Making lenses for plated headlights

[Smoke Wagon]

 Howdy. As the title states, I’ve found an easy way to make molded in and plated headlights look more realistic. After a suggestion from my girlfriend, I decided to try putting her UV clear gel coat nail polish over the plated emergency/fog lights in the grille of my ‘97 Expedition WIP. It has to be the type of gel coat that cures in UV light though. I’ll let the photos say the rest.

 

Before:

 

After:

 

The nail polish used:

[bisc63]

Crystal clear! Impressive.

[peteski]

Interesting. Bondic should work too.

[MeatMan]

Thanks for posting!

[Casey]

Hopefully they don't yellow over time and exposure to UV light. I doubt nail sealer was designed to be a long-term solution, but they do look much better than without the lenses.

[Smoke Wagon]

4 hours ago, Casey said:

Hopefully they don't yellow over time and exposure to UV light.

I’ll be sure to update if they start to yellow, crack, or anything else.