Headlamp Bezel Refinish

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd share a recent project that involved refinishing the headlamp surrounds on my 1985 F150. I started this project after having ordered a new, chrome grill and the upper and lower aluminum strips.

NOTE - those aluminum strips are like razor blades (ask me how I know!), so if you do this job yourself, you might like to wear gloves or to be very careful when handling them.

Firstly, I didn't take a "before" pic of the headlamp bezels as I was busy taking them off the truck at night and needed to get the project started so, this pic of the truck's grill when I first bought it will have to suffice...

As you can see, the headlamp surrounds are a faded grey color, and they were so faded that I couldn't determine what color they were from the factory (either the dark grey or black):



After removing the headlamp bezels from the vehicle - which were held in with some phillips head screws and a screw-in light fitting for the indicator - I needed to remove the indicator lens from each bezel:

I'm not sure what each of these nuts is called officially, but they kind of screw onto the threaded shaft of the indicator housing, with a really wide type of thread. I believe it was a 1/2" socket that got them removed.



Next, after masking everything off, I decided to use semi-gloss black paint for the finish. This is what I used (which was purchased from Home Depot):



It took one light coat, followed by two slightly thicker coats to get good coverage. I waited around 20-30 mins between each coat.

Here is one of the bezel's with the indicator lens removed and the bezel newly-painted:



.. and one with it back in place:



.. and then another of the entire bezel cleaned up and with the lens in:



... and both of the completed bezels ready to re-install:



Here is a before/after:



NOTE - I cleaned the chrome finish over a year ago with some cutting compound, followed by a swirl remover and then a nice carnuba wax, but they are the 30-something year old, factory bezels. The chrome is fading in some areas but compared to spending $20-$30 per bezel at LMC (price at time of writing this post), I thought spending $5 on paint and a few hours of my time was a fair exchange... most importantly, I learned a little more about the truck along the way.

I hope this helps anyone that is looking to refinish these bezels, as I couldn't find any real information on this topic when I began researching it online.

Nice!

Looks great! I did the same on my ‘81 and it really helped the look of the front end. Just be really gentle with the turn signal studs with the stamped nut on the back. Even bring super careful they are extremely brittle and like to snap. I wanted 80/early 81 clear lenses and broke quite a few in the junkyard before I got a useable pair.

Thanks!

Yes, I agree 100% on the indicator-lens studs, with them being plastic.

Well done!

Good job. Thanks for documenting and sharing!

Looks good, on the to-do list for mine.

FWIW...When doing this sort of thing, please show the products you use, preferably a picture, as on this writeup.