NickT88LSC
Dedicated LVC Member
Seperated and resealed headlights since was getting moisture in 1, took out amber lenses, did the 3m headlight restore, plasti dip eyebrows, and plasti dip bumper marker lights.
First I have to rant a little,
1) search feature sucks since so many results appear. So many post to read to get the info you want. I will never make fun of someone who ask a question and gets responses to use the search feature. I guess since there are so many post on this board that is what happens.
2) Seperating and putting these lights together sucked!!!!I got sealant all over kitchen counter, I did not find any deffinite answers through search on how to put them back together/remove old sealant, just a vague one saying reheat in oven, blah!!!
3) Once I got to the point of putting them together I had to squeeze the 2 peices together with a c clamp to get them all the way together.
Ok, so I start by putting the headlight in the oven at 225 for 10 minutes (I have the grey sealant headlights), try to pull it apart with my hands (from reading searched post says comes apart easy, to me that would be by hand, silly me) so I put it back in a few more minutes, meanwhile find a screwdriver. Take it back out and pry with screwdriver and it comes apart leaving a mess of sealant. So now I think, how do I get the old sealant out easily. Go back to search feature, read through gobs of post, hmmmm, dont see any mention of removing the old sealant??? So I start picking and scraping at it and give up, screw this. I read in one of the post stick light back in oven to put back together with old sealant.
Now while apart I take out the amber maker lens, yea!!!!! I use the 3M kit to restore the clear lens, mine was not terrible like I see some of you guys post, but could use it, and one of my headlights has tiny spider cracks in the lens, figure lets see if can get them out. (did not come out)
After doing the 3M headlight restore I add the eybrows with Plasti dip. After doing this now it would have been a better idea to do the eyebrows after lights back toghether.
Now to put these biathes back together. I get some grey sealant from autozone, add it in the channel and attemp to put headlight 1 together. Not a chance, too much old sealant in the way not allowing both peices to close all the way. So take it apart and sealant is everywhere. Stick it in the oven at 250. Now thinking what is best way to put back together, middle black headlight seperator in first, or with clear lens at same time. 10 minutes later pull headlight from oven, put black seperator in first-excellent, next the clear lens, ooops got grey sealant on black seperator, open again, remove sealant, reinstall carefully not to get sealant on black seperator again. Now try to squeeze together, damn will not go all the way together and keeps pushing apart when I let go. Ok, back in the oven, take second light out of oven meanwhile and try this one. This one gets together almost all the way, bottom together and get clips on, top close, the end by the marker light still needs to go in some, get out c-clamp and clamp together-yea it worked!!!!! Pull out first headlight and do same with c-clamp. Whew. Sealant all over counter, clean that up.
During all this the plasti dip eyebrow on one light gets a little messed up, so I will need to redo that one, had enought today, headlights go back on car.
So on a scale of 1-10 suckness 10 being the suckiest I give this a 6-7 suckness score. Maybe because I expected 2-3 hours and it took me 5 not counting about 2 hours on the board doing search, and maybe because I am getting old and have no patience, or maybe just dont like doing this type of crap. Dont know, this is my write up.
Overall, I deff. like the way the car looks from front better now. See pics below.
There is no clear on the eyebrows or marker light yet, I need to order.
First I have to rant a little,
1) search feature sucks since so many results appear. So many post to read to get the info you want. I will never make fun of someone who ask a question and gets responses to use the search feature. I guess since there are so many post on this board that is what happens.
2) Seperating and putting these lights together sucked!!!!I got sealant all over kitchen counter, I did not find any deffinite answers through search on how to put them back together/remove old sealant, just a vague one saying reheat in oven, blah!!!
3) Once I got to the point of putting them together I had to squeeze the 2 peices together with a c clamp to get them all the way together.
Ok, so I start by putting the headlight in the oven at 225 for 10 minutes (I have the grey sealant headlights), try to pull it apart with my hands (from reading searched post says comes apart easy, to me that would be by hand, silly me) so I put it back in a few more minutes, meanwhile find a screwdriver. Take it back out and pry with screwdriver and it comes apart leaving a mess of sealant. So now I think, how do I get the old sealant out easily. Go back to search feature, read through gobs of post, hmmmm, dont see any mention of removing the old sealant??? So I start picking and scraping at it and give up, screw this. I read in one of the post stick light back in oven to put back together with old sealant.
Now while apart I take out the amber maker lens, yea!!!!! I use the 3M kit to restore the clear lens, mine was not terrible like I see some of you guys post, but could use it, and one of my headlights has tiny spider cracks in the lens, figure lets see if can get them out. (did not come out)
After doing the 3M headlight restore I add the eybrows with Plasti dip. After doing this now it would have been a better idea to do the eyebrows after lights back toghether.
Now to put these biathes back together. I get some grey sealant from autozone, add it in the channel and attemp to put headlight 1 together. Not a chance, too much old sealant in the way not allowing both peices to close all the way. So take it apart and sealant is everywhere. Stick it in the oven at 250. Now thinking what is best way to put back together, middle black headlight seperator in first, or with clear lens at same time. 10 minutes later pull headlight from oven, put black seperator in first-excellent, next the clear lens, ooops got grey sealant on black seperator, open again, remove sealant, reinstall carefully not to get sealant on black seperator again. Now try to squeeze together, damn will not go all the way together and keeps pushing apart when I let go. Ok, back in the oven, take second light out of oven meanwhile and try this one. This one gets together almost all the way, bottom together and get clips on, top close, the end by the marker light still needs to go in some, get out c-clamp and clamp together-yea it worked!!!!! Pull out first headlight and do same with c-clamp. Whew. Sealant all over counter, clean that up.
During all this the plasti dip eyebrow on one light gets a little messed up, so I will need to redo that one, had enought today, headlights go back on car.
So on a scale of 1-10 suckness 10 being the suckiest I give this a 6-7 suckness score. Maybe because I expected 2-3 hours and it took me 5 not counting about 2 hours on the board doing search, and maybe because I am getting old and have no patience, or maybe just dont like doing this type of crap. Dont know, this is my write up.
Overall, I deff. like the way the car looks from front better now. See pics below.
There is no clear on the eyebrows or marker light yet, I need to order.
