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Vicarious Chair's Build

10K views 41 replies 12 participants last post by  Vicarious Chair 
#1 ·
Starting with the list of mods:
FIAMM Freeway Blaster Horn
Autoexe Replica bumper-cover
5900k headlights
Painted Headlights
Plastidipped Rear valance
Shifter boot :p
----
Here's how it looks now. No point in showing off how it came to be since they're all simple mods.
 

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#2 ·
Glad to see that your headlights came out nice! BTW where did you buy the bumper? Was it Nextmod or Ebay or something else? Car looks good
 
#3 · (Edited)
Coolest headlights I've seen yet. I'm guessing you did some kind of dark silver paint and then a silver Di-Noc on the reflectors. Your giving me motivation to crack open my headlights and do something interesting
 
#4 · (Edited)
I did use two colors:

This paint on all of the chrome bits.

This paint on the orange reflector.

and for the turning signal optics and hi-beam optics, I sprayed three quick coats of reflective finishing spray. Otherwise, Hi-Beams would barely work as they should (they don't work as well now, but they look great from outside the car!) and turning signals would probably be nearly illegal. My other option was to not paint those areas like some do, but --to me-- that looks unfinished.

The paint is a hammered finish. Do that. It looks even better in person and has its own reflection and texture. 2-3 coats and you're done. Reflectors only have one coat on them. (*note* I only painted the top parts of the orange reflector. When the turning signals are used, it lights up its original orange just a bit. This was planned as to keep my signals visible)


I'm glad you like them! Take a day or two out from driving and everything else and do the lights. It's fairly easy work, just take your time with it and be logical.


Frnchplyr15: Thanks! I got it off ebay, from a seller called xcess motors. Had it cheaper than other sellers ($375 compared to $400) and had a better reputation than others.
 
#5 ·
Nice you did some what the same thing I did with the High Beams lol
 
#6 ·
You did a reflective finish, or just reflective paint? 3rd from last pic I posted shows you how much dimmer the Hi beams are--but at the same time they look stylin'. Thus, they're now dubbed style-lights. Your's still just as bright?
 
#7 ·
Both but no not as much light as usual but I dont care looks cool beaming people in blue and if I cant see I got my rally and fogs for that!
 
#8 ·
Ok, so you sprayed the reflectors with silver but confused about the chrome. You sprayed the hammered grey everywhere there was chrome and then hit the areas behind the turn signal and the highbeam area with a top coat of the reflective or did the high beams and turn signal areas only get reflective and no hammered?
 
#9 ·
Yes, I used hammered grey everywhere there was chrome. After an hour to dry (more than dry to touch), I sprayed 3 coats of that reflective finishing spray over the area behind the turning signal bulb and hi-beam bulb. (By optics, I meant the grooves and contours design to reflect light according to the bulb's placement.) I wanted the whole headlight to be gray, so that finishing spray was needed.
 
#10 ·
Got it. Thanks. I think I'll try it but use slightly different colors so as to not totally copy you. I like the whole idea of light silver and dark silver in the headlights instead of the standard black that everyone has been doing.
 
#11 ·
yeah, I just wanted to play with colors more, rather than just go black. I didn't quite color match, but I'm still in the same color family with everything.

Maybe try a sharper contrast of color? Darker dark and lighter light. Whatever you do, definitely go for hammered paint. You will not regret that. Such a cool finish from up close. From far, it looks similar to mica. Can't lose!
 
#12 · (Edited)
Think I'm gonna go exact opposite as you with darker hammered reflector and lighter hammered where the chrome is and then spray the reflective where you did. Then pickup some 35 watt 5k HID's for my lows and fogs.

LOL. I'm working up the courage to do it this week.
 
#13 · (Edited)
I'm considering putting a real low-tint film over the headlights (50% or more). Just to add some class to the lights. Thoughts?

Besides this. I finally have 100% of the **** off the right side of the car and 95% off on the driver side (from the door moldings). I plan on getting 35% tints all around, getting a deal on that. Red tint for the tails. Yellow tint for the fogs. Might actually paint the valance cuz I hate the plastidip.

And my next big project is... paddle shifters! Not into the RX8 style, so I'm not retrofitting those. It'll be a fairly custom setup. I'll make posts about it as plans come together.

I'll edit this post with new pics too (blacked out badges and got an insert).
 
#14 · (Edited)
Here's some process pictures of the painting. Used a phone camera so they're crap. I'll take nice pictures of the color tomorrow.

2nd and 3rd pic show how the texture changed after sanding.

4th is how the new color compares to the car's exterior color.

10th is painted. Hard to tell with this camera.

Last is just another angle of the paint in the headlight.
 

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#16 ·
You can use that. But this color is amazing in person. In darker lighting, it appears as an extreme black with sparkly stars. In brighter environments, it looks more silverish with black accents. It's Rustoleum's Metallic Galaxy. Gunna go take pictures with a real camera now.
 
#20 ·
Very easy. As I just posted in PT's thread, I just took a hairdryer and a credit card. They M is glued on. The Mazda is sort of clipped, but just pull straight outwards and you won't break any pins. I ended up breaking one of the 3 pins it has--instead I just put some glue where one of the pins was and it's been fine for months. Just have to use automotive glue for both when putting back on. The other Emblems we're like the M, and were only glued on with aligning pin holes. Just heat and pull straight out. No risk of breaking anything with those.
 
#25 ·
Hey guys,

New to this forum I have a 2012 Mazda 3 i Touring SkyActiv haven't done any mods or customization to it yet, kind of short on funds atm but the first thing I want to do now is paint my emblems to get started.

What paint would you suggest for blacking them out?
 
#28 ·
Hellzzyeah. I took my badges off the car before painting, too. Didn't want to risk spraying that stuff on the car. Enamel takes longer to dry than normal spray paint, so don't go and try to pick up your emblems immediately. Give 'em 40 minutes to dry.
 
#29 ·
Cool I was looking at some of the PlastiDip stuff too and that looks awesome!!!

Was thinking about doing all my emblems but told a friend what I wanted to do and he mentioned that he wanted to do that to his hatch too but take everything off except the Mazda symbol. Now I'm thinking of doing that.

Would take a pic of my ride so you see it but she hasn't had a bath in awhile LOL.
 
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