Here are a few before and after pics. I sanded and painted the headlight cutouts of the nose, painted the grille, and replaced the broken stock fog/running lights. Less than 30 bucks for the lights and Flat Black Duplicolor Trim Paint, and around 9 bucks for the stuff I needed to make my own brackets for the new running lights, which I think look better than the stock ones. I think it looks WAY better. What do you guys think? I know...I need to paint the entire nose. Some Day.....

 

looks good!

 

 

major improvement, however I think your old fogs were reversed lol

 

Thanks guys!

Yes, the old lights were on incorrectly. From this and other things that were wrong with it, I deduce that the previous owner wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

 

wow, much better!

 

Thanks! I agree.

 

real nice man, a little bit of paint goes a long way to making a car look nice. Its even better when you don't have to pend a lot

 

Thanks, and yes...stuff can get expensive sometimes....most of the time.

 

Looks good! I just painted the headlight cutouts of my car today haha. It makes a big difference.

 

Me likey, me likey a lot. Made a big difference man. Good work.

 

Very nice. Can't beat the value, either!

 

Thanks guys.....I'm putting headers and y pipe on next.

Weird thing about the headers though...the flanges on the y pipe and headers don't come together close enough for the bolts to go through both of those triangular fastener parts. They are the bolts that came with the y pipe, too, and they are both Hedman y pipe and headers....does that bowl on the y pipe flange sort of smash up at the edges or something, after I tighten the header to it?

 

car looks great i been debated about painting my headlight buckets black...everytime i see someone do it makes me want to...but i feel that not having any other black on car except t-tops it might look funny

what brand of fog lights are those??? i could really use some fog lights...

 

thanks! I don't remember the brand, but I got them from Autozone for 19.99. They looked the closest to stock out of all the ones they had. They did not bolt right in either. I had to make custom brackets for them.

I'd paint the headlight cutouts black, if I were you. It will look good.

 

Im digging the headlights being painted, but Im not sold on the fog lights. They dont fit the proportion of the car properly....too much open space. Id prefer something that fits the area better. Just my opinion. None the less....good job

 

Thanks. It took a little while to make the brackets and get the hardware and figure out how to mount them, but it was pretty worthwhile, I think. At first, I shared the same opinion, but the more I look at it, the better it looks with those lights because they are new (and not broken) and a bit sleeker looking and not as bulky as the stockers. I am thinking about putting a steel mesh screen behind them, to fill in the space and also protect the radiator a bit, since I took the a/c condenser out.

 

That's a good idea, putting the mesh screen in there. Would look prett sweet I bet. Post a pic if you do it. Getting ready to tidy up the front of my camaro too. Gonna paint the buckets, and have a whole new nose to paint, put a new grille in, and mount the fog lights on.

 

looks much better

 

Looks way better with the buckets painted and with those improve fog lights.

I been wanting to paint my buckets flat black too but my car is black i wonder how it would look?

Tony.

 

That looks MUCH better!!!

 

Thanks you guys. I want to paint the entire nose, but I can't find the time, with work and college. In ten years of college, I've never had to do SO MUCH reading and SO MUCH essay writing in one semester...holy crapola...sheesh!! I feel like a frickin' novelist this semester, and my brain is pretty much spent. I'll get the nose painted some day. I'll post pics if I decide to do the mesh behind the fog lights.

 

Headers and y pipe are going on soon. I got Hedman stuff. The headers and y pipe cost me less than 125 bucks, and the y pipe is brand new. It cost me an extra 20 bucks to get the O2 bung welded into the left header. Just got done painting the sand blasted headers with VHT black ceramic paint. Got the headers blasted for free, which is nice. I'm gonna paint that front lip soon, too.

 

I'm still undecided if I want to paint the buckets with flat black or gloss. I am thinking flat, mostly because it won't show dust as bad as the glossy. But the guys with glossy black look sharp.

 

Any tips or lessons learned from when you painted your buckets?

 

Just tape off the edges and use newspaper to protect the headlights. I think flat black is the way to go.

 

I'd figured I would just take the lights out before painting. I've pretty much decided to go with the flat black too.

 

did you use wet sand after you finished painting?? looks so smooth??? you rattle can it or did you use a spray gun

 

All I did was emery cloth the surface before painting then cleaned it with a damp rag then painted it with flat black Duplicolor trim paint (rattle can) and just let it dry without sanding. Just tape off the lights....it's easier than taking them out. The spray will get down underneath the lights no problem.