I was reading the other day about people putting their headlights in the oven to soften the bonding agent on them... and thus take them apart... but the headlights they were talking about had glass faces... (which wouldnt melt when face down)... sorry if this is a bit noobie, but on my TS, the covers appear to be plastic...

does this mean i can just freely take them apart? or whats the method to get the faces of them? (a hairdryer?) and another thing... i tried to get the headlights out, and am i right in thinking the indicators need to come out first? and if so, is the plastic "pop in" to the car frame all that holds it there?

thanks in advance!

thats not right at all, all 2nd gen models should have glass headlights

you might have a plastic headlight cover ontop of the head light maybe?

you're right, the indicator needs to come off first, like u said theres the little plastic pop thing inside the engine bay.

once that is off there are 4 bolts holding each headlight

you can use a hairdryer and slowly pry your way into it, or go for gold and chuck it in the oven.
be careful as the glass will get hot! and plastics may melt, so keep an eye out and use mittens. you will still need a hairdryer as the silicon will get cold after a while.

and have some spare silicon in a tube to seal it up when done.

why are u taking it out?

thats not right at all, all 2nd gen models should have glass headlights

you might have a plastic headlight cover ontop of the head light maybe?

you're right, the indicator needs to come off first, like u said theres the little plastic pop thing inside the engine bay.

once that is off there are 4 bolts holding each headlight

you can use a hairdryer and slowly pry your way into it, or go for gold and chuck it in the oven.
be careful as the glass will get hot! and plastics may melt, so keep an eye out and use mittens. you will still need a hairdryer as the silicon will get cold after a while.

and have some spare silicon in a tube to seal it up when done.

why are u taking it out?

maybe its a cover over it?... doesnt look like it but i could be wrong, its happened before, ill take em out and have a look! cos when i was tapping the face, it looks and sounds deadset like plastic...

Im taking them apart cos im going to paint the chrome on the outerside of the lightbulb backing (that faces forward... not the curved inner... black! give the lights a black border, I got some of that night shade and i was going to do a border with that on the outside, but i figured, itll look better from "within" if you know what i mean... like proper paras... cos i cant afford the real thing yet lol

thanks mate appreciated, i shall keep at it!

thanks for the advice getting the covers off! yeap glass... all good, next time ill tap it with something... THATS NOT PLASTIC ITSELF!!! :bowrofl:

anyways, so i painted the inside black, heres a pic! add a little bit of shading to this and it'll come up nicely! just gives the headlights a little bit more depth, cos really as stock, theyre just to "bright"!!! what do you think? when i do the second one and put them on, ill take another pic

thanks

Hot air gun is the best bet, but not many people have them. Let's you target specific areas and not heat up bits you don't want to.
Hair dryers would be a bit underpowered I would think, but maybe it'd be OK if you hold it right up close.

looks good - looks better than the stickers that you often see on the outside of the lenses replicating the same thing...
sorry if others here have that - IMO this one looks much better *hides*

when doing it in the oven, i was always told to heat it up slowly - dont go dropping it into a preheated 180 degree oven unless you want to melt the plastics...
max of about 80degrees should be enough to soften the black gunk - but you have done it now! lol

pics of when they are both done and on the car!

thanks for the advice getting the covers off! yeap glass... all good, next time ill tap it with something... THATS NOT PLASTIC ITSELF!!! :bowrofl:

anyways, so i painted the inside black, heres a pic! add a little bit of shading to this and it'll come up nicely! just gives the headlights a little bit more depth, cos really as stock, theyre just to "bright"!!! what do you think? when i do the second one and put them on, ill take another pic

thanks


I likes it, sort of a stocko parabolic cross thing going there :cool:

Hot air gun is the best bet, but not many people have them. Let's you target specific areas and not heat up bits you don't want to.
Hair dryers would be a bit underpowered I would think, but maybe it'd be OK if you hold it right up close.

yeah i used a hairdryer, had to heat up the glass for about 10-15 mins str8 just to get it hot enough, but it worked out ok in the end!!

so after painting the inside and poppin the covers back on i thought - "it needs to be darker inside" that way i can avoid having to tint the front of the cover at all and risk gettin pulled over! so what i thought was "the sides of the cover are covered by various car parts anyways, so why not paint those up dark tint and reduce the light coming through even more! so thats what i did! Obviously if the lights are in the sun, itll be bright as, but not directly in the sun, its nice and shady in there!

i also shaded the indicators aswell as they were sticking out a bit after, actually... i shaded them way too much, so they still stick out lol

soz for the crappy pics from my phone, but its gettin dark and i just finished!

thanks, peace

oh and also, i dint do it cos i dint have the materials at hand, but you could fashion a covering for the light casing on the inside of the headlight, which extends to the edges of the headlight box, with circular shapes cut out of them. Obviously not too smaller shapes or there wouldnt be enough light coming out at all, but just enough to curve off the straightness of the light as it is stock! this would extend the darkened area even further, and give them even more of a para look, and also not on the outside! so if youre goin to give this a go, try this, id like to know what it looks like too lol

Nope sorry ..... you were doin great ................ and then ya lost me :)

lol poor mans para's
i have a set of them sitting in my garage but the reflectors had peeled so i replaced them
have now replaced the TS with a KS and sold the TS :D

i thought it looked "unique" and i gotta say i love the lighting power from the 2nd gen lights :shock:

lol poor mans para's
i have a set of them sitting in my garage but the reflectors had peeled so i replaced them
have now replaced the TS with a KS and sold the TS :D

i thought it looked "unique" and i gotta say i love the lighting power from the 2nd gen lights :shock:

i like to think of them as my ghetto para's lol you know, as im driving around the hoods of the south (central) eastern suburbs...

they don't look too bad