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Would anyone happen to have any experience in repainting the plastic headlight bezels for a 412? I acquired a primered set and need to figure out what brand and shade of rattle-can paint will come closest to the original shade of silver.


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Chris Hobbs and family
Leesburg Virginia

Man...that is a tough one...but I do know that it is essentially the same color as the original tire rims. I would check around. Its actually less of a silver and more of a gray. If you look at a few in the junkyard...early 412's...you will find that a lot of them had metal bezels. They are nicer. For any of you that have metal bezels on your 412...and they have the warped drooping eyebrows effect...I know how to painlessly straighten those...so drop me a line and I'll tell you. Ray

Hi' Chris and Ray.

If the colour is the same as the rims then colour is L 97 U Grey-Aluminium from 413 2000 001 - .

MchAlf.

Thank you for that info. I have also seen a very few that had a black trim package, with black headlight bezels. When my paint is done..(L-96M Marathon blue metallic) I am going to have the mirrors, door handles,VW logos, fingerplates, bumpers, rain gutter trim,window chrome/felt holder, intake grill trim and fender guards done in black epoxy. It should look sharp. I will anodize the antenna and the winshield wipers black. It should look pretty good. The nice thing about baked epoxy, is that you can solder or do minor fill work underneath, it lasts almost as long as powdercoating...and is easier to make uniform and remove if you want to get back to the chrome...and you don't have to sandblast it. Ray

Thanks, everyone, I'll try something along the lines of gray-aluminum Rustoleum.

BTW the wagon that I'm restoring also used to be Marathon Blue - you have to check the paint code in the trunk, though, since it's faded to a silver look on the outside.

Hi! My one 412 has (aluminum/steel?) bezels. I had them sand blasted and powder coated about a year ago, but it seems that the heat of the oven had them warped - they don't fit tightly any more! Just thought I should warn you..

Pine...those are easy to fix. Take two flat piece of steel or aluminum...about 1/2" thick and the length of the top of the bezel. Use a medium size c-clamp...clamp across the top of the flat area above the headlight holes. Gently apply pressure until the top edge is straight. Put this in the oven...preheat to 450 F. Leave it in for an hour...then turn it off and let it cool in its own time...until room temp. Remove the clamp...the bezel will be straight. Ray

But when do you add the garlic Ray?

Seriously though, has anyone every considered chroming these bezels, (metal ones obviously). Does anyone else think this would look good, (or am I the only one?... again!!)

I think the look of chrome bezels, Cibie lamps, and clear lexan (fitted) covers would be really mod, almost like the current VW/Audi stuff.

Here's the final answer on the rattle-can color for those 412 headlight bezels: Krylon #1403, Dull Aluminum. It's one of their Metallic Enamel colors.

I happened to have a can on hand to repaint the headlight buckets in my '67 VW doublecab, I gave it a try, and it was a near-perfect match to my old set.

Thanks Chris! As for headlights...I run Hella H4's for low beamswith 70/100 lamps and Hella H-2 clear high beams on the inner..with 100 watt lamps...superb! I like the flat angular face on them. And I can see forever. Ray