It was a complete failure......... I didnt want to paint them, I only wanted to take the yellow part out of the it to make it look all white. I was not able to open it! I am soo pissed i put it in the oven for about 10 minutes at 170. It got really hot but the glue was soo hard. It was almost impossible to take it apart. Any suggestions, I really want to get thest things opened guys!

 

i would also like details on how to get these things opened

 

There's a how-to guide in the how to section.

Original poster, I think you got the oven too hot and that's what hardened the adhesive. You only want to loosen it, but too much heat might have actually made it bond tighter. Everything I've heard and read about opening headlight assemblies says to put them in an oven at 110-120...

 

thx for the info

 

Man , it is a bitch . Once I got one area started I used a bunch of butter knives , ( lol yes really , it all I had ) Wedged one in and then worked my way all around , leaving a knife about every 4 inches or so so the area I pried didnt try to close back up . Be REEEEEEEEAL patient man

Also , Id watch cranking up the heat in the over . You started getting that high and the chrome on the bezel could possibly start to crackle or bubble up . definately should stay below 150 .

 

the oven business is fine to get it started.... but about halfway through the first headlight, i got tired of putting it back in the oven.... so i broke out my girlfriends hair dryer, cranked it on high, and voila.... instant melt.... made it go 10x quicker.

 

yea iw as wondering if you could use a heatgun or hairdryer

 

break that **** lol, no idk paint thinner, ne thing that wont damage the light, but can remove glue. Go to a hardware store.

 

Could try the 3m adhesive remover that you use to debadge stuff. That crap works like a charm on most adhesives, I don't know about the glue on the headlight assembly though.

 

heatgun works like a champ
you can get a good one at home depot for like 30 bones

 

in the process of doing this right now, my oven doesnt go under 170 so im letting it heat up a little bit not all the way then letting it sit for a while, peeling off lots of the adhesive

 

alright should the glue be soft enough that you can pull it apart with your hands? maybe im not letting it sit long enough in the oven but im prying and pulling like crazy and its not moving much plus i noticed there are screws on the back do those have to be undone first or no?

 

Will be starting on my headlights tonight as well

 

keep me updated on what you are doing because mine suckssss

 

heres a couple pics of the black headlight housing on my black LS... i plan on redoing just because i feel its not A+ material... but let me know if you like it...

http://community.webshots.com/album/399619790YgoheP

 

back wit black looks awesome

 

well the light it aparty now i just gotta paint it and finish it up, taking off all the extra adhesive SUCKS

 

Got mine apart as well. Although I was only able to get one of the two done (the other one didn't show up today as expected).

Here's a pic:


Will be masking it off and painting tomorrow. I thought about going color matching but after doing a crappy photochop I don't think it looks all that great on red, so flat black it is.

On the pics I've seen I can't tell if everyone is painting this part or not. So should I paint this part as well?

 

i taped that part off, also how did you get the little reflector off i tried prying it and i couldnt get it so i just taped it off

 

Just pushed fairly hard from the back of the reflector and it came out.

And taking the remaining glue off sucks!! It took me 1.5hrs just to get the headlight housing clean, and I haven't even touched the lens yet. Best way I've found is to use a heat gun and a screw driver. I tried putting it in the freezer to see if the glue would come off easier but that just made it harder to deal with.

After looking harder at the pics it appears that SilverSC/SS painted his, while sweetthe shocker didn't. i'm probably going to paint it as I think it looks a little cleaner with just the chrome ring.

 

hey what did you do to get the black housing?? that looks badass and i want to do that to my black SS

 

sweettheshocker: Those look pretty nice on your car. Good job

 

I did paint that area . Any oem headlight like this has the ribbed areas painted . If you leave it chrome there Im not sure how it would look .

 

that seems like it is part of the light projection, if you paint it it might mess up light output, imo

 

I masked off the "rings" around the light bezels and the interior of them. I JUST applied my primer, so tomorrow I should have her done and posting pics. For anyone interested in the color-mathced housing, the paint code is in the trunk near the sapre tire on the left side, says BC/CC then something like U9414 (Rally Yellow code). A pint of custom blended coded paint ran me $13 + $13 more for hardener to add in when I apply the paint.
I'll keep you all posted on it.