to the guys that paint their headlights, how in the heck did you get your lenses off of the assembly. i tried to pry it appart for an hour but the black sealer is stuck pretty good so i gave up. help is always appreciated

 

a friend of mine did it on his car and he had to put it in the oven for x amount of time and then take it out and pry it open while the glue strip was still hot or warm. i cant tell you exactly how long he heated it but that's what you gotta do. im afraid to do mine so im just gonna buy some already painted inside and replace them.
lemme know how it goes

 

Ive done it on past vehicles and it was pretty easy. Although not sure about our headlights.

See if this helps.

- Pre-heat your oven to 275 degrees
- Clean the headlight lenses
- Remove all bulbs, unscrew and remove the wiring mounting brackets, set in safe place.
- Get a cookie sheet, grab a medium sized towel, make it moist with water, and place it on cookie sheet
-Place cookie sheet with headlight on it in oven for 5-6 minutes (not much more, one headlight at a time)
- Use oven gloves to remove cookie sheet
- Pull the clear plastic away from the back housing, use a screw driver and CAREFULLY/slowly pry small parts away around the housing and then pull apart

-After work is complete inside:

-Stick the back housing and the clear part back together, get it lined up as close as possible
-Stick back in oven (on cookie sheet) for 5 minutes to allow glue to soften
-Push the headlight back into place and put all screws back in and re-assemble light

 

^^^^ To add to this lightly

I do my headlights (06-08) at 250* for 10 mins and pry them apart. That sealant is really a PITA and on 06-08s it never goes back in place correctly. You will need to get it as close as you can and either hold the light together with several locking pliers or vice grips but it is best to use long wood clamps if you have them. Let that cool while being help together and then run a bead of black silicon around the edge to make sure you have a good seal.

On 02-05 headlights I do them at 170* for 15 mins and they come apart much easier and need no silicon to go back together

 

Don't forget to put a thin layer of olive oil or PAM on the sheet to prevent any sticking on removal.

 

Sticking to what?

 

the cookie sheet... I'd assume.
I'd be hesitant to put them directly on the grate.

 

I put my rack all the way to the bottom and placed two 1x4's on it. i put my headlights(one at a time) on the wood with the oven at 250* for ~13min. My test before pulling the light out was to see how "pliable" the black mounting bracket was. I kept the light in the oven until that was beginning to bend easily by hand.
I used oven mitts and pulled the light out of the oven and IMMEDIATELY began prying it apart. I took a screwdriver and bent the black plastic up (45*) all around the edges at first, then I put it back in the oven to finish prying the lens completely off.(started at the black mounting part closest to the grill) Once i got it all apart I scraped the sealant while it was hot. I placed the housing in the oven once again to re-heat the sealant up because it's much easier to scrape when hot and it took so long to get it all clean, the material cooled rather quick.
I used black RTV high temp sealant to re-seal the light together, but first I took a heat gun and bent all the edges I had pried up back down so the light had a better seal on it's own. I used duct tape to hold the lens to the housing while the RTV dried. Advance AAuto was all out of the Windshield RTV sealant or I woulda used that stuff(remains pliable)

 

I was being sarcastic since the recipe seemed liked something a drunk Tim Allen would start blabbing about.