Black Housing DEPO Lights (1 Viewer)

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Hey! Been searching and cannot find any threads on this. I’m probably just doing it wrong and I’m sure someone will make it aware that I DiDnT LoOk HaRd EnOuGh. But posting this anyways.

Getting some depo lights for my 80 and looking for any advise or information on opening them up, painting the housing black, and then sealing them back up.

What sealant did you use? Tips for cook time and temp? Anything special for keeping dust and debris out while sealing? All information is appreciated! Thanks.
 
If you are buying them new, you shouldn't need new sealant. Heat in the oven at 250° for 10-15 mins (take off all the clips holding the glass to the plastic prior). Pry open, remove the chrome reflective backing and paint your desired color (paint a few coats to cover all the chrome.)
20220418_152242_HDR.jpg
 
If you are buying them new, you shouldn't need new sealant. Heat in the oven at 250° for 10-15 mins (take off all the clips holding the glass to the plastic prior). Pry open, remove the chrome reflective backing and paint your desired color (paint a few coats to cover all the chrome.)
View attachment 3007058
Simple enough! Looks awesome! Can’t wait to get my hands on some of these!
 
Simple enough! Looks awesome! Can’t wait to get my hands on some of these!
Thanks.

You can even do a test run on your stock ones so that'l your comfortable. . .unless your planning to sell them. Some folks might not want them painted.

20220512_162148.jpg
 
Hey! Been searching and cannot find any threads on this. I’m probably just doing it wrong and I’m sure someone will make it aware that I DiDnT LoOk HaRd EnOuGh. But posting this anyways.

Getting some depo lights for my 80 and looking for any advise or information on opening them up, painting the housing black, and then sealing them back up.

What sealant did you use? Tips for cook time and temp? Anything special for keeping dust and debris out while sealing? All information is appreciated! Thanks.
Do you have the link for the set you are looking at? I’m interested in this idea too.
 
Here are a few ideas:



And I went with a bigger projector:

 
If you are buying them new, you shouldn't need new sealant. Heat in the oven at 250° for 10-15 mins (take off all the clips holding the glass to the plastic prior). Pry open, remove the chrome reflective backing and paint your desired color (paint a few coats to cover all the chrome.)
View attachment 3007058
Was way behind on your thread and this reminded me. Caught up tonight. Your build (and thread) is AWESOME!!
 

These are the ones I’m going with. I did some research on the legitimacy of this site and all seemed good


The same vendor is on eBay and unless it has changed from a few months ago they actually end up being cheaper on eBay. Plus if you have an issue the vendor is accountable for it where if you purchase it from their website they may just tell you to kick rocks. I had a fitment issue with the ones I purchased.
 
looking for any advise or information on opening them up, painting the housing black, and then sealing them back up.
I hope you mean that you want to do a HID projector conversion. If you just paint the reflectors black and run bulbs, you'll hardly get any light output. Unless you mean the outermost plastic piece that's just behind the glass?

Heat in the oven at 250° for 10-15 mins
For what it's worth, when I did my HID conversion, instead of an oven I used a large cardboard box with a hole cut in it. Stuck my Porter Cable adjustable heat gun through the hole, and slowly ramped up the temperature over the course of about 20 minutes. It was December and they were freezing cold, so I took it slow.

I found that pulling them out at about 160 degrees, then running the heat gun around the perimeter of the glass for a minute or so was sufficient to separate the glass from the plastic housing. The plastic housing was so flexible at this point that I would worry about going to a higher temperature.

Also, Harbor Freight's plastic "trim and molding tool set" was really useful for prying the glass free.
 
If you are buying them new, you shouldn't need new sealant. Heat in the oven at 250° for 10-15 mins (take off all the clips holding the glass to the plastic prior). Pry open, remove the chrome reflective backing and paint your desired color (paint a few coats to cover all the chrome.)
View attachment 3007058
Beautiful truck and great job on the retrofit... I'm interested to see how you sealed the back of the 2.0 LED.... can you poat a picture of the back of the housing? I put a pair in LX470 housings and had cut the back of the housing and extended it with fiberglass.. Did you actually get a rubber cap on the back? I prefer to clean the channel of the old sealant... it makes it easier to test fit the glass for clearance and put it fresh sealant. The 2.0 LED and the D2S are the same diameter projectors. the 2.0 is larger due to the cooling fan on the back.
 
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Beautiful truck and great job on the retrofit... I'm interested to see how you sealed the back of the 2.0 LED.... can you poat a picture of the back of the housing? I put a pair in LX470 housings and had cut the back of the housing and extended it with fiberglass.. Did you actually get a rubber cap on the back? I prefer to clean the channel of the old sealant... it makes it easier to test fit the glass for clearance and put it fresh sealant. The 2.0 LED and the D2S are the same diameter projectors. the 2.0 is larger due to the cooling fan on the back.

When you say “sealant”, are you talking about butyl ? Or something easier to work with ? ? 🤣

My DEPOs came from eBay. DS fills with water if it rains and was that way from the factory. I tried to fix it but it didn’t work. Anyway, I’ve put in projector H1 and H4 bulbs and want to black the housings out as well when I fix the DS leakage. Just not trying to do it again and again so I need to watch some YouTube on handling butyl.
 
Beautiful truck and great job on the retrofit... I'm interested to see how you sealed the back of the 2.0 LED.... can you poat a picture of the back of the housing? I put a pair in LX470 housings and had cut the back of the housing and extended it with fiberglass.. Did you actually get a rubber cap on the back? I prefer to clean the channel of the old sealant... it makes it easier to test fit the glass for clearance and put it fresh sealant. The 2.0 LED and the D2S are the same diameter projectors. the 2.0 is larger due to the cooling fan on the back.
No problem. I'll try to get some this weekend.

But in the meantime, I used JB weld to seal the back of the projector to the housing leaving the cooling fan open.
 
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When you say “sealant”, are you talking about butyl ? Or something easier to work with ? ? 🤣

My DEPOs came from eBay. DS fills with water if it rains and was that way from the factory. I tried to fix it but it didn’t work. Anyway, I’ve put in projector H1 and H4 bulbs and want to black the housings out as well when I fix the DS leakage. Just not trying to do it again and again so I need to watch some YouTube on handling butyl.
Yeah. .words have means. I just can't remember the names of so things so I try to write it for people to understand what I'm trying to say.
 
^^^I was wondering what Luke meant when he said sealant. Whether he used butyl or something easier to work with. 🤷‍♂️ Because my first attempt at repairing my leaky drivers side DEPO wasn’t successful.
 
My DEPOs came from eBay. DS fills with water if it rains and was that way from the factory.

Are the rubber boots intact and fully seated?

Are both of the little rubber "snorkels" intact? I lost one and my headlight had a ton of condensation in it after the very next day of rain.

I’ve put in projector H1 and H4 bulbs

If you mean the tiny projectors that fit into the standard H4 openings, post some pics of the light output! I've been curious how they perform and the pictures on sites like AliExpress are always really low quality.

Whether he used butyl or something easier to work with

I found butyl easy to work with, but the key is a heat gun. Unroll a foot of it, hit it with a heat gun to warm it up, stretch it out until it fits the channel, press it into the channel, and repeat all the way around. Slice off each end at an angle, and press it together in the channel to join it. Then go around the entire thing with the heat gun until it's thoroughly softened and press the glass in.

By far the worst part of butyl was getting the old stuff out. That, too, was made easier with a heat gun. Warm it up and then roll a bit of balled-up butyl through the channel to pick up the remnants. If it's not warmed up, it's not sticky enough to work.
 
Beautiful truck and great job on the retrofit... I'm interested to see how you sealed the back of the 2.0 LED.... can you poat a picture of the back of the housing? I put a pair in LX470 housings and had cut the back of the housing and extended it with fiberglass.. Did you actually get a rubber cap on the back? I prefer to clean the channel of the old sealant... it makes it easier to test fit the glass for clearance and put it fresh sealant. The 2.0 LED and the D2S are the same diameter projectors. the 2.0 is larger due to the cooling fan on the back.
Sorry not going to pull the headlights out at this moment. I would have to pull the grille off and it's a PITA to get aligned straight.

20220513_140156_HDR.jpg
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I took these pics to show I used the rubber backing to help with water/moisturize inside the lens.
 
^^^I was wondering what Luke meant when he said sealant. Whether he used butyl or something easier to work with. 🤷‍♂️ Because my first attempt at repairing my leaky drivers side DEPO wasn’t successful.
Sealant and butyl are all the same in my conversations related to retrofitting. If you have already opened up your headlights, replaced the sealant and your lights are still leaking it’s most likely coming from the back.
Are you getting condensation or actual water in the housing?
 
Sealant and butyl are all the same in my conversations related to retrofitting. If you have already opened up your headlights, replaced the sealant and your lights are still leaking it’s most likely coming from the back.
Are you getting condensation or actual water in the housing?
I had actual water up until I pulled it apart. Condensation since then. I know I have one of the little black vent tubes floating around somewhere but the rubbers that go around the bulb itself and snap onto the housing are snug and in place. I’ll be pulling both headlights apart soon to make room for the other H1 projector bulbs(it’ll need hole either down low or above where it’ll get clamped down). The H4 projector bulbs are a tight fit through the factory opening and I’d say the light output is better than the regular bulbs that rely on the reflector. I pretty much ruined the chrome-ish finish on my DS one when I was leaking when I used 91% alcohol to try and dry it up.

Oh, and I reused the butyl that was on the headlight. Suppose I could get some from the Dynamat I’ve got left over. I had hell working with it but it was also my first time. Those housings get super pliable in the oven and I think the next time I take them apart I’ll just heat gun the glass off. 🤔
 
Are the rubber boots intact and fully seated?

Are both of the little rubber "snorkels" intact? I lost one and my headlight had a ton of condensation in it after the very next day of rain.



If you mean the tiny projectors that fit into the standard H4 openings, post some pics of the light output! I've been curious how they perform and the pictures on sites like AliExpress are always really low quality.



I found butyl easy to work with, but the key is a heat gun. Unroll a foot of it, hit it with a heat gun to warm it up, stretch it out until it fits the channel, press it into the channel, and repeat all the way around. Slice off each end at an angle, and press it together in the channel to join it. Then go around the entire thing with the heat gun until it's thoroughly softened and press the glass in.

By far the worst part of butyl was getting the old stuff out. That, too, was made easier with a heat gun. Warm it up and then roll a bit of balled-up butyl through the channel to pick up the remnants. If it's not warmed up, it's not sticky enough to work.
Thank you. I’ll get some pics of my bulbs. Think the H4s may be intended for a motorcycle, but they work. The high beam shines straight out the bottom though and I think I’ll have to put a mirror under it and adjust it because as they are the light goes way too high. Idk. It’ll be an experiment.
 

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