Headlight Question - Painting Shroud

So, I'm curious to know...If I paint the shrouds/housing of my stock headlights a Flat Black that is high heat resistant, would that dim the lighting itself? Would it effect the amount of light given? I'm using sylvania bulbs. I would love to do the retrofit but the lift and front bumper are first so I'm looking for an alternative that's cheap I suppose. i know cheap mods aren't great ideas but just curious

 

I could be wrong, but I believe the stock halogen lights rely on the reflective material to beam the light out, so painting the reflective material would severely weaken your headlights. Retrofitting them with HID's won't because HID's don't use any sort of reflection to beam the light forward. Again, I could be completely wrong here

 

He's right. if you paint your reflector bowls you'll loose your light output.

if you want to paint your shrouds as people are doing with the BHLM Black Headlight Mod, then you'll have the same output and light patterns as you will be painting the shrouds not the bowls.

BHLM
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/lighting/2327-blacking-out-headlights-how.html

Retrofit
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/lighting/325877-retrofits-finished.html

 

1st gens come stock with the BHLM

EDIT: 2001-2004 1st gens, that is

 

Both of those links are for 2nd gens....has anyone done the BHLM on a 1st gen 1999-2004?!

 

But, pre 2001 folks have:

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/1st-gen-tacomas/62962-1st-gen-bhlm.html

 

google search

https://www.google.com/search?q=BHL...oAw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAg&biw=1522&bih=1016&dpr=0.9

 

Ohh ok, so ebay sells headlights painted black like this all over the place but I just don't see it worth the $130 for something i might be able to do myself....Could I just pull apart the headlights, tape off that area and paint the area black tomimic the ones below or will that still dim the lights??

 

What year is your truck?

 

there's only one way to find out....

 

the chrome in the bowl is what reflects the light out to the road, if you use even "black chrome" you lessen the output. I believe you can get away with painting the bottom and sides like some setups but that also could lessen the overall light output

 

Just get some HID's, then you can black out everything!!!!!

 

^^^don't do that...

 

why?







(NOT MY TRUCK, BTW)

 

2003

 

Jeez, aren't HIDs crazy expensive too or is that an in home mod?

 

I think you can get HID's and projectors for around $100. If you don't want the projectors, HID's will be like $40-$50

 

But, regarding the BLHM, if you've got stock headlights with your 2003, you should already have the BHLM.

This is a stock 2001-2004 headlight:

 

Yea I have that! I will be doing much research on HIDs!

 

Don't run hid's without the correct projector... If you do it do it right or you will be blinding people on the road.