I've been debating whether or not to do a retro for some time and I'm going to take the plunge..
I'm goin to get the Morimoto H1 kit from theretrofitsource.com.
But I cant decide to black out the halogen bowls and shrouds or to leave them chrome so it retains more of a stock look.. As of lately Ive been blacking everything on the car out so I feel like I'm probably going towards paintin the bowl and shroud black along with the rest of the headlight.

Any thoughts?

 

How about creating a custom look by partially blacking out the chrome? How creative are you?

 

I'm pretty creative.. But I'm not sure exactly what you mean

 

TRS is about to open a store in Atlanta, so you will get the benefit of lower shipping costs and quicker shipping times.

Paint the bowl black but use a chrome shroud and it will still stand out but go with your "blacked out" theme.

 

i probably will just leave the shroud chrome but i thought about painting it silver and blacking out the bowl

 

How about drawing a horizontal line across the projector lens and blacking out half of the bowl/shroud leaving the other half chrome? Or the top half of the bowl blacked out, top half of shroud chrome and bottom half of bowl chrome, bottom half of shroud black? Not sure how that would look or if it has been done. a la pokeball?

Are your tails stock?

 

the whole half and half thing sounds a little bizarre..

 

I like blacking it out on the GD as long as you have a nice shroud to fill some of the reflector bowl, but on the GE leaving the reflector unpainted looks pretty good.

 

I love the retro you did with the dogbowl lol.. It's kind of what inspired me pike a million years ago and I'm finally building up enough courage

 

It's really not that hard man...btw I'll be in Long Key for lobster mini season maybe I'll see you cruise around hahah.

 

Yeah I know it's not that hard I'm justthe kind of person that likes to over research before I mame up expensive car parts lol..

And why long key?

 

Camping and lobster hunting....for some epic Surf and Turf

 

glad you're jumping in. how about dark grey/black bezels like the base lights and cover the reflectors in black chrome? I think that'll look good.

 

I wish I had photoshop on this computer, I think the half chrome bowl has potential. Rather than horizontal, following the diagonal-line contour of the headlight would be interesting. Kind of like that eyelid look but rather than covering the headlight just blacking out the chrome.

If you like the chrome look but like the blacked out look, you can partially black out the chrome to your taste. The bowl isn't doing anything in an HID setup anyways, it's all aesthetic.

I like HID retrofits and I plan to do one in the future. There is so much potential for customization and creativity but folks usually end up with some cookie cutter design. The dogbowl shroud? Wonderful, I loved it. That's fun. Imagine the conversation that must come up when someone compliments that set up. Maybe it's not your style or maybe it won't go with your car's "theme" but could you imagine the potential for other fun projector shrouds?

Mouth Shroud?


Fish Shroud?


These ideas are wild but I'm either inspiring you to be more creative or convincing you that you're just going to stick with a basic chrome vs blacked out look to your setup.

 

@smeister: yeah long key is good for that, not a whole hell of a lot up there so if camping is what you want good choice lol.. and i wont be going out mini season, too many people that dont know the waters and it seems like every year 2 or 3 people end up dying or getting badly hurt mini season.. be safe out there.
when you put your headlights back together did you need that butyl tape or whatever it was to seal them back up or did they pretty much stick back together with the stock adhesive?

@neil: yeah im going to have to just stand back and look at it.. im thinking abot trying to find a silver that is close to the silver on the top little amber running light and painting the shroud that color and just blacking out the bowl all together

@starks: i know what youre saying about it seeming cookie cutter but im looking for something basic and almost stock looking.. i dont see fish mouths in my headlights becoming a reality..

 

I used butyl to reseal my headlights. I recommend it unless yo want to risk doing it twice. Black chrome would look pretty hot.

Thanks for the warning. Ill be watching out for sharks!

 

Can you buy black chrome spray paint? and would you recommend using adhesion promoter?

also, i would be more concerned about the big fiberglass sharks that fly across the top of the water... just saying

 

I havent seen black chrome on spray paint but if they have it, it's probably expensive. It's good to sand down the reflector a little and then paint it or adhesion promoter would also work.

Yeah I was kidding about the sharks. I am not going lobster hunting crazy, I just want to catch a few to eat and I am good.

 

black chrome spray paint does exist. I'm not sure how well it would work on plastics, though. I think you need an already shiny surface for it to work so sanding might be out of the question. maybe you can just clean the surface with alcohol then use adhesion promoter as a base. I think I want to do this for my current project now.

 

yeah just gonna stick with silver i think..

smeister, when you used the butyl to reseal it did you just take off the oem sealant and put the butyl in its place and stick it in the oven?