well, we tried to black out my headlights today, but we got stuck at the end and ended up aborting the project.

we didnt have major problems until we baked them in the oven to melt the goop holding the 2 parts together, at which point, we couldnt figure out how to get the headlights apart

if anyone wants to try to do it themselves, i will go ahead and give you the tips on how we got them out and up to the point where we gave up


im sure we couldve figured out how to get them apart, but i am tired and hungover from last night, so i decided to just abort it til i have more time.



- First of all, you have 3 screws that you remove completely and 1 screw that doesnt come all the way out (4 total on each headlight)
- the first screw is right above the bumper, at the bottom of the headlight (there is a little half-cirlce cutout on the bottom of the headlight that leads you directly to the screw) the other 3 (including the one you dont remove completely) are on the inside side of the headlight (ex: on the driver side headlight, they are located on the left side of the headlight, and on the passenger side they are located on the right side of the headlight, also note this is if you are standing in front of your truck, looking directly at it) remove all the screws that you completely take out, and on the one that you dont remove completely, you unscrew it until you notice that it isn't coming out any further
-now, you put the headlights directly straight out, you have to pull kinda hard, but they will come out eventually. Notice that there are little "studs", 3 on each headlight (2 at the top, 1 at the bottom) im sure some of these will snap off, but dont worry, because they dont affect anything, and are pretty much pointless (i broke 2 off my passenger side and 1 off the driver side and when i put the headlights back in, nothing was affected.) the headlights will not be loose or anything at all.
- now the headlights should be loose from the truck leaving the light bulbs being the only thing leaving them attached. Remove the bulbs and the headlights will be free
- Now, i found 2 screws attached to some plastic on the backside of the headlights, i went ahead and removed them just to be safe. Notice that the platic piece with the large screw does not come off and if it does, we didnt mess with it, because we were afraid of breaking it.
- there are 2 little rubber plugs on the backside of each headlight, which i removed so it wouldnt melt in the oven....i have no clue what they are for and they look pretty pointless to me, but i removed them just to be safe.
- now on the back of the main headlight there is a circular rubber piece which i also removed to keep it from being damaged while being in the oven.
- now your headlights are ready to hit the oven, let the oven reach 200 degrees before you put the headlights in (unless you have a huge oven, you will have to do the headlights 1 at a time.) take all oven racks out except for 1, and put it low enough that your headlight doesnt touch either the top or bottom heating coil. If the headlight is 2-3 inches away from the coils, it should be just fine, because mine came out just fine.
-when the oven has hit 200 degrees, put a headlight in and set the timer for 20 minutes.
- make sure you check on the headlights every 5-10 minutes to make sure everything is going ok
-when the 20 minutes are up, carefully remove the headlights and check to see if the goop has melted enough for you to pull the 2 halves apart. if they are not quite ready, set the oven timer in 10 minute intervals until the goop has melted enough to pull the headlights apart.


that is as far as i got, i only did the headlights for 20 minutes and the goop was not even close to melting, so we decided to give up.


a tip for you if you DO figure out how to get the headlights open....DO NOT TOUCH THE CHROME INSIDE STUFF, AS IT WILL LEAVE OILS FROM YOUR HANDS!!!!! once you get the 2 halves apart, you use spraypaint (whatever color you want) to paint the chrome inside the front half of the headlight. I bought some OEM black spraypaint from wal-mart (located in the car cleaning supplies isle) you then let the paint dry (do 2-3 coats) and make sure the paint is fully dry, and then put the headlights back together and bake them again to melt the goop and reseal the headlights, then reinstall them and enjoy

i now wish i wouldve went ahead with the process and figured out how to get the 2 halves apart, but my truck is already put back together and i dont think we would be finished today if we started over again. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS A LONG PROCESS and cant be done in 2 hours, we started at 1 and didnt get done until 4, and we didnt do the whole thing!!! i estimate if you do the whole process (painting and all) i say anywhere from 5-8 hours, depending on the number of coats of paint and whatnot.

if anyone tries to black out their headlights and needs more info, PM me and i will do my best to walk you through it. You can also reach me on AIM: Dsshocker88240 or MSN Messenger: shocker88240@hotmail. com.

hope i helped someone out with this, and if you do get this done, please let me know how it turned out. I will try to black out my headlights again when im less busy, and if i make any more progress than i stated above, i will make some updates....Thanks alot guys

*DISCLAIMER* if something goes wrong, i am not responsible for it, i simply have this information here for people who are interested in the process, not as a suggestion for everyone to do it! *END DISCLAIMER*

 

After you heat up the headlights in the oven and the adhesive/goop is warm enough....

You won't be able to just pull the clear lens away/off from the headlight assembly (that'd be way too easy!)


It's a good idea if you run a razor blade/screwdriver/putty knife in between the lens & the headlight assembly to break up the "goop"

Then you should be able to pull it apart!

 

LOL

Or if you really wanted blacked out headlights that bad.....just buy them from the dealer.....they're standard on the 2006 NiteRunner Edition (& possibly the R/T?)

 

you gotta be kidding me!!! i didnt know they had those....but im sure they would charge a **** load for them....i bought the paint for 5 bucks, so im sure thats alot cheap than what the dealer would charge for them


for the record, our dealer sucks, so thats probably why i never knew you could buy those headlights

 

Well I don't know if they're available YET, but they come standard on the NiteRunner so they'll eventually have to be available thru the Parts Department/Mopar....u know??

Get a VIN number off a NiteRunner edition Dakota & then they can pull up the part number for those headlights.

But like you said...I'm sure they costs $$$$


Painting is A LOT cheaper, but like you said takes a while & has some HIGH risks.
Like if you screw up the headlight housing....you gotta buy a whole new headlight which probably won't be cheap...lol
Also, if you don't seal it correctly....you're gonna have moisture in there


When you heated up your headlight...did you run a razor blade along the seal (like I said)??? That's a key step to breaking the assembly apart.

 

What would blacked out headlights on an all red truck look like do you think?

Should I do that, or just stick with the chrome look?

 

anyone have any thoughts or anything on this???

Thanks all.

 

Stick with the all chrome look. Red with black headlight covers look awkward.

About the blackened out headlights, I'm sure a dealer could have spared you the hassle


-Matt-

 

yeah, my driver side headlight is out of line. Its aimed downward now, and we cant figure out how it did it, we even took the headlight out again and looked at it and we couldnt get the headlight centered again. lol. i guess i will HAVE to buy the nite runner headlights now. oh well, my buddy said he will help me pay for half of it since he helped screw it up.

 

Well it'll look a little bit better if you have the body color painted grille, but nothing totally dramatic.

If you got a chrome grille, then leave the chrome headlights.

If you changed out the headlights and told someone...."hey, notice what I did??" They probably wouldn't even notice because it'd be such a subtle change.

But on a black truck.....you'd probably notice it a little more since chrome on a black truck would stand out, & the blacked out version would look sweet on an all black truck.

But all in all, it's not a huge change