So I have some notes and tips for anyone else who decides to go down this path!
First step, buy this industrial purple cleaner & degreaser by ZEP. Same active ingredients as purple power but way cheaper. Think I picked up this gallon jug for $8.99.
Find or buy a tote that will comfortably fit your headlight bezels. Then fill the tote with the degreaser shown above and mix with water. Fill it with enough water to cover the plastic bezels, but not enough water to fully dilute the mixture. I mixed mine 5:1, with 5 gallons of water or so. Still plenty strong!
After soaking the bezels for about 5 minutes in the mixture you've made, pull the bezels out to ensure all the chrome has been removed. This process didn't take me too long. In my case I had to rotate the bezel in the container after 5 minutes as I wasn't able to submerge the entire bezel at once. Here is what they should look like when the chrome has been fully stripped.
I then scuffed the plastic with red Scotch-Brite pads. Setup a nice table to spread out all the headlight parts for paint. Warmed up the garage to 75-78 degrees and sprayed some SEM plastic adhesion promoter. After spraying the adhesion promoter I was ready to spray my 2k epoxy primer. I just mixed up some OMNI brand primer I had laying around and shot it. You can also find paint cans with activator in the bottom at most auto paint supply stores if you don't have a gun to spray paint with. Although the final product always turns out better if you do spray with a gun!
Next came base coat. I used Deltron DC2000 basecoat. This basecoat sprays like glass and only needs 2 coats. I did the two colors in two stages and masked things off with some 3/8" medium hold masking tape and some plastic. I forgot to take pictures of the masking step. I was going for the iron man look here.
Finally came clear coat. I went with DCU-3000 clearcoat, a production clear, which cures even quicker than the 2021 clear coat I mentioned in a previous post. I sprayed the first coat, wet, waited about 4 minutes and then immediately sprayed a second coat, also wet. No runs or orange peel. I love this stuff. After 10 minutes @ 75 degrees the clear coat was dust free, after 25 minutes @ 75 degrees the clear was tack free. I then set my oven for 125 degrees and baked the parts for about 8 minutes. This fully cured the clear coat. The headlights were ready to assemble.
Next came reassembly. Please excuse the dirty truck. It is winter after all.
Next I'll post up some night shots and light output.
These D2S 4.0 projectors put out some serious light...
