R34 Headlight Restoration

[SABBAi]

Hi guys,

I thought I'd post up some pics of a pair of headlights I repaired and restored. They arrived to me in average condition with damaged rear housings, some severe yellowing and previous internal lens coating work.

The damage on the rear housing was tidied up and the sharp broken edges were cut away. Some new plastic of a suitable shape was found and cut out to suit. Once I was happy with the shaping, I plastic welded the replacement plastic into place.

(The green is a ball of tape to stop any cut off plastic falling into the housing)

The outside of both lenses were wet sanded, starting off at 1500grit and working up to 2500grit (In the future I would go up to 3000grit).

This revealed the coating on the inside of the lens which meant the headlight had to come apart. It's hard to see, but there is an odd shape on the surface. That is where I've started wetsanding. Once done I then polished the inside of the lens.

The reflectors and internals were given a tidy up and the loose indicator lenses were fixed into place. Here they are back together ready for external polishing.

I used Scratch-X to begin with and worked my way up from using Menzerna 1000, 2500, 5000.

From this they were then hit with Menzerna UF, followed by 4 layers of AMMO Skin and AMMO Creme.

Enjoy!!

[darksky34]

excellent! i'd love to carry out these restorations, as buying good condition headlights are so expensive, and all it takes is a little time to fix up a damaged set. great work mate

[chindodood]

we need ppl like you in sydney

[90RNA]

What's the easiest way to crack open the lights ? I e front lens off the plastic housing ?

[niZmO_Man]

Heat the glue where the plastic meets the housing, either with a heat gun or stick it in the oven for a few minutes @ 120°C. Once the glue becomes tacky, you can easily pry off the lens.

[90RNA]

Ok thanks ... And what's best to re seal with ?

Use same procedure weather or not it's glass lense or plastic ?

Thanks

[niZmO_Man]

The existing glue should be enough to seal it up. Just heat, clamp together and wait for it to cool.

You can use Butyl rubber glue (they come in strips/rolls).

Post R32 are plastic lens I believe. R32 and R31 are glass.

[90RNA]

So 32s can still be taken apart to access inside n paint housings ect ?

[90RNA]

Great work on the 34 head lights btw

[Sinista32]

So 32s can still be taken apart to access inside n paint housings ect ?

Yes

[SABBAi]

Thanks for the kind words guys. As has already been explained, the headlights can be removed with either a hot air gun or a putting them in the oven. I prefer to use a hot air gun.

excellent! i'd love to carry out these restorations, as buying good condition headlights are so expensive, and all it takes is a little time to fix up a damaged set. great work mate

Thanks mate. A little time and effort gives the best results

we need ppl like you in sydney

Cheers. Shoot me a PM

Great work on the 34 head lights btw

Thanks mate.

[TyleR34]

What are the chances of hiring your services to do the same to my headlights?

[Gtr800]

You can easily do a Halo conversion like this one. I have a friend from Italy now works at vivagarage and can do all headlights. Mine is this.

[ARTZ]

Hows the protectabt holdng up...i fond the heat from.the lights just tends to burn it off very quickly...

Really need to let some proper UV protectabt on there because once you strip off the coating it will cause them to yellow from.the inside out...

Have also heard about clearcoating them, haven't tried it tho...but a clear heatpeoof paint should work well in theory..

[junkie]

I'll be testing clear coating on an old toyota echo. Will probably do a small write-up with process and results

[SABBAi]

Rubbing the lenses back and clear coating them is the best option.

[MikeR34GTT]

Rubbing the lenses back and clear coating them is the best option.

Digging up an old thread here, getting desperate.

Mine are pretty bad, followed a lot of advice via SAU and my mechanic who reccomended to buy a headlight restoration kit, but much of the discolouration is on the interior, not exterior.

I've just tee'd up a cut and polish for mine (black, looking very dull at the moment) and was wondering who might be able to do this work for me as I'm not that comfortable whacking parts of my car in the oven

[Burger]

Digging up an old thread here, getting desperate.

Mine are pretty bad, followed a lot of advice via SAU and my mechanic who reccomended to buy a headlight restoration kit, but much of the discolouration is on the interior, not exterior.

I've just tee'd up a cut and polish for mine (black, looking very dull at the moment) and was wondering who might be able to do this work for me as I'm not that comfortable whacking parts of my car in the oven

I've never seen them fade on the inside. If they're that stuffed, find a replacement set.

[SABBAi]

Digging up an old thread here, getting desperate.

Mine are pretty bad, followed a lot of advice via SAU and my mechanic who reccomended to buy a headlight restoration kit, but much of the discolouration is on the interior, not exterior.

I've just tee'd up a cut and polish for mine (black, looking very dull at the moment) and was wondering who might be able to do this work for me as I'm not that comfortable whacking parts of my car in the oven

Where are you located mate?

[MikeR34GTT]

Where are you located mate?

Latrobe Valley, Victoria - had a recent cut and polish done, cherry glaze etc (came up a million bucks) and spike of the lights, was quoted 100 per light. Sound about right? Not sure if that's interior or exterior.

I know some of these guys are just gonna be like "get new ones" but id rather have a crack at another solution before I dish out bulk coin because they are quite expensive