How easily can chrome be painted?
 

Howdy Pelicans,

I'm about to pull the trigger on these:

http://www.daddys-carparts.com/en/exterior-body/porsche-911-912-930/375/headlights-h4-chrome-oem-for-porsche-911-964

They are the chrome ringed version. I need the black ones but for some reason the chromes are about $400 cheaper than the black (primed?) ones.

I'm thinking of ordering the chrome ones and having them painted black. Does anyone foresee any problem with this approach? I'm also having a hard time figuring out the price difference?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Alex

The primer, or black rings fit over the chrome rings, so they are additional parts

Our host sells the covers (as mentioned above you need the actual ring, and the paint-able covers are separate and require two additional screws to mount)

911-631-141-00-M260

You could plasti-dip the chrome quite easily.

I'm not sure what the process for the prep work on painting the chrome would be. You'd want to make sure you do a pretty good prep job so that the paint doesn't chip off. Or, you could always plasti-dip them instead of painting (if you decide to go this route). Easier and if it gets pitted/damaged over the years you can peel it off and put on a new coat in a breeze.

You could also go with the dapper projector headlights, where the inside of the housing is all black as well as another option. Not sure what look you're going for though, but you can check them out here: Dapper Lighting - PelicanParts.com.

Painting chrome is a pain, and once you paint it properly you can never go back to chrome without re-plating. You have to rough up the surface a lot to get the paint to stick properly.

Your best bet is to order the plastic cover rings and extra screws and paint them black. They may already be black, I don't recall.

Lucia, those Dapper lights look great. Direct replacement for H4? What's the difference between the Dapper 7" and the Dapper 7" V2?

I need to freshen up on these headlights. I haven't dug into discussion about them in about a year. I know in the catalog they say they'll work with the H4's, but I remember running into this review: "Please note that these do not include the brackets to mount. If you have the US sugar scoop style lights you can re-use the bracket that your old sealed beam lights used... but if you have H4 lights this wont fit without more parts." Dapper headlights work for as a direct replacement for sugar scoop lenses. The H4 and H5 lights are one complete piece, whereas the sugar scoop headlights aren't - I think you'd have to modify these a little to work, but they will work. The sugar scoop part of it holds the lens so if you take that off you can take apart the whole headlight. That is why these dapper lights fit into the sugar scoops, which hold the light together in the fender.

Here is some more info and visual aids with the install instructions: http://www.pelicanparts.com/catalog/images/misc/DLPorsche.pdf

In other news, I did find the headlight rim in black in our catalog here: 1984 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe - Lights and Lenses - Page 7. Genuine or aftermarket and maybe you could just swap the chrome with those ones.

I would vinyl wrap it in black to withstand the beating it will take or have it pro-painted and clear coated.