Something I still wanted to do to the car was change the way the standard headlights looked. I liked the shape of the lights, but I'm not a fan of the chrome. I'd tried the tint film, but wasn't happy with how it looked. I'd been considering opening the headlights and painting the insides for a long time. I'd never been able to quite build up the courage to do it, as if I did, there'd be no going back to standard without completely replacing them and also....... what if it went wrong.
I wanted to paint the plastic moulding inside matte black, but leave the reflectors housing the bulbs in chrome. I'd done this modification to a lot of my cars in the past without any problems. I'd also seen several DIY guides, so had a pretty good idea of what was involved. Despite all of this I still decided to get it done by a professional instead.
I managed to find a company that specialised in custom built headlights and retrofitting HID projectors. Looking through their customer gallery, I thought what I had in mind should be pretty straightforward for them. The company is called Headlight Retrofits and they're based in Scotland. I called them to find out a bit more, and they were more than happy to answer all my questions. The work I wanted done was a very reasonable price as well, so I decided to package up the lights, crossed my fingers and sent them off.
The process took about a week and they kept me updated throughout. I was really pleased with the results and couldn't wait to get them back on the car. This is how they look on the car.
by
Dave W, on Flickr
Untitled by
Dave W, on Flickr
Untitled by
Dave W, on Flickr
One thing I wasn't completely sure about was what to do with the headlight washers. In the end I went with body colour as I wasn't convinced chrome would look right.
I'm sure some people might not like the way they look, but they're one of my favourite parts of the car now.