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taillights with water stains???

pigpen

By pigpen,
in Stereo and Electrical Mods

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pigpen Newbie

pigpen

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The passenger side taillight on my 87 quest has a rusty water stain across it...and so does the replacement I ordered off ebay... I know I could polish it out if I could get it apart (without breaking it)...has anyone had to remove the clear lense of their taillight and is there anything that works to soften the adhesive they used to bond it in??? Its pretty tenacious stuff...
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fijiblueman Newbie

fijiblueman

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yes you can. take a heat gun and heat them up around the perimiter from thebackside. take a regular screwdriver and gently pry them apart at the clips. they areglued and clipped together. d_venable had a nicelittle video he made for us and that is what i used. Good luck

 

 

 

 

Paul

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starquestG54B Newbie

starquestG54B

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DONT pry on a corner of the lense when doing this! heat it ALL evenly ! best tool to use is a thin but wide scraper. once lense is off remove orig glue while its still hot . go get some clear silicone , clean lense and then seal it backup with the silicone ! if you crack the lense but it doesn't break get some clear toe nail polish and apply it to the crack.
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D_Venable Newbie

D_Venable

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if you can see the rusty water stains, more than likely the reflectors behind the inner red lenses are all rusted as well. What I did with the set for my flatty is pulled the rusted metal reflectors out, paint the housing gloss black, then used a chrome spray paint (I used ALSA Corp., not cheap though) to get some reflectiveness back, and it works great.

 

Black paint

http://26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10030/P3260630.jpg

 

Can of Chrome

http://26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10030/P3260635.jpg

 

I applied too many coats though, so it came out more like an aluminum paint. go thin if you use the alsa stuff. I'd suggest testing on something else if you go this deep into the tails though, so you don't have to redo it.

 

Early on, before I added more coats (should have stopped here)

http://26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10030/P3270651.jpg

http://26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10030/P3270652.jpg

 

Where I ended, but it still lights up nicely with new 1157 bulbs

http://26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10030/P3270654.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here's the vid I did that was mentioned above

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_kYZ1Za6Zk

 

happy disassembling

 

Derek

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alp247 Newbie

alp247

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I'll put in my 2 cents. I wish I had the time to take pictures but I have been busy so I give props to the guy who made the video using a heat gun.

 

1st I don’t recommend putting your taillight in the oven. I mean unless you have done it before...you will have a high chance of warping your taillight housing and the lens...maybe both. I have seen it happen many times and since our taillights are getting harder to find...I don’t recommend it

 

2nd heat gun is fine but same thing as well. If you set the gun too high, too close to the part or get impatient you will do the same thing and melt/warp your housing/lens. Also it takes way too long to heat the part evenly and when you are warming one side the other side gets cold.

 

I have opened many of these without cracking the outer lens or warping the housing. The hot water bath is the best way to get the glue that seals the lens soft. If you submerge your complete taillight housing (removing the electrical stuff of course) in HOT water (practically to the point of boiling water) and let it soak for like 1 min. It will evenly heat the complete housing and warm the glue that holds the lens together.

 

***before you soak the taillight look behind the taillight housing and look for the tabs that the lens uses to snap into the back housing. It’s good to know where these are at before you start. These are important locations for later when you start prying the lens***

 

1) Completely soak in hot water 1 min (in the sink or big tub that can stand hot water)

 

2) Remove from water and drain (just good enough so you don’t get wet or burned from the hot water. If you take too long on this part you will allow the taillight to cool down)

 

3) Put taillight on a towel to prevent the lens from getting scratched and moving around

 

4) Watch the video to understand this part. Pry with the lens toward you like the video. ****IMPORTANT*** pry at the tabs first!!! Preferable start to one side of the lens (top left or top right) and work your way to the other side slowly and in small steps. I don’t recommend random like the video and personally I think he got lucky the lens didn’t crack. After about 1 min you need to re-soak the part to keep the glue from getting hard again. Repeat as necessary until the lens is off. If you feel the lens is going to break ***DO NOT FORCE IT*** re-soak it and try again. FYI when prying at the tabs at times it will make a pop sound...that is normal since you are popping it out of the hole it's popped into. Good luck and I hope this helps you out.

 

Lastly I just want to say, "PERFORM THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK" Do not message me back saying that my method didn't work and your lens cracked. I am just providing my experience and what worked for me when I remove my lens from my taillight housing. I am not an expert ...just have some experience in this.

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NudeLobster Newbie

NudeLobster

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D_ven, how did you keep the housings from getting scarred by the screwdriver with the heat gun? when doing my fog lights, the screw driver would just dig into the soft plastic housing of the fogs instead of pry on the lense, leaving scares in the hot soft plastic. How did you avoid this? Might have to try the water bath.

 

-Justin

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Burton Newbie

Burton

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You guys need to be using the heat gun on the back sides of the housings- especially on the tails. Heating from the front side might warp the lens. Also, if you're heating up your housings hard enough to where the screwdriver distorts the housing, rather than just softening the glue, you either need to use a lower setting on the heat gun, or hold the heat gun further away.
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pigpen Newbie

pigpen

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tried both methods...water bath and the heat gun...both work...the key is patience in both of them...used a 1" paint scraper which worked better than the screwdriver(more surface area)...heat the back of the housing (like burton said) and use a low setting for heat...you could use a hair dryer too if you don't have a gun...just takes longer....the water bath worked nicely...more even heat than the gun...both lights are clean, polished, and ready to go back together...thanks eveyone...
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Burton Newbie

Burton

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4) Watch the video to understand this part. Pry with the lens toward you like the video. ****IMPORTANT*** pry at the tabs first!!! Preferable start to one side of the lens (top left or top right) and work your way to the other side slowly and in small steps. I dont recommend random like the video and personally I think he got lucky the lens didnt crack. After about 1 min you need to re-soak the part to keep the glue from getting hard again. Repeat as necessary until the lens is off. If you feel the lens is going to break ***DO NOT FORCE IT*** re-soak it and try again. FYI when prying at the tabs at times it will make a pop sound...that is normal since you are popping it out of the hole it's popped into. Good luck and I hope this helps you out.

 

 

 

This may not be the "right" or "perfect" way to do this, but the first thing I do before even plugging in the heat gun is bust those little snap tabs off. The first tailight I did, fighting those tabs caused me to crack the lens. I decided to continue with the process and tried some stuff since the tailight was now worthless anyway. I found with those tabs busted off it is about 90% easier to remove the lens. As long as your are using a quality sealant/adhesive when you put the lens back in, they will stay put and not leak, tabs or not.

 

 

With the tabs gone and the housing heated I start prying on the lens on the end that would be by the liscense plate. IMO you get a little better leverage popping it off long ways instead of top to bottom. Be gentle with prying at it until you get it up a little bit, and then you can pull it out the rest of the way by hand. Just be slow popping it off that last little bit on the other end where are corners in the rib. By having those tabs out, if the glue does start to harden before you have it all the way off, you can can stop and take the heat gun after it again without the lens accidentally snapping back into place.

Edited by Burton
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NudeLobster Newbie

NudeLobster

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Burton how did you break the tabs? what kind of tabs are they? Also, I dont want to start a whole new thread, so I'm semi-jacking here...but does anyone know if the process is the same for 83 tails? considering most everything is different on an 83, I thought I'd ask before I do something wrong.

 

thanks,

-Justin

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D_Venable Newbie

D_Venable

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Justin, on the fogs, I heated from the front, I found the same issue with the different plastic used for the fog housings, I tried to keep as much of the heat on the lens (yeah, sounds wrong, but the housing is more prone to warp on the fogs than the lenses)

 

Patience again is key, the amber turn lens is plastic while the fog lens is glass, and they both use a different glue too (one for the fog lens stinks when heated too)

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Burton Newbie

Burton

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Burton how did you break the tabs? what kind of tabs are they? Also, I dont want to start a whole new thread, so I'm semi-jacking here...but does anyone know if the process is the same for 83 tails? considering most everything is different on an 83, I thought I'd ask before I do something wrong.

 

thanks,

-Justin

 

 

I pry at the tabs with a very small flathead or a pick tool until they break off. Not sure how the 83's come apart, and have never even had a set in my hand to look at, but I would guess they come off the same.

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NudeLobster Newbie

NudeLobster

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Well I used the hot water method, very nice method. No tabs on the 83's to worry about :D

 

Now cleaning and polishing. It's gonna take A LOT of sealant to seal all these back up. They make the grooves that the lenses sit in hugeee. Gotta make sure the lenses are centered too.

 

-Justin

 

ninja edit:

 

no one has posted how to do this. Does anyone know how to remove the clear back up light lens from the rest of the lens? The plastic surround base thing for the clear reverse is all dirty and making the clear look dirty and foggy. I want to remove the clear lense square and clean everything out in there. Any input? again no means to thread jack, but this continues the convo of tail light disassembly and could still help OP ;)

 

ninja edit#2

 

no one has really said what to do to actually get rid of the water stains. My passenger side lenses polished up BEAUTIFULLY using meguires plastx polish. They look new. Now for some reason, the driver side lenses have the same water stains as the passenger, but no matter how much I polish it, the water stains won't go away, so it still has dull finish to lense, which is not acceptable, because I don't want one new tail light and one dull older tail light.

 

-Justin

-Justin

Edited by NudeLobster
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pigpen Newbie

pigpen

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I used meguars plastix too...also used a 3m headlight polish kit for some of the heavier deposits...just follow the instructions...my Mac tools guy is promoting some new product that is really good but a bit pricey...its nice..no sanding just wipe on...it also puts a uv protectant back on the plastic...I'll try to find out what it is... B)
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