'71 Charger Headlight Housing how should I restore them?

[chargersb71]

How should I restore these blast and primer and paint and what colors ? Or blast then powder coat? Already have an oven and been doing small parts so no big deal there. Or I could just send them off to be done don't won't to mess up this thin metal. Trying to do as much as I can to stay in budget.

 

[71charger_fan]

You make me feel lazy. I didn't even take mine out of the car. I just put some POR-15 on the top sides and called it quits. If I was doing it again, I'd blast them clean, prime them with rustoleum, and give them a good coat of whatever black was on the shelf.

 

[WP29440SE]

when I do mine, I will have them sand blasted and then use rustolieum semi-gloss black.

 

[ODZKing]

That's what I did with mine ... I used "Trim Black" same as satin basically except you don't need primer.

when I do mine, I will have them sand blasted and then use rustolieum semi-gloss black.

 

[RK41]

I have done many of these. Take the frames to a power coating firm. They will blast, coat in semi glass black. Plate the buckets in zinc, then spray with flat clear.

 

[billfury]

Here's mine from my 72 SE. I had them blasted and painted the with satin black and chrome paint for the buckets.


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I polished the rings with a wheel.

 

[red340bbody]

head light buckets

How should I restore these blast and primer and paint and what colors ? Or blast then powder coat? Already have an oven and been doing small parts so no big deal there. Or I could just send them off to be done don't won't to mess up this thin metal. Trying to do as much as I can to stay in budget.
View attachment 167660View attachment 167661

hello ,I did mine by the way of glass beading everything then i purchased new headlight bucket kit that comes with the new adjuster and the springs BUT it does not come with the plastic pieces that the screws go into for the grill attachments ...sure hope this helps and explains everything for you ..:headbang:

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plus i forgot to mention that i had it powder coated ,along with everything off of my car ...

 

[RK41]

If you use paint, it WILL rust. Powder coat semi glass black.

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Note all metal non car color parts are power coated.

 

[WP29440SE]

If you use paint, it WILL rust. Powder coat semi glass black.


Note all metal non car color parts are power coated.

nice car..... great that you have a ton of money into powdercoating, not all of us have that option and must resort to the bottom of the barrel spray paint.

just sayin'

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Here's mine from my 72 SE. I had them blasted and painted the with satin black and chrome paint for the buckets.

those look really nice, great job

 

[RK41]

If you bring a load in the cost is not that high, remember they blast them first so a lot of time is saved. I think I did everything for my RK, including gray on front a arms, sway bar, etc, all of $400 ish.

 

[chargersb71]

I will probly powder coat it all got an oven and gun. Just got to pick a powder color for the buckets.

 

[charger360]

rust... well I live in rust heaven! and I just blast and paint my stuff it does not rust through even after 15 years on some of my cars. now if I was driving it in the snow like back in the day. I think it really depends on what you are doing with the car, you can get good results both way's and my brother in law has a large powder coating firm.

 

[CudaChick1968]

Bad, decent, good or great results that stand the test of time all depend on one thing: prep work. If you're just fixing it up to flip it then skimp and save the money for the next one ... but if it's your baby and they'll be prying the keys from your cold dead fingers some day, then do it right.

 

[chargersb71]

I will be keeping this one. It will not be sold. Going to make sure everything is done to last.

 

[chargersb71]

How do you remove them plastic pieces that are in tabs? I found replacements but if I can reuse what I have I will.

 

[318 Six Pack]

when I do mine, I will have them sand blasted and then use rustolieum semi-gloss black.

That is close to what I will be doing to mine. Since I am doing mild custom, the black parts behind bumper will be gloss black and the bright parts will be either nickle or zinc plated. To get off the rust on the steel, going to rub with 0000 (or close) steel wool, then shoot with phosphoric acid and rustoleum. If I still had good POR 15 laying around, would use that. Same with bumper supports and such.

Going to do a video soon on getting rust off of my roof. Wrong place to use POR-15, the stuff worked great everywhere else, but when a car cover or tarp rubs on it for a while, it wears through that product. Should be good behind the bumper.

 

[Charger72]

Here are some pics of mine from my resto page:

Drivers side fender with assembly attached:

Removed... not much to it, four bolts I'll bag those and clean them up later.

Took a bunch of shots of the position of everything for later:

Before cleaning, discovered the part numbers and paint marks, looks like we have red, orange and blue and I think black on the different cups, I have to record them:

Here's HI-LO-5-RT-.122 after a bath:


Here's one of the mounts after a little sanding and a few coats of Eastwood's Underhood Black Paint.

Next I'll finish cleaning the other parts, install the new headlight screws and hardware, reproduce the coloured stripes on the cups, polish the headlight rings and install the new sealed beams.

 

[chargersb71]

Here are some pics of mine from my resto page:

Drivers side fender with assembly attached:

Removed... not much to it, four bolts I'll bag those and clean them up later.

Took a bunch of shots of the position of everything for later:

Before cleaning, discovered the part numbers and paint marks, looks like we have red, orange and blue and I think black on the different cups, I have to record them:

Here's HI-LO-5-RT-.122 after a bath:


Here's one of the mounts after a little sanding and a few coats of Eastwood's Underhood Black Paint.

Next I'll finish cleaning the other parts, install the new headlight screws and hardware, reproduce the coloured stripes on the cups, polish the headlight rings and install the new sealed beams.

Very nice. How did you remove the clips with the plastic threaded inserts?

 

[Charger72]

I believe I just sqeezed the sides with a pair of pliers.