I just installed my clear diffusers yesterday

Just had a few things I thought I'd pass on for the benefit of others who might be doing this:

• I used the oven bake method to soften up the sealant, and taking apart my lights was a breeze. I heated the lights up for about 10 minutes at 240 degrees (but my oven tends to run a little low and I don't know exactly what the temp was). My headlights basically came apart with one strong, hard pull. I didn't use scrapers or spacers. Just some gloves to keep my hands from burning up. If you're using the oven method and your headlights don't seem to be budging, you might try putting them back in the oven for a bit more time and maybe increasing the temp. I highly recommend using the oven method
  
  
• I didn't remove the ballast or any other part of the HIDs and everything seems to be working just fine (knock on wood...)
  
  
• I also used the oven bake method to put the headlights back together. After I was done installing the clear diffusers, I kinda put the headlight back together as best I could. I couldn't quite push the two parts of the light together cause the sealant had cooled and was a bit harder. I then just put the whole assembly back in the oven for about the same amount of time as when I was disassembling them and then I pushed the two parts of the headlights back together until all the tabs locked into place.
  
  
• Also, I didn't use any additional sealant. Seeing how much of the original sealant there was, I can't imagine there would be a leak. I think not getting a good seal would be more of an issue if I hadn't baked the headlights to put them back together. I also think that the oven method helps dry out the insides of the headlights. It was drizzling here in Southern California immediately before and after I put my lights back on the car and it was rained during the night. And so far I don't have any fogging issues (knock on wood again...)
  
  
• Be carefull of any bits of sealant that might be laying around. If you happen to get some on the visible portion of your headlights its kind of a pain to clean up . [edit]traynspotting says that Goo Gone will clean up the sealant with ease - it may be a good idea to keep some on hand prior to starting. So if any gets on the inside portion of the lenses you can clean it up right away.[/edit]
  
  
• I painted my bulbs with high-temp silver spray paint to limit the amount of amber that was visible through the clear diffusers. I heard about this technique at a local meet/drive and it worked beatifully. Now the amber isn't visible (unless you look really closely), but the bulbs still light up amber.

 

I also used this method to reseal my headlights. I did use some clamps to help close to lamp up tight. The clamps had rubber covers over the teeth.

So now that you have seen the diffuser first hand, please share your impression of the qualitly of the lens, the over all fittment and the finished look.

 

The diffusers look great. It seems very high quality and they seem to have captured all the detail of the original diffusers.

The one thing I did notice is that they are relatively soft, whereas the orignal amber diffusers are a very hard plastic. I suppose this softness is what causes them to sometimes require softening prior to installation. But, this didn't pose any problems for me. I fact, its probably a good thing. When removing my amber diffusers, I snapped off one of the tabs holding it in place. This certainly wasn't an issue with the softer, clear diffusers. They also held up fine when baking the assembly for resealing.

 

I posted this pic on the Silverstone thread in the Photo Gallery, but for those who didn't see it...

 

Reading your first post, is it correct to say that the stock bulbs inside are yellow? How many bulbs are actually behind the amber lens?
I'm a little confused by one of Rick's earlier posts about having to solder on a different bulb socket so the "proper" bulb can be used. I assumed that the "proper" bulb was a yellow one.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by xviper
[B]Reading your first post, is it correct to say that the stock bulbs inside are yellow?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Jshahan
[B]

xviper

 

edasaurus, exactly what kind of spray paint did you use? I'm worried that with my luck I'll get the wrong kind and my bulbs won't come on at all.

 

xviper, The two bulbs are amber. That's why I painted them silver - I didn't want the amber to show through the clear diffuser. I found the 194 ambers pretty easily at a local autoshop. The 7440s were a bit harder to find. I ended up going to a specialty car shop. The ones I used were Polarg M-1. [edit] the stock bulbs are clear[/edit]

drjekyll2000, I'm not sure if it matters too much what kind of paint you use. I chose to use a "high heat" spray paint designed to withstand higher temps. But I know others have used regular spray paint and it seems to work just fine. I sprayed them pretty lightly until most of the amber wasn't visible.

 

Thanks.