Taking apart headlight assemblies

[tysamigo]

Hi all,

I saw an article before about how someone took their headlights apart (separate the lens from the housing). I need to do the same thing so that I can clean and polish the inside of the lens. Then I will polish the outside and reassemble.

Does anyone know where this posting is?

Right now the assemblies are out and I was about to "bake" them but decided to stop and wait for the proper instructions.

Thanks a million!!!

[SBC]

I looked at all the posting's on this subject and only found one talking about BOILING them in hot water!!! but the end result was never mentioned.
Mine are all faded and crazed..instead of polishing them i am going to Clear Coat them with and Automotive Clear Coat! Will post up the results when i get that taken care of
Tim
www.streetboutiquecustoms.com

[etlsport]

you sure you need to polish the inside of your headlights? i thought mine were messed up inside too, after about 2 hours of polishing and polishing and polishing... they look great!, minor streaking of the uv protective coating that came with the kit, but definitely not in need of interior polishing, i would try as hard as possible to not take the two halves apart, any mistake in reassembly and you'll end up with fogging and condensation

[Chopper]

I've never heard of boiling them, but I suppose it'd work. We always pop them in an oven at 350 or 400 for a few ( like7-10) min. Wear gloves when you pull them apart. They reseal easily enough.

[rowhard]

Well, before you go to all that trouble, you might read my thread on the 'Zen and The Art of Headlight Polishing' or IndianaVX 'Headlight Polishing' thread, might save you a bunch of grief.

[tysamigo]

Well gang, I DID IT !!! WOOHOOO!!

I just say F** it and just set the oven to 200F and baked it laying on its side for less than 10 min and I easily pried the 2 pieces apart. The inside is DEFINITELY the culprit in my case and I will clean it with a plastic cleaning/polishing compound I got from Autozone today made for lenses (McQuires).

So for right now i have both headlight assemblies taken apart (lens separated from housing).

Does anyone know how to remove the old sealant? I've reheated them a little to make it "gooey" again and removed a lot of it by hand but there has to be a better way and a way to rid of all of it and start from scratch.

Until then I will be cleaning them inside and out and polishing the outside.

So far so good (keeping my fingers crossed)...

Thanks for your input :)

[tysamigo]

OK, I admit I got happy to quick.

I should have listened to etlsport and rowhard :rolleyes:

Actually I would have listened but I did not come back inside to read the group, I just went forward in the project anxious to get it done in 1 day

:)

I didn't realize how thick the lenses are. The "mess" is certainly on the outside so I will follow the previous advice. In my case, taking the lense apart wasn't necessary.

I would like to ask however, since they are apart now, is there anything I should do to the interior while I"m at it?

If anyone could help on how to remove the original sealant to clean it up and to reseal that would be appreciated very much :)

Ya live and ya learn but I must say I'm proud of myself (so far) for being able to do this without screwing anything up (like I said... so far)

And I don't mind because I JUST LOVE my VX and LOVE working on it. I have learned more about the mechanics of cars (autos in general) messing around with my VX. Out of 12 cars (most of them sports cars), I've never been as excited to work on a vehicle than my VX. So I don't mind, it was a learning experience.

Oh yea and a couple of other things while I'm at it...

I haven't been on in a while due to a recent burglary of my home and the absence of a computer until just recently. Now I have access to the group again and will move forward on my mods. Soon I hope to have many pics in my gallery.


Thanks guys for your help :cool:

[WormGod]

I've never heard of boiling them, but I suppose it'd work. We always pop them in an oven at 350 or 400 for a few ( like7-10) min. Wear gloves when you pull them apart. They reseal easily enough.

+1, thats the way you do it.

Disassemble, bake, pulls apart, do your thing...., reassemble, bake.

Just be sure to reseal before you rebake.

[tysamigo]

I have tried the following to clean 1 of the headlights:
http://www.vehicross.info/modules.php?name=Content&file=viewarticle&id=26

Once I got to the step where you use the polishing pads from the "5 minute" cleaning kit from Autozone my headlights looked identical to the pics in the procedure. However, after using the polishing step the headlight is worse now. When doing the sandpaper steps I used the sandpaper lightly but I'm thinking that maybe I used the sandpaper still a bit heavy because after doing ALL steps (including the McQuires polishing) the headlight has many swirls and looks very foggy still.

So on my 2nd headlight I skipped the sandpaper step and just used the "5 minute" cleaning kit plus the McQuires. The 2nd headlight looks almost brand new and is nearly perfect! I love it.

But what do I do about the first headlight? Is it just totally screwed?

Also I have to reseal the headlight lens back to the housing. What is the best way to remove the original sealant? Do I keep reheating it and just pull it off by hand?

One last question, what and how to I reseal? I purchased Super Clear Silicon Gasket Maker (Type 7). Is this the correct stuff?

While my VX is broken down waitint for me to finish the stuff listed above that I need help with, I have to take the bus around town. I now remember how I hate the public transportation system lol :(

Thanks for all of your help

[IndianaVX]

hey ty,
sorry to hear you had some trouble with the polishing. did you use pleanty of water? and are you sure you used 1000 grit sandpaper, and NOT 100 grit?? or 1500 grit, NOT 150 grit? the sandpaper you want should be very VERY smooth, like there is no grit at all. im just trying to figure out what went wrong. you have to use ALOT of water when sanding the plastic. you might use one of the pads,(new) and just a very small amount of water to get a really thick paste going, do you know what i mean? this thicker paste should rub out any fogging, or swirls. this really concerns me, since i wrote the how to, and dont want to steer anyone wrong. dont get discouraged, just think it thru, i dont think you ruined anything......... post up your progress


if worse comes to worse, i would be happy to meet you half way, and work on it with you....im just north of bloomington, indiana, so im not THAT far away.....
just let me know, or if you want to talk it thru, shoot me an email with your number, and ill give you a call......

[tysamigo]

Indiana,

Thanks. Well, it didn't turn out that bad. Just after my post I was so determined to see if I could turn it around. I did purchase 1500 and 2000 grit sandpaper and I did use LOTS of water. I basically kept everything drinched and I worked under a water hose outside. I used 3 of the pads on each headlight just as you. However, I did go back to Autozone and purchased another kit. I used 3 more pads (for an additional 6 pads) on this particular headlight and remarkably... the results are now the same. I'm not sure what went wrong because I used the right sand paper and did it very lightly under running water. In either case, after the 6th pad from the kit, it looks just as good as the other one now. They are not "brand new" looking as there are a few very small chips (very small) but from a few feet away they look new. I'm happy :)

Everything turned out fine after all.

Thanks for your advice and for offering your help :)

I LOVE VX'erzzzz

[IndianaVX]

glad it all worked out for ya tyler,
im am still just wondering, for clarification, you dont want to use alot of water when using the pads.....just enough to create, and maintain a paste a little thinner than say toothpaste. if too much water is used with pads, you loose the abrasive, hence not rubbing things out. just curiouse
if you ARE using too much water, then you COULD get them looking like new from inches away,
but you said the most important words... that YOU are happy with it.
GOOD JOB.

[tysamigo]

Yes. When I used the sandpaper it was under slow running water. When I used the kits I only misted the pads (per the box instructions and your instructions) which resulted in the paste that you talk about. It starts off as white dots but as the pad scrubs around combined with the very small amount of water, it's paste as you describe.

:)