Help with clearing out headlights

[///Bruce]

Silly question of the day: when you guys are saying you need to Dremel the lense, are you saying you need to grind out the amber piece little by little? Or, are there tabs that need to be ground down to effectively remove the amber pieces?

Also, (and I'm sorry I forgot the poster's name) the guy that said the blue tint was a reflection of water, has anyone considered spray painting the clear plastic that remains after the amber piece is removed? Someone mentioned silver. Are you saying to paint the outside of the lense assembly or after you get inside the assembly?

[Overboost]

Well, after seeing everyone's work, I decided to clear the corners on my 01 X5. I bought the rears for $250 and they looked great! Then I started in on the front headlights. I started with the right side. Removal, baking and amber removal, straight forward. I chose to keep the amber side view and so I cut the amber only lense from the front leaving the very side crescent. Once I put in the amber bulb, and got it all back together, I thought it looked good. Then I moved to the left side. Guess what? Someone had replaced the light with a 03 kryptonite glued assembly. Now I'm looking sweet with one side cleared and the other amber... I checked eBay for replacement and but no luck. So, off to the dealer and $399.00 each and I now own factory clear/amber headlight assemblies. For good measures, I threw in the clear 3rd brake light at $66.00 and have achieved the look I was after, $1200.00 later... My Ferrari didn't cost this much to replace the lights... Oh well, live and learn...

[Estroil 4.8is]

Does anyone have the pics of the inside Black plastic headlight surround painted? Possible in silver? I just bought my Angel Eyes and was contemplating removing both headlight lenses and painting the surround silver. Also was there any differance with headlight intensity and focus after removing the lenses, I have Xenon.

[Mindfull]

Originally Posted by Silver 5

Does anyone have the pics of the inside Black plastic headlight surround painted? Possible in silver? I just bought my Angel Eyes and was contemplating removing both headlight lenses and painting the surround silver. Also was there any differance with headlight intensity and focus after removing the lenses, I have Xenon.

Hi Silver5,
Re: removing the lenses/ waffles, it seems to go hand in hand with DDE installation. The few who've installed Angels without clearing the waffles usually went back in & removed them, since they obscure the angels.

Re: pics, I haven't seen pics on an X5 with the titanium, but it's an OEM/bosch option on the E46 lights. like this one:


Installed:


It's pretty subtle, but nice. Depending on exterior color, I think painted HL trim could look clean, and only effect would be amplifying AEs if you go with a light color. Choice of paint & topcoat can control the gloss, too. I've been too busy to paint em, and I admit I'm a bit wary (been searching for X5 examples). It looks like this weekend will be all-clear, so I'm looking forward to it.
PS- plenty of examples in the forums of body-paint matching too, if that's of interest.

[Estroil 4.8is]

I plan on painting mine silver which would look simliar to the ones in the pics. I think that they look nice and like you said subtle. Which route are you going with clearing the signals. I'm torn between removing the orange reflector only (I have clear turns but want to remove the small reflector) or totally clearing them for the Euro look. I haven't seen either option in person and I'm nervous that totally clearing them will look cheap. PLEASE keep me posted on how they turn out and any tips IE paint temp and clear type that you chose. Goodluck I hope they turn out as you hoped! Rob