Headlight Assembly Lens Replacement

Indycars

Administrator
Staff member

A few weeks ago I went to Pull-A-Part salvage yard , I needed both headlight assemblies. I
found one , it had a near perfect lens, but a busted case. I grabbed it thinking it would be
easy to change the lens.

Leaving Pull-A-Part I went home a different direction because of traffic and stumbled
across LKQ Self Service Auto Parts. I wasn’t even sure what they meant by Self Service,
so I Googled it found out its another salvage yard like Pull-A-Part.

Last Friday I went to LKQ to get two more headlight assemblies, mine were still busted
from the accident I had last July. They had what I needed, but as you might expect
the lens were very hazy. So I would replace one with the good lens I already had and
polish the other one.

I’m thinking I can just pull the 5 little stainless steel clips and pop the lens off.
No not going to happen, it’s not nearly that easy. I found out you have to
heat them to 200° F for 5-6 minutes so the adhesive will loosen up and you can
pry them apart. Sometimes it takes 2-3 trips to the oven before you can get them
completely apart.

The seal must be important to keep any moisture away from the lamps. So I
scrapped some off the extra parts I had and used it to make sure I had a good seal.



Once I was happy with the adhesive, I put the lens on and stuck it in the oven
again. This time I used 225°F, you have a limited time to work before it’s too
cool again. After 3 times in the oven I decided to use some local heating by
using the halogen lamps I keep in the garage. I used some C-Clamps to apply
a continuous pressure to help push the lens all the way on.



You can get the plastic too hot as you can see below.



The other side required polishing to remove the oxidation. I used some soapy
water and 1000, 2000 and 2500 grit Wet-or-Dry sand paper. Then I got out my
air operated die grinder so I could control the speed and soft cloth type wheel
with jeweler’s rouge and immediately you could see the shine and clarity of
the lens come back. I finished it off with some wax. Below you can see the results.




 

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