Chrome Headlights

[kalbert]

Anybody have any good treatments for dressing up chrome headlights so they look more like headlights?

[kalbert]

Never mind, I used the mythical "search" feature and found some ideas. Sounds like one of the more popular methods is to use canopy glue to create a "lens" over the chrome.

[Snake45]

Never mind, I used the mythical "search" feature and found some ideas. Sounds like one of the more popular methods is to use canopy glue to create a "lens" over the chrome.

I've done that, but found that over years, the stuff can pick up humidity from the air and turn white or cloudy. That's what happened here--and it's Microscale Krystal Kleer which is touted for making airplane windows. (It's just a high-grade white glue, like most "canopy glues").

[Russell C]

My suggestion is that there is no convincing way to dress up chrome headlights. To go one step permanently better is to acquire a pile of various kit headlight reflectors & clear lenses either from sellers at a local model car club or off ebay when such cheap piles pop up, drill/ream out the chrome surface, install the chrome reflectors & lenses, and then you'll have a far more realistic result from not all that much extra effort. My reflector pile has diminished down to this after all these years...

[StevenGuthmiller]

You don't even need the reflectors.

If you have a Dremel tool with a reamer bit, you can just ream out the head lights to a cup shape, paint or foil the reflectors & add lenses.

I've decided I'm going to start casting lenses in clear resin as well, if I can come up with a good one to make a mold from.

This Ford grille has been done this way & is ready for lenses.

 

 

In the future I will do this step before sending parts out to the chromers.

 

Steve