I have the guts for a passengers side headlight currently, looking to locate the guts for a drivers side headlight, most importantly I am looking for the plastic shroud on the inside. Before anyone asks no I am not installing halos.
Currently in the works
1.Removing the headlight level
2.Filling the headlight level hole
3.Painting the shroud black
4.Potentially retrofitting a better quality projector
If you look at your gen 2 headlights you will see a plastic piece surrounding your projector headlight. This is the shroud. This also is completely see through (frosted over look). I want to change that to black and possibly retrofit a better projector lens or swap for a clear lens.
If you look at your gen 2 headlights you will see a plastic piece surrounding your projector headlight. This is the shroud. This also is completely see through (frosted over look). I want to change that to black and possibly retrofit a better projector lens or swap for a clear lens.
Damn....that is a good idea! I may try the same but with a crinkle coat. I love that stuff after doing my dry sump tank and mounting brakets.
One of the main reasons they aren't black in the first place is because black gets hot and viper lights aren't designed to handle the xtra heat. I talked to a Chrysler engineer about this idea years ago and he begged me off of it, said the lights will fail and the front lenses will crack. He said its because Dodge cheaped out on the spec of the plastics for the lenses. He works for Ford now where quality is Job 1.
That doesn't make too much sense. The headlights have 3 heat vents built in them from the factory, 2 more then normal cars. Also I have been running HIDs now for 5 years which I have been told will melt your headlights as well, same thing, no issues. I plan on giving it a shot, worst case I replace a headlight or 2. I think I will be fine though. I might add an extra heat vent in each headlight for good measure though. Thanks for the tip.
I posted a thread to the grailkeeper concerning your issue because it definitely makes me raise an eyebrow. The color of the plastic should not make it hold any more heat but I could be wrong. That being said even using a product such as VHT nightshades will get them darker then oem and much better looking then the clear cheap plastic look. This will not impact light output either.
The color and sheen of a part's surface or coating can impact what happens to heat energy. Which in this case the source of the heat energy is a light bulb of course. If the part has a reflective surface in regards to the heat, it could go elsewhere. This heat energy. Maybe as simple as being exhausted through the vents. Maybe being heat soaked into the rest of the headlight assembly and therefore the entire headlight becomes a heat transfer devise through the body walls of the parts. As long as it is cooler outside than in the housing, the heat energy can transfer that way. More than likely though, it is a combination of all those.
Now if you change something that is in close proximity to the bulb, like changing it from a shiny white to a dull black, that part may now go from reflecting energy to absorbing it. That energy is going to raise the temperature of that part. That energy must now dissipate somehow, somewhere through and from that part.
In both scenarios, there is the same amount of heat energy that needs to be dealt with. It's just a matter of it will melt a part, or gently make the temperature rise in the unit as a whole. I would think that you could easily put some extra ventilation holes in the bottom of the headlight housings. May be a bad idea if you drive in the rain a lot, but put tubes on them like the OE air cleaner bottom. Just something to let air in, but not sprayed water.
These are my defunct headlights:
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coiner of biggest, sprinkler boy coiner of ~TommyWesterner~ discoverer that the 2 button rep system has too many options
It is not the temperature of the lit bulbs that is the problem, it is the sun that is the problem. if you darken the lights then they absorb more sun energy and overheat the plastic and crack the plastic. You need a higher temp plastic to handle the heat as you bake the lights.
Dave how much do you want for both of those headlights. It appears I can use everything on them including the gray tubes. The main piece I need is the plastic piece on the inside of them that surrounds the headlight projector but I can use the other extra parts to so I can experiment different things.
By the way I met a friend of yours, English guy who moved to New England last year. Red convertible Gen 3 Viper. Can't remember his name for the life of me.
If its not the temperature of the bulbs then I have zero concerns for the heat. That piece of plastic is not significant enough to absorb that much heat and increase the headlight temperature to unbearable. That being said I also don't live in any of the hot states so I rarely see temperatures over 95 or so. I thought the issue was with the bulbs. The reason I say this is if you look at the bottom of the headlamp, the flat surface, it is entirely black. That portion of it would absorb the most amount of heat.
Last edited by KNG SNKE; August 29th, 2012 at 11:10 AM.
I will leave you with a horrible example of what the outcome will not look like. This is also the reason why I will not paint match them. If I get Dave's spares I may spray one in the color of yellow to show how gaudy it will look but it will not make its way on my car permantly. Black however will look good and getting rid of that stupid level will be nice.
Here are photos of a quick mock up I did with plastidip. I ONLY painted the shroud with plastidip black. I am digging the look. I am not a good enough painter to do a finalized painting on the shroud so I will most likely pay a shop to do that stuff. I will be retrofitting a new lens within the next 2 weeks and looking into swapping the actual projector if necessary. I am open to suggestions or ideas as well. The wife says it makes the headlights look more devious. I think I will like the black when its on the car. Definitely going to smooth out the lens though as well as fill the hole where the level was after I remove it.
I am also still searching for spare headlight components, specifically the drivers side headlight guts.
Last edited by KNG SNKE; August 29th, 2012 at 09:55 PM.
Not a big fan of that look based on the pictures so far, but I will reserve final judgement for if the day I would ever see them in person.
I will get the old housings out of their box this weekend and get some more pics of the guts. To see if you can use them. I am going to keep the grey vent thingies, but if there is anything that you can use from the rest of the assemblies, yours free for asking. I've basically been keeping them simply because I haven't removed the grey thingies yet.
Just picked up a Tundra Crewmax a couple of weeks ago and will be performing this headlight modification on it. You can google or youtube BHLM mod and there are a few videos on this (for Tundra anyway).
Once I get the drivers side light interior I will have these lens's professionally painted and I will install one of the bezels on my car. From this point I will be able to take a photo with one headlight black and one headlight stock for comparison. The photo was hard to capture the angle well.
Dave I definitely would appreciate it. From the looks of the photos I can definitely use the clear plastic interior shrouds and the oem low and high beam with their mounts. No need for the blinker light.
Z06, a lot of headlights require baking them in the over to do such modifications. Before owning a Viper I did a lot of headlight mods on Scions (when Halos became popular)
Photos of my old work (please keep in mind I was pretty young doing these photos so my taste in mods has significantly changed and most of this will not be reflected on my car). If you have to bake your headlight and your not comfortable doing it feel free to drop me a PM with your number. I am very familiar with doing these mods.
Last edited by KNG SNKE; August 30th, 2012 at 09:53 AM.
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