Topic: No more egg yokes

[Sly Bob]

I never minded the look of the yoke like effect that we get on the front of our cars with the clear lens and the amber bulb. That's until this year. Maybe I was looking for another inexpensive mod to do on a Sunday when Denise, my wife, is at work.

Picked up a can Duplicolor Chrome paint and as was suggested in another forum, I sprayed a bunch of paint on to a piece of metal on the bench and dabbed it on to the bulb with a cotton ball. Gets a VERY thin film on the bulb, certainly thinner than you can spray on with a spray can. If you don't like the results, you can wipe the paint off the bulb with acetone and go at it again. The acetone will not effect the amber coating on the bulb.

Here is what the bulb looks like after the chrome paint is dabbed on the bulb.

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And at the left you will see what the lens looks like with the painted bulb behind it. At the right, the standard bulb.  

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And finally with the lights on there is virtually no difference between the painted and the non painted bulb. The key is to put on a thin coat. Way cheaper than those chrome bulbs that you can buy online and at some auto parts stores.

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For an 8 dollar can of spray paint, why the heck not!  

Oh and if you accidentally drop a bulb of the floor and it breaks? Go to the auto parts store and if they don't have the 3757 amber bulbs, buy the 3157 and put the base from the old bulb on to the new one. Simple to do and you won't break the wires at the base. Just bend them straight and swap bases on the bulbs.  

[LiquidPT]

You know you can buy chrome look bulbs that shine yellow, right?

[Critterman]

I had a set of those bulbs, since I have an 06 and they are my DLR's they burned out in a couple of weeks.

[Sly Bob]

I have heard that John, especially the ebay ones. Matt, I had two perfectly good bulbs and for the cost of an $8 can of spray paint it was a no brainer. Not only that but I still have most of the paint left over.

The chrome bulbs online can cost $30 plus the cost of shipping.

[SolNut]

Nicely Done, Eh! 

Steve
 

[DeepBlueGXP]

Good money saver, thanks for posting. 

[Sly Bob]

If anyone at the mod meet might want to do theirs, I could bring then paint that I have left over.

[Sky 5]

Those little bulbs can get awful hot.
Will the paint affect the bulb-life or just flake off over time?
The Sylvania Silverstars are only about ten bucks a pair.

[Sly Bob]

Nice picture! The gentleman that I got the idea to dab it on with a cotton ball said that he did his over 2 years ago and never had a problem with them. I know that if you hold the bulb after it's painted up to a household bulb that you can see right through it so it shouldn't be much of an insulator.

Heck, if it peels in a few years, I'll do it again as it only takes a few minutes.

[hammy221]

my fear (if you'll call it that) is that if it peels i don't want my light housing to get fill up with paint chips.

[crappa]

I used silver engine paint, no problems with peeling in almost 2 years.

[TomatoSoup]

my fear (if you'll call it that) is that if it peels i don't want my light housing to get fill up with paint chips.

Heh!  On my previous car, the paint on the original amber bulbs started to crack and peel off inside the headlight housing.  With that car (Audi A6) you can't remove the headlamp without taking off the bumper, so I never did get all the yellow paint chips out, not matter how hard I tried  

So yes, a pain if it happens, but staying standard doesn't guarantee you won't have the issue either!

[hammy221]

very true tomato

[Sly Bob]

And on our cars the chips would be easy to get out...   

[duramax]

I had a set of those bulbs, since I have an 06 and they are my DLR's they burned out in a couple of weeks.

I have had them in my Silverado DRLs for years with no problems. The stock ones burned out soon. I change to Silverstars on every new car right away as I hate the egg yokes.