Who in this site has painted their headlights and are having moisture problems?

I did, so i just added more silicone to them and dried them out with a hair dryer

do you have any pictures of your car with the painted headlights?

Not yet, i'll get them soon, i went with clear corners too, the car looks 1000000000000x better

:twothumbs

yea i went with clear corners as well. What kind of sealant did you use. I used some outside door and window sealant cualk.

should use RTV silicon sealant

hey HackAbuse try to get those pics up asap. Iv been dying to know what our red cars look like w/ painted headilghts. did you go w/ the color match? please tell me yes. :twothumbs

When I did mine black , I used Permatex Ultra Black . If I was doing a lighter color , I woulda used permatex Ultra grey . Both are equally GREAT !

I used GE Silicone II sealant. It says is 100% sealant. It bonds to all types of materials and is waterproof. It also says it can be used outside and can withstand heat up to 400 degrees Farenheit. Do you this this will work fine or should I buy a thing of permatex and go around the sealant I already used?

Mines Leaked And I Got Soo Pissed I Never Put Them Back On.

what kind of sealant did you use Ljavy?

I used Dupicolor Black Spray Paint and Generic Silicone Sealant from Advanced Auto Parts, and they have never leaked but they did have moisture in them, i just took them out a week later and dried them out and they havent fogged up since :twothumbs

I used GE Silicone II sealant. It says is 100% sealant. It bonds to all types of materials and is waterproof. It also says it can be used outside and can withstand heat up to 400 degrees Farenheit. Do you this this will work fine or should I buy a thing of permatex and go around the sealant I already used?

that sounds like it will work.


some leak, but some have moisture just because the paint inside the headlight itself hasn't fully cured. it happened to me when i did the headlights on my 350Z, the day after i had moisture, but i just ran the high beams as much as i could and it dried out, never had an issue again.

off topic, do you still have your Z, Gsoccer24?

off topic, do you still have your Z, Gsoccer24?

i friggin wish i did...

i friggin wish i did...


you got rid of the Z for the cobalt ss/sc ?

you got rid of the Z for the cobalt ss/sc ?

long story...here's the short version leaving out my employment woes and financial situation

during my last job, i did 12,000 miles on it in 8 weeks and went through the tires--Bridgestone Potenza S-03 Pole Positions. didn't have cash to buy new ones (~$1200), still wouldn't have to this day, so i figured my best bet was to sell and start over on a new car.

i wanted something with forced induction the second time around so the power gains were better for what i put into the car. i figured the SS S/C would be good because not a lot of people have them compared to GTI's, WRX's, etc.

i miss her tho...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/GSoccer24/0097.jpg

excellent taste .. GS ^^ that is a nice looking Z

I put my headlights in last night. My passenger side started fogging up a little bit as it was sitting at my job. It would only fog up like a inch in the corner then once it was darker outside it fogged up a lot more. As I drove my car home with the headlights on all the fog was gone. Do you think I should just add some more sealant on top of the sealant I already placed on the headlight. Or just wait and see if they get any worse?

I put my headlights in last night. My passenger side started fogging up a little bit as it was sitting at my job. It would only fog up like a inch in the corner then once it was darker outside it fogged up a lot more. As I drove my car home with the headlights on all the fog was gone. Do you think I should just add some more sealant on top of the sealant I already placed on the headlight. Or just wait and see if they get any worse?

Get them dry like you already did, and seal them around the edges again. If you don't it could get out of hand.

i don't really think it could get any worse. i washed my car yesterday with them in and had no problems. I think it might have been from the damn weather here today.

Mine did not leak for like 2 months and then all the suden bam! there foging on me. Im going ot take them out and see if I can find out why there doing it. I hit them with a presser waser and they didnt leak one bit but they fog up all the time now. Its pissing my off.

Pics in sig.

Later

Mine did not leak for like 2 months and then all the suden bam! there foging on me. Im going ot take them out and see if I can find out why there doing it. I hit them with a presser waser and they didnt leak one bit but they fog up all the time now. Its pissing my off.

Pics in sig.

Later

Simple science, If its hot inside the headlight, and its suddenly cooler on the lens, the humidity will condense, i had the same problem, so i took mine out, and dried them out using a hairdrye, fiirst hot to evaporate the water, then cool to blast out the humidity, then i put the lights back in and they havent fogged since :twothumbs

where do u get clear corners?

remove the amber lens that covers the turn signal. then go buy an amber bulb to replace the clear one. i got the silverstar bulb its blue when its off and amber on.

mine havent fogged or leaked yet. but, I used about one tube of Permetex per headlight. I let it squeeze out, then i wiped off the extra.

i had moisture in one headlight so what i did was remove it bake it in the oven again to get all water to evaporate, then resealed with the permatex ultra black. i laid a big think bead all the way around abd havent looked back.

I have a little in mine i'm just going to cook them a bit and then lay a thick layer of silicone around the whole thing

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b208/uthinkimodd/cobaltss/P1010068.jpg

Dude, I love that SS symbol where it is, niiice

Dude, I love that SS symbol where it is, niiice

thanx just remember i'm the first. :cssNET: i just had that piece from my trunk floating around and what can i say.... these things just come to me.

Wow. I would never get rid of that 350z. EVER

Love that SS inside the light! That is hella pimp!

thanx i thought it would add some flash to the lights and it looks even better now without the bit of fog. .

u got a pic of ur whole car with the headlights?^^ Also how do u think our yellow cars would look with smokes tails?

SS in the headlights!!! Love it......that sounded gay:nono: Dude that looks pretty damn good.....wish I never sold mine:thumbsdow

here is my headlights

http://www.cobaltss.net/gallery/showimage.php?i=7649&c=3&userid=2470

the bowtie lights up like so

http://www.cobaltss.net/gallery/showimage.php?i=5833&c=3&userid=2470

they still fog up from time to time. which sucks.....so im going to find another pair at a local junkyard and see if i can complete my super secret headlight.

:redx:

there are a couple pics in my garage post paint.

i dont want tinted tail i like being able to push the brakes and see who's behind me.

after a about 5 months of having my headlights on.. i noticed today after all the rain we had that my driver headlight is all fogging up. This is making me mad, i think if i reseal it, it will just end up leaking in the future again, so i'm just going to put the regular headlights back in and maybe get headlight covers.

yah im pissed, I painted mine, like 3 weeks later, fog.

I said screw it, and ordered the projectors yesterday lol.

after a about 5 months of having my headlights on.. i noticed today after all the rain we had that my driver headlight is all fogging up. This is making me mad, i think if i reseal it, it will just end up leaking in the future again, so i'm just going to put the regular headlights back in and maybe get headlight covers.


Headlight covers are not very attractive. Fella's...lok at Mercury's how-to on retrofitting. Notice towards the end he inserts some silica gel packages into the headlamp tohelp absorb whatever moisture remains in there after closig them up. Pretty much the only way to ensure no condesnation appears on the headlamps is to seal them when the humidity is extremaly low and air is dry. This means when you plug in the headlight you need those conditions. The silica gel should help with minimal amounts of moisture..just don't eat it :P

the main trick to getting them to seal is how you put them back together. when i did mine, i took a heat gun and ran it around the headlight body for about 5 minutes straight to soften the adhesive that was left in the groove. then i did about 5 laps around the lens to soften that glue while someone else applied silicon to the groove on the headlight body. then i sandwiched them back together and held them shut for about an hour with clamps.

here's a couple pics of my Z headlights
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/GSoccer24/YR%20Sox%20Yanks/DSCF0652.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/GSoccer24/Mill%20City%20Show/DSCF0865.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/GSoccer24/YR%20Sox%20Yanks/DSCF0653.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/GSoccer24/YR%20Sox%20Yanks/DSCF0635.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/GSoccer24/YR%20Sox%20Yanks/DSCF0636.jpg

here's what we did to my buddy's STi
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/GSoccer24/Mill%20City%20Show/DSCF0883.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/GSoccer24/Mill%20City%20Show/DSCF0861.jpg

and here's how i did the cobalt headlights
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/GSoccer24/Funk%20Flex%207-22-06/DSCF0808.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/GSoccer24/Cobalt%20Lake%20George/DSCF0535.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/GSoccer24/ESP%20Dyno%20April%207%2006/DSCF0441.jpg

Headlight covers are not very attractive. Fella's...lok at Mercury's how-to on retrofitting. Notice towards the end he inserts some silica gel packages into the headlamp tohelp absorb whatever moisture remains in there after closig them up. Pretty much the only way to ensure no condesnation appears on the headlamps is to seal them when the humidity is extremaly low and air is dry. This means when you plug in the headlight you need those conditions. The silica gel should help with minimal amounts of moisture..just don't eat it :P

the only issue with a dessicant like silica gel is that it acts as a sponge to soak up moisture, and as we all know, once a sponge is full, there's nowhere else for the moisture to be absorbed. dessicants are used in house windows, inside the frames to perform the same task. you may have noticed on your house or a friends house that there is some moisture in between the panes, that means the dessicant had become totally saturated and there was nowhere else for the moisture to go.

it was a good idea in theory by Merc, but only would be successful to get out any initial moisture in the headlights from when they were opened and any humidity got into them. if he has a leak, he may run into a problem in the future when the dessicant becomes saturated.

Yeah he did say he had a leak and the silica became saturated. This is all under the assumption that the lights are sealed of course. If tehy are not you are SOL. A pressure test would be a good way to check I suppose. Hook up a compressor and put some water along the seams to look for bubbles as air pressure builds.

my painted headlights were leaking so i took them out and replaced them with stock.. now my stock headlights are leaking?? whats the deal

the thing that sucks about mine is when the headlights are installed you can see the glue in the gaps of the fender and hood.. i also broke a few of the plastics off so that looks ghetto. I'm thinking about getting fiberglass and putting that around my headlight then sanding it down and painting the back of the light to make it a lot nicer??

my girls dad owns a bodyshop, he told me that when he sees condensation in a headlight his soluting is to drill a small hole at the bottom of each headlight. I donnu about this however, what do you guys think.