Celica Forums » Customization How-To Guides » EXTERIOR How-To Guides » Lights, Headlights - How To Paint the Inside

How To Paint the Inside of your Headlights
By Everett Meads (nccelica)

Remove the large engine plastic and the smaller one across the front bumper.


Remove the front bumper.


Remove the 3 bolts that hold the headlight in. On the driver's side un-snap the windshield wiper fluid bottle from the headlight assembly.





Take out all of the light bulb fixtures from the headlight assembly.


Pull the headlight straight forward and wiggle it some, should pull out pretty easily.


Unscrew the 3 copper screws from the back of the headlight assembly.


The way I got the headlights apart was by heating an oven up to 300 degrees then turning off the oven. After the oven is off i put the headlight into the oven with a towel below it so that the iron bars dont burn into the headlights or melt it. Make sure the oven is off when you put it in there, you don't want to cook the headlights, just warm them up. Let the headlight sit in the oven for roughly 10-15 minutes. The best way to get the headlights apart is by working and prying apart the outside of the headlight that would face the outside of the car, not the engine side. I've seen suggestions of using a knife, that would probably work better than trying to pry it. There is ALOT of epoxy in there so you need it to be warm to soften up the glue and then use a knife/prying device to get it apart. Keep working at it, it may take awhile to get it all the way done with putting it into the oven several times.


Once you get the top plastic part off of the reflective part you should be able to see that the top plastic part is two pieces.


First unscrew the two screws from the inside of the plastic top and work the plastic apart, there are 3 little pieces of plastic that act as clips, slide them out of their holes.


Then you should have the paintable plastic piece by itself, there is a metal reflector located below the low beam section, bend the 3 clips up so that you can pull it out, pull the front piece up first, then slide it out.


After painting them, you have to put em back together! First start off by sliding the painted piece back into the plastic housing. Then rescrew in the 2 screws. The next step is the hard part. Place the top plastic back into the reflection piece, push really hard or use a vice (make sure to put padding between the grips and the headlight as to not scratch or mess up the housing). Once you get the 2 pieces together pretty good, tighten up the screws and that should help to pull the 2 pieces back together. If you want to get them really good and sealed add some epoxy in the lining before putting them together as to stick. With my headlights, they would have moisture in them in the morning for the first week or so, but after that it would stop, due to the heat it remelts the glue and it re-applies. I had to re-pry my headlights open to do this guide and that was without using an epoxy.

Now that you got them apart take them to your local paint shop or do it yourself. As you can see in the pictures mine are painted carbon blue, not black. Good Luck and have fun!

Everett Meads (nccelica)
AIM: CarbonBluCeli
E-Mail: cem9088@uncwil.edu

There's a really detailed explanation (with lots of photos) here:

http://celicagarage.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1185

thanks for all the help. i did it with no problems...except for some burns lol. but i painted mine a carbon fiber color on my black gt. it looks hot. thanks again