(How to) Paint your H7 Silver Bezels BLACK

[Volvon]

Some of you will recall last year I painted a pair of silver bezels with a sharpie black marker, the results were OK. I ran with these in for a few months with no ill effects until I emigrated and put a set of European headlights in with silver bezels. Now I am bored with silver bezels and looking to put the black bezels back in. But I decided to redo the marker pen bezels properly this time.

So here is a guide if anyone wants to do the same.

Take a pair of silver bezels, 600 wet & dry, Sand them, and then sand them some more. You will be left with a white pair of bezels something like this:


Now here is the important bit:
I gave mine a through wash with hot water and left to dry hanging up for a couple days. As I paint a lot of things and I am in the habit of wiping everything with thinners just before I paint, which I done here, but the plastic these bezels are made out of react to the thinners and my bezels got a slight cracked appearance on the surface.

So my advice is use panel wipe instead of thinners or just go straight to paint after the washing process. If you want to wipe down with thinners, then you will also need a primer suitable for plastics to fill these cracks.

I didn't have a plastic primer ( as I weren't expecting problems) so I just had to proceed and hoped that a few extra coats of paint and clear coat would fill the cracks. 90% of a good paint job is in the prep so do it right if you can!

Anyhow, the paint process.

SAFETY FIRST!!!
At the very minimum wear a cartridge mask with a charcoal filter and a pair of safety specs, those dust masks are next to useless. I also wear a pair of marigolds whenever I am painting as the chemicals can still enter your bloodstream through your skin. I also have a very hefty fan system which draws air upwards and out (which also stops crap landing on paint) and makes the garage not fill up with fumes.

Anyway, I just used Gloss Black out of a spray can, nothing special, not high temp. Many light coats are better than a couple heavy coats, especially the first coat only needs to be a very light peppering:


Keep spraying layers until you have 100% coverage, waiting about 5 minutes between layers. If you don't plan on clear coating, then give a slightly heavier final coat to achieve a decent gloss finish, being careful not to get runs. If you are clearcoating then there is no need for a final heavy coat.

Painted ready for clearcoating:


If you are clear coating, allow the bezels to gas off for up to 30 minutes before you clear. Now, I have some excellent professional grade clear coat that I run out of my gun & compressor, but I imagine most will be using spray can clear coat. If so try and get the 2k Clear coat spray cans, otherwise normal lacquer spray cans will have to do. But watch for runs, the stuff has the consistency of water.

Clear coat setup:


Again, with clear coating, the first coat is a very light peppering, then 2 - 3 medium coats, I have extra fast hardener in my clear so I wait 5 - 10 minutes between coats otherwise you might have to wait 15-20 with spray can clear.

Once you have sprayed a layer and you are waiting for the time to pass to spray the next layer, put the bezels somewhere dust or crap won't land on them. There is nothing worse than going to all this trouble for a big speck of dust or a hair or something to land and ruin all your hard work:


Give your final a coat a medium to heavy coat to flow nice and get a nice gloss and your done! Personally I use a trick they use in the Airbrush world and on the final coat, thin down your clear coat using 20-25% thinners and it flows like glass. But as always, watch the runs!

Finished articles:







I will leave them for a few days to fully cure before fitting (I only made these this morning).

[Volvoline]

Wow look at that beautiful area !!!! I want to go there !!!!!

[Volvon]

Originally Posted by Volvoline

Wow look at that beautiful area !!!! I want to go there !!!!!

Strange you say that, there is a guy from Israel who lives here, he actually owns the garage in the village and is the the only mechanic within 40 miles. He speaks fluent Swedish of course. Reuban or Reuvan is his name I think.

[gatos]

Originally Posted by hyvää

Strange you say that, there is a guy from Israel who lives here, he actually owns the garage in the village and is the the only mechanic within 40 miles. He speaks fluent Swedish of course. Reuban or Reuvan is his name I think.

Any greeks living around there? I love colder climates and very remote areas

[Volvon]

Originally Posted by gatos

Any greeks living around there? I love colder climates and very remote areas

Not as far as I know

Hire a van and come and visit nudge nudge wink wink

[andy_d]

not Yet you mean,,


nice write up on repainting the bezels.

[Jabe]

hyvaa (or what ever it is you call yourself these days, haha!) those look fabulous!! Do you have a pic of your car with them attached? Great job!

[GazT4]

Been linked to this as i think i'll do the same instead of paying near £100 for a set of black bezel lights!!

Awesome paint job that!!

[Volvo2002]

Informative post. Cheers