improve the molded chrome headlights

[cobraman]

Searched but could not find any info on this subject. As you all know a lot of the older kits had the headlight molded into the grill and bumper and are chromed. I have never really found a good way to fix this. Painting doesn't work. If I drill them out then what do I use as a bucket or the lens ? I know someone here has the answer. Thanks in advance.

[JamesW]

As far as the lense, I read somewhere that you could buy a bag of the googly eye things and pop the lense off those and use it.

These things here.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wiggle-Googly-Eyes-Assortments-/270857757057?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item3f10616181

Edited July 8, 2012 by JamesW

[Rob Z]

I read somewhere that either Elmers or Testors White glue works too... Just a bit over the headlight and it should dull it down a bit...

[59 Impala]

Yep, I use Testors window glue over the chrome and it looks perty good ifin ya ask me. I think that I have a few pics in my photobucket and I'll try and find some ifin ya like. Dan

[Monty]

I happened to read this on another modeling site several years ago, but the person who wrote it never provided pictures of the results, so if it's wrong, I hope somebody points it out. Anyway, IIRC, you start out by using a Dremel with speed control and a ball grinding bit to carefully remove the molded-in headlights and create 4 hollowed out spaces. Then, using the 4 baby moon caps from the AMT '56 Crown Vic, invert them and glue them into the holes you created with the Dremel. Finish up by using canopy glue to attach 4 clear headlight lenses from a donor kit ('57 Ford?) to the inverted baby moon caps.

Edited July 8, 2012 by Monty

[Foxer]

I use Elmers Glue too. There's been a few threads on this before, but the search function here doesn't work well. Here's a few links ..

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=40520

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=29308

[cobraman]

Thanks guys, I knew there would be some suggestions here.

[W-409]

I tried this style for my '70 Dodge SuperBee build, and it worked nicely. It's very simple and easy, just paint the headlight area white, and then start removing the paint a bit from the center of the headlight, so you can see a bit of chrome plating behind the white paint. It looks pretty realistic actually, and even I managed to do it.

[mistermodel]

what can be done with these to make them better?

[Jantrix]

I have used some Elmers glue with a little white acrylic paint mixed in to good effect.

[Monty]

I have used some Elmers glue with a little white acrylic paint mixed in to good effect.

Can ya show us?

[Jantrix]

The one model I have done this way the headlights are behind some mesh and wouldnt show off too well. However another benefit to trying this is that its water soluable if you dont like it.

[cobraman]

Some good ideas here.