black housing for headlights.??

[enzoballin]

ok, so i have seen a couple guys paint the housing on their headlights black and it looks sick! i called audi today and they said that it was preassureized or something like that, and that if i were to paint it then i would have condensation in the headlight cover. What do you guys think? could i paint it and then have them preassureize it? Pictures would be great!

[TonyD]

You might get some condensation but if you seal it right, you should be perfectly fine.

[era]

Just make sure to seal it real tight and add some extra sealant if needed. I've opened my headlight twice and no condensation

[Phrost]

Hundreds of people have done this, and you will get absolutely no condensation so long as you heat up the sealant between the housing/lens so it seals 100% like it was in the first place. Anyone who says, "you WILL get condensation" has never done it or heard of others doing it.

Here is mine:





I did this on my Enzo too

[Bryson]

look at mine, no condensation, no need to pressurize, theyre trying to scare you, just make sure you glue em good

[Phrost]

Yup, there is no "pressure" or vacuum in there... You can take out a friggin bulb and look from the back directly into the housing. Complete BS.

Here is Bryson's thread. He painted the entire housing: http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=202830

Here is a rough DIY from i3oricua in his thread: http://audizine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=167572

Here is a rough DIY. It will take basic knowledge and your own critical thinking skills to complete it:
1. Take off front bumper. Front bumper removal DIY: http://forums.audiworld.com/a4b7/msgs/14104.phtml
2. Take out headlights
3. With small flathead, pry off the 6 little metal clips clamping the lens to the housing
4. With oven/heatgun/hairdryer, heat up the silicone stuff. I stuck a skinny flathead in the silicone and twisted, then went from there to pry the lens from the housing. Be careful not to get any of the stringy, hot silicone anywhere on the housing... and good luck getting it off if you do
5. It takes a T9 torx driver to remove the plastic strip from the lens, and you're going ot have to PM Bryson or look through his thread to figure out how to remove the plastic on the actual housing if you want to paint the entire thing like he did.
6. Wipe parts clean, paint properly, let dry overnight probably just in case, reassemble, make sure the silicone gets heated up again when you press the lens back onto the housing so it creates a good seal.
7.
8. Profit

[08lichmanj]

OT but did you tint your ambers Phrost?

[Phrost]

Yup

[m0nk89]

ACTUALLY, after opening it ~5 times cause of screw-ups, i actually get some condensation in one of my headlights. ive tried using extra sealant but it still fogs up every time i wash :(. just make sure you only open it up once or twice

[A44sho]

I wanna get this done to my car but I don't trust myself to do this. It looks so awesome.

[Phrost]

The first time I did it was to my Mk4 Golf, which is the exact same steps... and I was 16 and those headlights were a lot harder than these A4 ones. Masking off the reflective material with Glad Press n' Seal sucked, but I liked custom painting shit back then


It will take a first timer a good few hours to complete it, but if you take your time it's not hard at all. You just have to make sure the sealant is hot when you squeeze the lens back on so it seals together, you can't just slap the lens on and hope it closes perfectly. I saw there with my hairdryer for a good 10 minutes per headlight after the clips were back on and they were closed, just to make sure they sealed perfectly.

[Bryson]

ACTUALLY, after opening it ~5 times cause of screw-ups, i actually get some condensation in one of my headlights. ive tried using extra sealant but it still fogs up every time i wash :(. just make sure you only open it up once or twice

sorry to hear bro, try gasket maker, i did it on mine just to be sure, it dries to a nice rubbery grip. Still no condensation and ive opened my light 10+ times

[era]

Not the best pic, but I've opened up my headlight a second time to black out the rest of the housing besides the reflector parts.

[Strebor04]

Yup

did you tint with lamin-x? they look nice!

[Phrost]

Thank you. I used VHT NiteShades. The can looks like this:


I've never found any store that carries it anymore, and it's getting hard to find. I bought my can from www.summitracing.com and it was about $15 or so after shipping