I am not sure where I want to go with these so I started spraying. I did not do a good job because I am only trying to get an idea of how it will look and this is all my broken headlight garb. That being said here are the pics:

Stock with amber bulb (if I stay with this I will have mirrored bulbs or led's):


Amber turn signal housing:



Amber turn signal housing and black surround:



Amber turn signal housing, black surround, and black projector area:




I can also black out the turn signal housing but I am not sure if it will look as good. Also the amber is darker in each shot due to impatient so I added a coat each time I took the lens off/apart. Opinions please (on the looks, not execution)!

 

my vote: Amber turn signal housing and black surround

But what about, remove the amber turn signal and just use the amber bulb and go with the black surround.

 

Just leave the turn signal housing unpainted? Perhaps, I will have to try it when I pull my headlights apart again.

 

Like this?

 

I may be wrong and I won't start researching, but the "silver" shield or background used in any car headlight assembly has probably a good reason: luminosity/reflectivity/projection.
By painting it with a "matte" color you may loose some of those properties. You sure can make them look good but you may lose functionality.

Having said that: I would also go with Jeff's option (black surround for the turn signal section + amber bulb) + black surround for the low beam area, as you have in your last photo.

 

I would agree that the reflective part is required in the high beam housing and helps in the turn signal housing. I am using an amber tint for the turn signal housing that keeps it reflective but changes the color. The reflective part around the projector and the entire surround is pure aesthetics.

 

I completely blacked out my lights, I live in a major city and rarely drive country roads after dark. That being said, If you want to retain any useful light from the high beams, dont black that surround out, they become virtually useless. If I were to do it again, I would black out the trim, projector surround, and signal surround, but not the high beam surround

 

Sounds good, I would only do the bottom part in front of the high beam (with the grooves). The rest should not be blacked out because there would be no light reflected to the sides of the car (or very little). Do you have a pic of your headlights?

 

Not at the moment, I will try to get some when it warms up around here. The light from the High actually only goes sideways, none is projected forward, kinda cool if you need to see what's beside the road, not so cool if you want to see what's up ahead

 

Wow, that's not good at all. Are they painted like the last pic or is there more that is blacked out?