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My headlights were horrible, it was quite impossible to get decent lighting. Fortunately on these xjs, there is not yet plastics everywhere.
I watched some attempts on youtube with tin foil, several paints but they all ended with mat aluminium effect which is better than nothing but not efficient. Mylar sheets are not able to resist to bulb temperature.
I found a brand which was offering paint able to resist to 150°C while sustaining chrome effect.
So to remove the glass, i used thermal gun around the joint, there is no need to put the projector in oven. Just thermal gun and followthe joint. Do not remain on the same point of course and make several turns. Try to remove gently to joint with a flat screwdriver. Do not attempt to insert it between glass and reflector body. Just remove the joint. Now make again few rounds following the joint. When it'll be ready the glass will drop. So do not manipulate the projector too far from the ground 😄
Prefer working on a bench, put some cloth under the area of work.
Now that the glass wants to fall, pull it gently, remove all joint remnants so you'll get proper surface to glue the glass back.
I used black silicon used to make gaskets.
https://www.stardustcolors.com/
There are many paints available, the chrome effect exists in spray or simple brush paint.
I bought a spray single pass paint, 48€.
Compared to a new headlighy, it was worth spending a little time.
The right side i didn't yet opened, it is damaged but less than the left side was. We can see it shows brownish colour due to chrome which left the chat.
the new headlight lol side painted with the chrome coating, now it's efficient
Nice work meh. Something I may have to do in due course.
I was at a local car gathering a few months ago. Somebody there had a '50s american pick up. He had chrome sprayed the front grill at a fraction of the cost of re-chroming. I could not tell the difference between the spray chrome and the other, fully re-chromed, parts of the grill. Unfortunately, I didn't ask the name of the product.
Nice work meh. Something I may have to do in due course.
I was at a local car gathering a few months ago. Somebody there had a '50s american pick up. He had chrome sprayed the front grill at a fraction of the cost of re-chroming. I could not tell the difference between the spray chrome and the other, fully re-chromed, parts of the grill. Unfortunately, I didn't ask the name of the product.
Cheers,
LeeP
Thank you but it was a lame effort. The only part that requires attention is when using the heatgun and not insist too much on same point, instead use it to follow the glass where it meets the metal and on the joint, you should end with a mild heat of the glass border to avoid too much strain on it and make it break. The real stuff is that spray, it resists to heat up to 150°C, it's now 2 weeks i use it and so far so good, no change in the chrome quality.
I mentionned the brand above and you'll find tutorials from them on how to apply the paint. In short, use isopropyl alcohol, it leaves no traces. There is no rust, what looks like rust it not, it's the primer of the reflector which is brown. Think about where you'll gonna spray it as it must not dry in living spaces and must be around 20°C in the room with ventilation, no living flames around as any paint spray works.
From what i saw at chromeillusion and chromespray, results are impressive.
The one i used is one pass paint, no primer. It would probably endure less mechanical scratches etc but probably not the same price as other more sophisticated products.
Headlights repair
