Headlight coating repair
- Thread starter snrusnak
- Start date
Help Support Buellxb Forum:
I finished this project up. Took a few coats to sand and cover the run I had. These headlight housings are kind of hard to paint because it's hard to get even coverage since they are cone shaped. I had a few runs trying to put too much on at once. But in the end I got it all sanded smooth and did a final light coat. Wet sanded and rubbed them out and here's what I got...
No flash on camera:
Flash on:
One high beam:
Basically I sanded the housings with ~400 grit, then cleaned with dawn/water and dried. Sprayed several coats sanding in between, then after the final coat I wet sanded starting with 400 working up until 2000, then rubbing compound. They seem to be as good as the oem coating was, hopefully they'll hold up to the heat better.
This was probably the worst paint job I've done, there are several minor flaws in the paint. If it was something that was going to be seen I'd redo it, but as it isn't seen and just is a reflector I'm happy with it.
One of my bulbs is burnt out so I need to get a new one. I am going to be running two high beams(left the spoon out).
I really think this is a good fix. The light seems dimmer in the pic than it really is. I basically had no light output before, if you looked into the light you couldn't even tell it was on lol. And this was very cheap, ~$7, and I used nearly half a can(covering my run). The can says heat resistant so hopefully it holds up.
No flash on camera:
Flash on:
One high beam:
Basically I sanded the housings with ~400 grit, then cleaned with dawn/water and dried. Sprayed several coats sanding in between, then after the final coat I wet sanded starting with 400 working up until 2000, then rubbing compound. They seem to be as good as the oem coating was, hopefully they'll hold up to the heat better.
This was probably the worst paint job I've done, there are several minor flaws in the paint. If it was something that was going to be seen I'd redo it, but as it isn't seen and just is a reflector I'm happy with it.
One of my bulbs is burnt out so I need to get a new one. I am going to be running two high beams(left the spoon out).
I really think this is a good fix. The light seems dimmer in the pic than it really is. I basically had no light output before, if you looked into the light you couldn't even tell it was on lol. And this was very cheap, ~$7, and I used nearly half a can(covering my run). The can says heat resistant so hopefully it holds up.
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2010
- Messages
- 7,339
[up]
riderboy1961
Member
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2013
- Messages
- 8
If I ever have this issue with my XB12R headlights, I am going to try glueing Foil into the housing withthe "shiny side facing out out " for high reflection , this makes perfect sense to me thinking about it but, may not work when actually applied, we'll see...
It'd be a PITA to glue strips(perfectly cut and not wrinkled), and I'm not sure the glue would withstand the heat. I should be riding in ~1 week again(bike is nearly all back together) so can do a ride at night to see how the light output is in real life, but it looks great so far.
Well I gotta say light output is great. Better than it's ever been since I've owned this bike. I finally took some pictures tonight:
No light:
"low beam" which I removed the spoon from so it's a high beam:
Both high beams on:
I'm very happy. Now to see how it holds up.
No light:
"low beam" which I removed the spoon from so it's a high beam:
Both high beams on:
I'm very happy. Now to see how it holds up.
