25 replies to this topic

[trafficface09]

I am looking for a pair of grey or black headlight rings. i cant find them anywhere!
people say why not rough up the chrome and spray them. but this is not practical as the chrome will not allow paint to stick very well and in the long run flake off. I thought about this primer called esp primer, apparently makes non pours materials paint able and stick, it has high reviews. however this esp primer is designed for kitchens not for the front ends of cars, stones could chip it! Shock horror!

so ideally i want to find somebody who knows where to buy steal headlight rims or can fabricate me some fibreglass ones.

other options include powder coating
or chemical de chroming them (something like that)

[ThunderJimmy]

I'm looking to do this as well. I have planned to etch prime and spray my headlight rings. Any advice on where to get a better solution would be good though.....

[Dan]

Your odds are not good. Out of roughly 5,500,000 Minis produced in the main factories, one special edition of a couple of thousand cars had painted headlamp rims. That was it, all the rest are chrome. The Mini Designer was a batch of cars that rusted very quickly and most of them are no longer of this earth. Those people who do own one one now put a premium on their lamp rims and other unique parts. Off hand I can't think of any other cars that have them either. Chrome platers strip chrome, try to find one locally.

[trafficface09]

thanks Dan . good advice i was aware that they are really only on special eds but i would have thought somebody produced non genuine rings. due to the fact of there demand. im going to look up chrome shops around Bath or Trowbridge


out with the yellow pages the worlds most practical book!

[danie garry]

out with the yellow pages the worlds most practical book!

wrong the haynes manual is the worlds most practical book-fact!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
what happens if you sand blast the chrome???

[jaystar89]

I may be wrong, but i think you can get head light surrounds that aren't chrome and may be a little easier to spray

[rick.spi]

some wet and dry (didderent grades), some elbow grease, some metal pimer stuff and some black paint.

thats a good recipe for it, just make sure you get all the chrome off

Edited by rick.spi, 13 November 2009 - 11:31 PM.

[GottaDesigner]

*Guards Monty's headlamp rings*

The other way around it is to get the rings powder coated.... that's what I did for the inners. It's slightly more expensive than the elbow grease method, but gives much better, much longer lasting results.

Oh and Dan, not all the Designers have rusted away to nothingness We're slowly amassing them over on TDR with the intent of keeping as many alive as we can.

Edited by GottaDesigner, 13 November 2009 - 11:59 PM.

[trafficface09]

problem solved! lucus industrial headlight rings for military and so on i think. they would have fitted a large amount of BMC cars. i suspect they were from a land rover



there nice.

going to be sprayed black. and as they are not chrome the paint wont come off

[Hughes]

Where did you get these?

[trafficface09]

ebay was hard to find. in an auto bits shop in the odds and ends

[Rogue Se7ens]

I know it's not what you are looking for, but here is an option I offer here in the States, though I have sent a couple sets to the UK.

Attached Files

•  headlightrings.JPG   343.45K   29 downloads

[Hughes]

They're gorgeous!

[trafficface09]

if i ever get around to a carbon space framed fra shelled red top mini i will have to consider this

[phil_clubman]

i got mine sand blasted and powder coated. looks great i recon

Clicky

phil