Smoking Headlights

  1. Established Member Joined: Jul 2006 Manchester Posts: 1271 Honda Civic 53 Plate
    #1
    Easyiest and quickest way

    any1 got a step by step guide

    and how long technically should it take from start to finish in days?
  2. West Midlands Joined: Nov 2005 Nuneaton (West Mids) Posts: 13835 '64 Volvo V40 R’Design, '89 Ph1 309 GTi, ‘97 Mk1 S
    #2
    Take off the lights first
    Get either hairdryer, heat gun or use oven and heat around the edges of the glass so that the glue goes soft
    Carefully begin to prise off the glass from the rear of the unit
    Pull out the insert
    Rub insert down
    Primer (couple of coats)
    Paint (as many coats as you feel necessary)
    Replace insert
    Heat glue up again slightly
    Re-attach the glass lens to the rear of the unit

    Thats pretty much it
  3. Regular Poster Joined: Sep 2006 south shields Posts: 450 Saxo VTs
    #3
    you get a bad throat smoking head lights mind,

    can you not buy tint spray thats only like a tena !
  4. Established Member Joined: Jul 2006 Manchester Posts: 1271 Honda Civic 53 Plate
    #4
    haha that old chestnut. lol wills how long u think it'd take n do i need to sand n laquer!
  5. West Midlands Joined: Nov 2005 Nuneaton (West Mids) Posts: 13835 '64 Volvo V40 R’Design, '89 Ph1 309 GTi, ‘97 Mk1 S
    #5
    To do it properly it could take a while. Dismantled some headlights earlier and it took about 20 minutes to detatch the lens from the rear of the unit

    Then you'll need to sand the insert a bit first- this is mainly just to give the primer a little more rough surface to stick to (10 minutes per insert)

    Put on a layer of primer and allow to dry a bit (15 minutes to 1/2 hour)
    Do same again

    When this has dried properly:

    Then do a few coats of the colour and allow to dry as much as possible. perhaps give 1/2 hour between coats, maybe more if the weathers cold and damp

    Its ideal to give a few coats of laquer, but i think some people miss out this bit as the paint isnt exposed to the weather outside. I personally would put a layer or 2 on

    Then another half hour to warm the glue up again and reattach the lens.


    You could do it all in an afternoon. it really depends how thorough you want the job to be. Roughly 3/4 hours give or take a bit
  6. Established Member Joined: Jul 2006 Manchester Posts: 1271 Honda Civic 53 Plate
    #6
    k i was gonna have a go tonight but dunno coz i need to drive to work tomorrow morning. so might be a bit risky.

    is it hard to take the lights out the car?
  7. Frequent Poster Joined: Oct 2005 Southampton United Kingdom (England) Posts: 633 Audi A3 Quattro
    #7
    very easy normaly one screw. just twist it and its off...ntohing to do, open up the boot. there should be 1 to 2 screws holding them on, its just like a unit.
  8. West Midlands Joined: Nov 2005 Nuneaton (West Mids) Posts: 13835 '64 Volvo V40 R’Design, '89 Ph1 309 GTi, ‘97 Mk1 S
    #8
    Brooksy its 1 nut to undo on rear lights, not headlights

    For headlights there is 3 bolts to undo, their locations vary depending on wether you have a mk1 model or a mk2 (guessing mk2)
  9. Saxperience Hardcore! Joined: Oct 2005 Aycliffe Posts: 32205 Saxo VTS
    #9
    I can turn around a set of lights in 3 hours pow.
  10. West Midlands Joined: Nov 2005 Nuneaton (West Mids) Posts: 13835 '64 Volvo V40 R’Design, '89 Ph1 309 GTi, ‘97 Mk1 S
    #10
    You're a veteran though Ads
  11. Established Member Joined: Jul 2006 Manchester Posts: 1271 Honda Civic 53 Plate
    #11
    it's a mk2 and i'm going to have a bash at this tomorrow as i'm off work.
    what do you think people

    smoked ?
    or
    colour coded ? for a wicked red fully colour coded saxo.

    and what type of black should i get ..... matt or shiny lol
  12. Saxperience Addict Joined: Sep 2003 Posts: 13761
    #12
    Why not look at the Sticky thread in the top of this section :-S