had the light apart..


heres the small chrome pieces that i painted matte black



and heres right before i put the cover back on, you can see better in this pic just how good it came out


heres the front about a year ago


so what do ya think guys?
last week i ordered the blackout grille from ECS tuning, so once i get that, the lights wont look so outta place.


...your fellow B7 ridda...Bryson.

4/10/08 UPDATED HI-RES PHOTOS

[3.2some]

looks really good and professional, nice job! With the new grill your front will be hot. I would have clear cornered but then again that's just me.

[Bryson]

thanks alot!
i hope so...
and yea im going to clear em' in the near future when i buy clear lenses for the projectors

[A4addict]

Nice!

x2 on clear corners. You should have..

[provenflipper]

Looks hot! I wish I had the balls and the know how to do something like that. I'm sure it would look hot to death on my ibis white.

[Bryson]

yeah it would be ridiculously sick on a white car that has black wheels
where do you buy the clears anyways?
and you have to run orange bulbs right?

[3.2some]

yeah it would be ridiculously sick on a white car that has black wheels
where do you buy the clears anyways?
and you have to run orange bulbs right?

no extra parts required, just the silver bulbs, search cc mod, it's actually pretty easy

[IIDeuce]

post up pics when you are done with the grill cuz i have the same car as you so I want to see how it looks thanks

[supamannn99]

i know someone who did this too.

[bcramer]

I just saw the thread you made in the chatterbox as well. So first, welcome!

I really like the look of it, coming from the mkIV jetta/gti community that was a very popular mod. I like the way it looks on the b7 even more though!

[Bryson]

its you!
haha i checked out your thread, looks awesome with the angel eyes!

[supamannn99]

haha not really the WHOLE housing isnt painted.. only a small strip on the bottom.

[Sharkfin]

bryson, you can get a clear or dark cover from AZ member "lowesta4" to replace the amber if you don't want there to be just a bulb

[R1NSE]

I believe a tutorial is in order ... great work

[Jedidiah]

AWESOME JOB!
i'm about 2 weeks from doing this my self. i read in another post that the chrome plating on the plastic with tape? what did you use to mask the areas? Also which torx bits were needed to pull the thing apart?

[Stak3407]

Johnny Five Alive!!!

[RedS-line]

great work. when i saw the pic i thought you bought them off of ebay or something. now you just need a new filler plate (or grille) and youll look really mean....

[grizzles]

Looks great. I really need to get mine done, what paint did you use? Any more tips on the painting (did you sand, etc)?

[Sanjman]

sweet... but need higher res pics soon please!!!!

[era]

DIY please :D

[Quattro]

looks very good, I was going to do that to my headlights but on a black car it would be toooo dark.

it looks good cause you took the time to remove the inners to paint =D

-randy

[SilverB7FL]

wow those look awesome. You should open up ur own headlight shop or something. lol

[Phrost]

Looks good! I wanted to paint the housings on mine when I joey'd, but I couldn't figure out how all the plastic trim came out and I didn't want to mess with my HID's too much...

I'm jealous though

x2 on high res closeups

P.S. You should tint the amber lens so we can be brothers. You know you want to!

[Bryson]

alright guys, hi-res photos up! enjoy

[Phrost]

Since you're taking requests...

post some high res n00ds plz

[Ski DraGoN]

Hey Bryson,

How are you resealing the housings without getting any condensation? I have been to chicken shit to open them up with the fear of screwing things up.

[Phrost]

All you need to do is warm up the oem sealant with a blowdryer, pinch the lens back on, use blowdryer for another minute or two going around it, then clamp the lens back on.

That's what I've done twice and it worked 100% perfect (and is easiest) but some people bake it again to make sure it seals...

[Bryson]

yeah believe me, its kinda scary the first time, but use a heat gun on these, never use the oven because theres a huge risk of screwing things up, we...either way theres a huge risk if you dont know what your doing. I wouldnt reccomend this mod to anyone unless they know how to open their lights.
and the stock lights are gorgeous anyways, i just wanted to be a lil different in this audi world
cheers

[Phrost]

Thank you, someone who doesn't swear by "baking" headlights to get the lens off

Bryson, how did you get all of the housing trim off? It looks like there are sections that just snap into place, do you just tug them off?

[3.2some]

heatgunners are lame, only real men bake their headlights lol

[Phrost]

BAKING IS FOR WOMEN!!! Get back in the kitchen 3.2some

[AlexK]

It says I need to register on that HID forum to see your last project. Can you post some before and after shots of that, particularly night shots?

Awesome job w/ this, looks absolutely professional.

[3.2some]

go Use Your Heatgun And And And Shoot Something With Extreme Warmth!!!

[Bryson]

haha yes, and real men cry too! when their lights turn into a cheese caseroll~~ haha just playing it doesnt matter to me how u get them off i just prefer the heatgun so i dont have to hear it when my girlfriend smells plastic when shes cooking but anyways yea once you have the light opened, theres a main piece that has all the chrome pieces attached to it, if you flip the piece around, you can see that the smaller pieces are clippe in with plastic tabs, just carefully push the tabs and the pieces come right off, im not sure though about how this looks, i mean..does it even look good? i keep questioning it!!

[Bryson]

Looks great. I really need to get mine done, what paint did you use? Any more tips on the painting (did you sand, etc)?

no prepping neccesary
maybe a quick wipe from a microfiber towel to ensure theres no forign substances on the paint surface, other than that i just sprayed in a couple coats, or untill the chrome was gone, the paint i used was spray paint. the color is flat black and the paint brand is krylon not that it really matters though, this was so easy it took me like 2 hrs a light

[AvantNoir]

Freakin' Awesome!
I've been wanting to black out the headlights since day one.
Been waiting for a nice week end to take my time and split it over 2 days.
You've inspired me

[3.2some]

haha yes, and real men cry too! when their lights turn into a cheese caseroll~~ haha just playing it doesnt matter to me how u get them off i just prefer the heatgun so i dont have to hear it when my girlfriend smells plastic when shes cooking but anyways yea once you have the light opened, theres a main piece that has all the chrome pieces attached to it, if you flip the piece around, you can see that the smaller pieces are clippe in with plastic tabs, just carefully push the tabs and the pieces come right off, im not sure though about how this looks, i mean..does it even look good? i keep questioning it!!

dude quit trippin everybody says it looks good(even if it was done in a girlish way -ovens FTW), what you think we're lying or something???

[Bryson]

haha yeah i know i just keep getting that "went to far" feeling like i shoulda painted just the strip like you, but im getting used to it i really appreciate all the positive feedback

[Phrost]

They look great, Bryson.

Dude, somebody should so something out of the box and paint the Audi rings on the plastic or something. All black with chrome Audi rings... sweeeet.

Or black/red/yellow strips like the German flag. But only a REAL enthusiast would do that. Are any of you man enough?

[3.2some]

All black with chrome Audi rings... sweeeet.
Or black/red/yellow strips like the German flag. But only a REAL enthusiast would do that. Are any of you man enough?

Chrome Audi rings would definetly look pimp however the PITAness it is to remove bumper and bake the headlights again outweights the coolness factor.Hope somebody does this though.