My car has a damaged headlight cover due to an accident the PO had. I picked up a used headlight with a broken housing but a great clear cover. There is a lot of info on utube and on line about baking headlights so the cover can be separated from the housing (the heat softens up the sealing glue, so the pieces can be separated) has anyone here done that to a S 2000 headlight, if so what temp for how long and any recommendations for things to avoid?

 

check the DIY or search feature. there is a DIY tutorial for just about anything possible for the s2000. If you're baking your ap1 headlights search for mulderized.

 

Hey bud, good news, you dont HAVE to bake them. You can simply use a heat gun and warm the edges. I restored both headlights and they came out perfectly. I posted a bunch of before and after pictures in my gallery. Let me know if you have any other questions, if you are like me then youre probably worried to throw them in the oven lol.

 

Christolf, Thanks, I'll search later. Shaybird, Thanks, I looked at your headlight restoration gallery, there was a utube of a guy that used a propane torch to heat his headlights, but when he was separating them it looked like the adhesive had dried up and the heat wasn't really doing much, there was not any stringy glue stretching between the parts. I'll try it with a heat gun on the one with the cracked housing first, then do the damaged one. I see your pictures, did you replace the covers or just polish the originals (if you were just polishing them then probably no reason to take them apart?).

For everyone: Does anyone know of someone selling the clear plastics to replace the amber turn signal section?, the car is black and I would prefer white to amber. Or are there any other good upgrades, DIY or reasonable parts purchase that people recommend doing while the headlights are apart? Again my car is AP1, mods that aren't too involved please, not like drilling 120 holes and individually wiring up LED's. Thanks in advance, good forum for sharing

 

http://www.ricks2k.com/ <--They sell clear and smoked diffusers.

Or you can just take off the amber and leave it as is. That looks better IMO.

 

i've baked AP1 headlights three times. somewhere around 200-220 for ten or fifteen minutes, then pull em out and start pulling the lens from the housing. i'd typically work on them for 7 minutes then throw them back in for 10 minutes, repeat. i recommend gloves, a damp towel under the headlights (just in case, i just don't like the idea of raw plastic on metal oven rack. also! make sure you headlight fits in your oven BEFORE you heat it up. ask me how i know that last part. i recommend you touch the painted shroud as little as possible. and if you do, with gloves. its brittle and easily comes off.

the hardest areas are the corners and the fender side vertical part of the headlight because of the way they designed the headlight.


would typically take me 30 minutes each light. make sure the inside of the headlight and lens are impeccably clean before you seal it back up.

 

I've used both methods, the oven is a lot easier. I think I used 275 degrees last time.

 

When I did mine I was opening them because there was water inside. So I decided at that point to do a complete restoration from the inside out. I have heard the oven works, and for some it works great, but Im still a skeptic about throwing them in there. Id rather use a controlled method of applying heat to a specified area. That being said, I wouldnt use a blow torch, just a heat gun. Be patient and it will work out perfectly.

 

Thanks for the inputs, One quick question, what did you guys use to reseal them, I've seen people use silicone which would provide a great seal, but unless is was only on the outside where it can be cut apart(as opposed to in the sealing grooves), it doesn't seem like you'd ever be able to open them up again without cracking them apart, the factory glue softens up with heat, silicone is pretty unaffected by heat.

 

I used black silicone. You can throw them in the oven before you put the two pieces together to soften up the factory goop. Get a bag of plastic clamps from a hardware store to make it easy to keep pressure while they're drying. I used the oven for most, but I also have a heat gun that I used for touch-up when putting the two pieces back together.