Headlights
Record Breaker
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 1,750
Likes: 0
RE: Headlights
**First off, I am not responsible for any property demage, or personal injury(s) you may cause while performing this modifictation. So please use caution and common sense**
Estimated time to finish one headlight: 24-48 hours (drying takes time)
You will need:
-headlight (prefer a used one, just in case if something goes wrong.)
-Flat head screw driver, 2 or 3 different sizes should do it.
-Short blade, constraction type recommended.
-Spray paint. Here its upto you on color and finish. You could use High Heat paint, or specially designed paint only for plastic.
-Masking tape (try to get something that doesnt stick extremly well because the reflective surface will peel together with the tape when you will take it off)
-Black silicone
-Silicone gun (dont have one? borrow it from a neighbor)
-old newspapers
-Gloves
-Rags
Lets get started.
Take everything out of your oven. Set it a 250*F. Place two big sheets of aluminum foil on the rack, cover the area completly, or face the consequences! Let the oven heat up. Meanwhile, take the headlight and remove all the light bulbs, and rubber hoses. Is the oven hot? Ok place the headlight in the oven and let it sit there for 5 minutes. Set up a nice working area for yourself in the kitchen, put a old blanket on a table, have the screw drivers ready, knife too, just in case. Has the 5 minutes gone by? Ok put on working gloves, don't use your cooking gloves, you need to have flexability. Carefully takeout the headlight, please be careful it is very hot! Don't turn off your oven. Place the headlight on the blanket and take your screwdriver and try to pry around the top area where you have the 3 latches.
user posted image
I have numbered them 1-6. Start at 1, and work to 3. Now pry the area I have marked it in red. At this point the glue is drying, put the headlight in the oven for 5 minutes. Once the 5 minutes have past, pry the bottom of the headlight starting at 4 and stopping at 6. Go back to 1 and repeat the same technique, quickly from 1 to 6. Glue should be still hot, so move to the red spot and carefully take a wide flat head and twist open that area. It should pop off in that spot if done right. DONT FORCE IT! IT WILL NOT COME OFF THAT EASILY. Once it pops off in this spot you can put the screw driver inside the hole and try to seperate the plastic lense from the headlight assembly. You could put the headlight in the oven for the 3rd time to make it easier for you to take it apart when hot. Start from the bottom left coner, marked in green, you could use your hands to take it apart, but I found it easier to use two screwdrivers. Right here you should have no problem taking the two apart.
Once the two are apart take the clear plastic lense and try to clean off some of the glue. Be careful when cutting, this stuff is hard. Some of you probably want to get rid of the orange reflector. If you dont need it just break it out. But some might keep it so careful cut around it.
user posted image
Don't break the bottom portion of it. Just place the blade between bottom orange tab slowly, circled in yellow. Once that is loose try to cut around the top tab, circled green. Dont worry if you break the top tab off, silicone will fix it. Did you get it out? Good job.
Painting.
Mask off the area you don't want painted. Do the main headlight reflector first. Take pieces of tape and put them on top of the reflector all around and fill in the inner area with lots of paper. Dont let the tape touch the inside of it, because it will mess up the silver surface. Next, move to the blinker area. If you want to paint the entire area go ahead. if you dont, mask off the portion you dont want painted. If you will mask it off, try not to use the entire sticky surface of the masking tape to cover the surface, because once you will peel of the tape, the silver paint will come off. Clean off the area that will be painted. Dont use paint tinner, or nail polish. Use a clean rag to wipe the surface clean. You could get some plastic cleaner at a local shop. Ready to paint?
Follow the instructions on the can. Give it couple even coats, dont over spray and make sure you painted everything you wanted to paint. You can take the orange plastic reflector and give it couple thin coats on the back side. Just hold the can about two feet away and tint it to a desired level. Let the paint dry for couple hours before you take off the tape. Dont want to ruin that newly painted surface. Let the items dry over night.
user posted image
Next, once all dries, you want to break the gases that will be produced in your headlight when sealed. Tvago said that he put his lamp in the oven, contact him about it. What I did is, I took a hair dryer and heated up the area I painted to see if the paint melts and it also broke some of that freshly painted smell. Make sure you heat up every area, adn let it sit for couple minutes before you put the plastic cover on.
Putting the pieces back together.
Clean the inside of the clear lense and make sure you scraped some of that old glue. Also take the headlight and try to clean of some of that glue from the 6 latches, because they will need to lock in the lense, if they are bent out of shape, straighten them out. Take a plastic cup and put some liquid soap in it and fill it with warm water (I will get to it in a minute why you need this.) Take the silicone tube, open it and put it in the gun. Put some silicone on the bottom portion of the orange reflector and place the reflector in its spot. Now put little bit of silicone on top tab too. Now dip your fingure in the cup with soapy water and even out the silicone. Clean of your hands and let that dry. Now take your headlight and fill in the gap with silicone, all the way around.
Now this is the tricky part, putting the lense to its rightful spot. Hold the lamp virtically, with the blinker end on the bottom. You have to insert the lense starting from the bottom, area circled in orange shown in the above picture. Once you slide it in, slowly using two hands, pop the lense into its latches. You will need to use some force for the tabs to lock in. Once you get that done, make sure it has snapped in nicely. Now take your silicone gun and put silicone around the gap between the clear plastic lense and black headlight housing. Now dip your fingure in soapy water and run it around to even out the silicone. If you get some on the lense just wipe it off. Let the silicone dry for at least 48 hours, and dont be in a hurry to put it back on the car, let it dry completely off the car.
[IMG]local://upfiles/8070/4B5CBA40E1F945E38DE0FBD5792A3879.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]local://upfiles/8070/BE822DA1D0034201B81264DA68CA59B7.jpg[/IMG]
Estimated time to finish one headlight: 24-48 hours (drying takes time)
You will need:
-headlight (prefer a used one, just in case if something goes wrong.)
-Flat head screw driver, 2 or 3 different sizes should do it.
-Short blade, constraction type recommended.
-Spray paint. Here its upto you on color and finish. You could use High Heat paint, or specially designed paint only for plastic.
-Masking tape (try to get something that doesnt stick extremly well because the reflective surface will peel together with the tape when you will take it off)
-Black silicone
-Silicone gun (dont have one? borrow it from a neighbor)
-old newspapers
-Gloves
-Rags
Lets get started.
Take everything out of your oven. Set it a 250*F. Place two big sheets of aluminum foil on the rack, cover the area completly, or face the consequences! Let the oven heat up. Meanwhile, take the headlight and remove all the light bulbs, and rubber hoses. Is the oven hot? Ok place the headlight in the oven and let it sit there for 5 minutes. Set up a nice working area for yourself in the kitchen, put a old blanket on a table, have the screw drivers ready, knife too, just in case. Has the 5 minutes gone by? Ok put on working gloves, don't use your cooking gloves, you need to have flexability. Carefully takeout the headlight, please be careful it is very hot! Don't turn off your oven. Place the headlight on the blanket and take your screwdriver and try to pry around the top area where you have the 3 latches.
user posted image
I have numbered them 1-6. Start at 1, and work to 3. Now pry the area I have marked it in red. At this point the glue is drying, put the headlight in the oven for 5 minutes. Once the 5 minutes have past, pry the bottom of the headlight starting at 4 and stopping at 6. Go back to 1 and repeat the same technique, quickly from 1 to 6. Glue should be still hot, so move to the red spot and carefully take a wide flat head and twist open that area. It should pop off in that spot if done right. DONT FORCE IT! IT WILL NOT COME OFF THAT EASILY. Once it pops off in this spot you can put the screw driver inside the hole and try to seperate the plastic lense from the headlight assembly. You could put the headlight in the oven for the 3rd time to make it easier for you to take it apart when hot. Start from the bottom left coner, marked in green, you could use your hands to take it apart, but I found it easier to use two screwdrivers. Right here you should have no problem taking the two apart.
Once the two are apart take the clear plastic lense and try to clean off some of the glue. Be careful when cutting, this stuff is hard. Some of you probably want to get rid of the orange reflector. If you dont need it just break it out. But some might keep it so careful cut around it.
user posted image
Don't break the bottom portion of it. Just place the blade between bottom orange tab slowly, circled in yellow. Once that is loose try to cut around the top tab, circled green. Dont worry if you break the top tab off, silicone will fix it. Did you get it out? Good job.
Painting.
Mask off the area you don't want painted. Do the main headlight reflector first. Take pieces of tape and put them on top of the reflector all around and fill in the inner area with lots of paper. Dont let the tape touch the inside of it, because it will mess up the silver surface. Next, move to the blinker area. If you want to paint the entire area go ahead. if you dont, mask off the portion you dont want painted. If you will mask it off, try not to use the entire sticky surface of the masking tape to cover the surface, because once you will peel of the tape, the silver paint will come off. Clean off the area that will be painted. Dont use paint tinner, or nail polish. Use a clean rag to wipe the surface clean. You could get some plastic cleaner at a local shop. Ready to paint?
Follow the instructions on the can. Give it couple even coats, dont over spray and make sure you painted everything you wanted to paint. You can take the orange plastic reflector and give it couple thin coats on the back side. Just hold the can about two feet away and tint it to a desired level. Let the paint dry for couple hours before you take off the tape. Dont want to ruin that newly painted surface. Let the items dry over night.
user posted image
Next, once all dries, you want to break the gases that will be produced in your headlight when sealed. Tvago said that he put his lamp in the oven, contact him about it. What I did is, I took a hair dryer and heated up the area I painted to see if the paint melts and it also broke some of that freshly painted smell. Make sure you heat up every area, adn let it sit for couple minutes before you put the plastic cover on.
Putting the pieces back together.
Clean the inside of the clear lense and make sure you scraped some of that old glue. Also take the headlight and try to clean of some of that glue from the 6 latches, because they will need to lock in the lense, if they are bent out of shape, straighten them out. Take a plastic cup and put some liquid soap in it and fill it with warm water (I will get to it in a minute why you need this.) Take the silicone tube, open it and put it in the gun. Put some silicone on the bottom portion of the orange reflector and place the reflector in its spot. Now put little bit of silicone on top tab too. Now dip your fingure in the cup with soapy water and even out the silicone. Clean of your hands and let that dry. Now take your headlight and fill in the gap with silicone, all the way around.
Now this is the tricky part, putting the lense to its rightful spot. Hold the lamp virtically, with the blinker end on the bottom. You have to insert the lense starting from the bottom, area circled in orange shown in the above picture. Once you slide it in, slowly using two hands, pop the lense into its latches. You will need to use some force for the tabs to lock in. Once you get that done, make sure it has snapped in nicely. Now take your silicone gun and put silicone around the gap between the clear plastic lense and black headlight housing. Now dip your fingure in soapy water and run it around to even out the silicone. If you get some on the lense just wipe it off. Let the silicone dry for at least 48 hours, and dont be in a hurry to put it back on the car, let it dry completely off the car.
[IMG]local://upfiles/8070/4B5CBA40E1F945E38DE0FBD5792A3879.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]local://upfiles/8070/BE822DA1D0034201B81264DA68CA59B7.jpg[/IMG]