V35 Headlight Modifications

[SNEEZYC34]

Hey guys

Im looking at taking my wife's v35 head lights apart and painting the insides back and polishing up the lenses.

I have never done this before so any help would be great.

I plan on starting it on Friday night and finishing it by Sunday night as this is her daily car.

Does anyone have any suggestions with method? paint? what not to paint etc?

Any help would be much appreciated

Thanks

Kris

[Superpoo]

I finished mine a few months ago, split the headlights painted surrounds and resealed. Fairly simple stuff, the mistake I made - and it was a huge mistake - was to try and clear coat the lights for more protection/shine. I'd watched some youtube videos of people clear coating with great success, apparently they wern't using acrylic. When I sprayed the lights they looked good for a few minits then they literaly melted! The fist milimeter or two of the light surface crazed like a turtle shell. I ended up sanding from 300 up to 2000 to get a clear lense again - literaly days of sanding and polishing.

Anyway, the process is all over the net, take out the screws (about 3 or 4 from memory), bang em in the oven and pry them appart (google the temps). The lights are made up of lots of pieces, so painting them is easy. If you want to get rid of the orange indicator you need to cut it out, I just wanted my lights back together at this stage. A full weekend is just enough time to do it right. I used auto paint for the satin black - no clear coat. I wouldn't try and polish the inside, it has some tight corners that would be virtualy impossible to do right.

[SNEEZYC34]

cheers for the reply bud,

whats your lights like at night??? i see you painted most of the light black, looks great but i was worried about the lights not being bright enough coz they cant "reflect as much?

[Superpoo]

The reflector is separate, painting the surround doesn't effect the light output. If you look at the surround you will see that there is no surface that helps light output, they are just for looks. There is a separate section to the high beam light that is under the low beam tube (hard to explain) I didn't paint that. The early lights don't even have that part.

[SNEEZYC34]

Ah yep, hopefully get it all done in a weekend.

what did you use to glue the lights back together? i have the strongest sikiflex out there?

Kris

[niZmO_Man]

Butyl rubber glue, pretty easy to find a roll on ebay. But your existing glue should be enough (stick it back in the oven to warm them up and squeeze the lens and housing together).

You can do it in a day.

[Superpoo]

Yes, what niZmO_Man said, avoid sikaflex.

[SNEEZYC34]

sweet cheers guys appreciate all the help and advice

[SNEEZYC34]

So, im gonna start taking the lights out tonight.

anyone have any suggestions on best way????

i knoe front bar has to come off, which is gonna be fun but anything else we should remove to amke it easier???

i ahve also tried googling the temperature we should use to take lights apart in oven but can see to find anyhing consistant

[niZmO_Man]

Temp = about 120degC, leave it in there for a few minutes then remove from oven and pry open.

[Superpoo]

There are 4 bolts and wiring holding in the lights (also indicators in bar), once you drop the bar you will see them, one in the engine bay at the top, one in the side, 2 at the front.

Can be done by undoing the top and sides of the bar and pulling it forward, very high chance of scratching the paint unless you tape the sides... even then?

[SNEEZYC34]

So, after a loooooong weekend the lights are finally done.

Took a lot longr than what i thought, being old lights the insides had a few cracks on them, i tried to repair them but just didnt look right, so cleaned them up and tarted again, ypu cant really see the cracks anyway once the lights back together.

Faitly simple process, but polishing the clear lenses took the longest, there was a film on the inside of one and it took about 4 hours to clean off.

Heres a few pics of how they turned out, will post a pic of them on the car soon once i have chance to take a better picc in the day time.

When prying them apart though i lost some of the glue, i had some sikiflex that i used to put on her roof spoiler so i used some of that. seems to be good s its been raining since sunday and no water in lights so very happy

[LEE490]

Nice work Kris. Should look really nice once they are back on the car!

[SNEEZYC34]

Yeah there finally back on and the wifes happy as, they looks amazing, but still cant wait to get her some aftermarket lights lol

[Superpoo]

They look great!

I do have some aftermarket for sale I can do a deal on...

[SNEEZYC34]

Few pics of the lights back on

[niZmO_Man]

Looks great. Now do a HID conversion (with projectors).

[SNEEZYC34]

Yeah she seems fair happy with them for now =)

[niZmO_Man]

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/topic/378245-v35-sedan-headlights-with-led/page-2

Do it!

[SNEEZYC34]

Yeah i recon the next time i take them out it will be to get all new lights, these look awesome at the moment though, also just got her some front clear indicators which look awesome