z284pwr Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 I did a manual search of this and I couldn't find much, so I went ahead and posted a new topic, anyways, I'm looking for info on what is to be done to take the 1st gen headlight/foglights. Mainly the foglights, the ones of the TGP are nice and yellowed, imagine that So I want to take them apart and attempt to clean then up. Luckily we can get another set if we do accidently mess these ones up, but anyways, from previous readings, I'm assuming it requires the oven treatment? If so, any tips on how long/what temperature is required to get them apart with the least possibility of damage. Oh and then from what I understand, its possible to sand the plastic foglights to make then cleaner and clearer. Ugly yellow foglights just don't mesh with nice clear glass headlights. So if anyone does have any info to share I would appreciate it, thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfewtrail Posted January 28, 2006 Report Share Posted January 28, 2006 I'd like to know as well, I asked before on the TGP board, don't remember getting very many responses. From just looking at the lights, I believe the yellowed lenses are glued onto the front. I wetsanded(w/ 1000 grit paper) the front of the lenses on mine and polished them, that made them look a lot better, but they still appear to be yellowed/dirty from the inside somewhat. :oops: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z284pwr Posted January 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2006 Yeah, it does appear to be the insides that are the bad part, I will actually post this on the Beretta message boards as well, those guys are more into modifying their headlight/tail lights, so they may have some tricks, I'm sure its the same basic thing considering how close the Beretta and Grand Prix headlights look. It does appear they are just glued with some sort of high strength glue, the foglights definitely look like this on the bottoms where the hole to drain any water appears to be.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayes Performance Plus Posted January 31, 2006 Report Share Posted January 31, 2006 Hi Guys! Our company uses First Meguiars-Mirror Glaze #17 Clear Plastic cleaner with the proper PLASTIC POLISHING WHEEL on a SLOW speed bench polisher. You may have to start with a more abrasive PLASTIC polishing wheel to start with. Finally, use Meguiars-Mirror Glaze #10 Clear Plastic Polish and use a VERY fine PLASTIC polishing wheel till the finish is perfect. DON'T USE OTHER BUFFING/ POLISHING WHEELS THEY BURN THE PLASTIC!!!!!!!!! They sell polishing wheels JUST FOR PLASTIC ONLY! Let me know how it goes guys, and if you need help getting any of this stuff or have any quetions let me know. Best Regards, David Hayes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z284pwr Posted February 3, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 I'd like to know as well, I asked before on the TGP board, don't remember getting very many responses. From just looking at the lights, I believe the yellowed lenses are glued onto the front. I wetsanded(w/ 1000 grit paper) the front of the lenses on mine and polished them, that made them look a lot better, but they still appear to be yellowed/dirty from the inside somewhat. :oops: Okay, update, I figured since I didn't get much help, I just went ahead and did it, since you had posted question, here you go for information purposes... I did the headlight first, haha, make sure you have a test unit first, you will see why in the pictures. Anyways, we set the oven at 350, just threw the thing on a cookie sheet, and shoved it in there. The headlight after 5 minutes was getting a little movement, but not, so we said, hey what the hell, lets go for 10......bad idea.....I took it out after MAYBE 7-8 and the top of the headlight was hella melted and starting to cave, so I hurried, took it out, and started prying with a screw driver, it came apart with little effort, obviously...haha, the hardest part with the headlight was holding the thing, we only had 1 good oven mit, so it was hot potato plus prying apart, not easy.... So, its time to get gutsy, first foglight....5 minutes or so it was done, a little to long for us though, the plastic got a little soft and I accidently pushed it in a little bit, so I had to re-heat the plastic and push it out, it looks pretty good.....Next one, maybe 3 minutes or so, take it out and go for it..... Trick, the foglights are indented quite a bit, in other words, the plastic goes into the housing quite a ways, the trick is to just get the glue stuff rubbery, then just take a screw driving, and run around the edges, start on the bottom, there is a little triangular opening for water to drain from or something, just start there, go under the lip and just go around, don't really try to pry the lights apart, it won't work, just go under the lips on the housing and it will start coming apart, then wa-la, its apart, then just take the glue off.... However, after taking them apart, problem.....the insides of them are all ribbed, SO, we haven't decided how to go about cleaning them. The sanding ploy wouldn't really work, so something else is going to be required..... Any suggestions??? Oh, pictures... As you can tell, the headlight got hot It was quite funny actually, the glass ones are out in the garage waiting to be installed, so its all good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfewtrail Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Any suggestions??? Oh, pictures... As you can tell, the headlight got hot It was quite funny actually, the glass ones are out in the garage waiting to be installed, so its all good Thanks for the info. Maybe a polishing wheel like David mentioned above with that type of cleaner/polish would get down into those ribs good enough to get them back to being clear? I would try to find one of those little cloth type polishing wheels like they advertise with the mother's powerball product for wheels(same thing is advertised with that "flitz" product on informericals). Like this, I'll be trying to clean mine out soon. Thankfully I have nice/clear glass headlights on the car(too bad they didn't make us some foglights out of glass). Next up on the list after cleaning those fogs for me is finding some different foglight bulbs, I don't much care for the orange look next to my headlight bulbs that throw off a nice white light. [/img] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z284pwr Posted February 3, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Any suggestions??? Oh, pictures... As you can tell, the headlight got hot It was quite funny actually, the glass ones are out in the garage waiting to be installed, so its all good Thanks for the info. Maybe a polishing wheel like David mentioned above with that type of cleaner/polish would get down into those ribs good enough to get them back to being clear? I would try to find one of those little cloth type polishing wheels like they advertise with the mother's powerball product for wheels(same thing is advertised with that "flitz" product on informericals). Like this, I'll be trying to clean mine out soon. Thankfully I have nice/clear glass headlights on the car(too bad they didn't make us some foglights out of glass). Next up on the list after cleaning those fogs for me is finding some different foglight bulbs, I don't much care for the orange look next to my headlight bulbs that throw off a nice white light. [/img] Alright, good idea, I may have to run down there and grab one and see how it works. Oh the yellow is just thanks to that stupid yellow thing in the foglight. Its designed to help during FOG conditions, yellow goes thru fog much better than white but yeah, does look a little weird. :x We are planning on figuring a way to put in an H3 foglight, as they have a much greater selection of bulbs, maybe I'll find a high wattage bulb, run a relay and shoot them onto the ground so they are actually useful, since as of how they were, do basically nothing at all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayes Performance Plus Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Hey, Don't USE A HIGH WATTAGE BULB YOU'LL MELT THE LIGHT, I KNOW! I Sell them. Use relays though, that is always something to help any lights work better. If you want to use HIGH WATT BULBs you need METAL BACKING AND GLASS LENSE. Regards, David Hayes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z284pwr Posted February 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2006 Hey, Don't USE A HIGH WATTAGE BULB YOU'LL MELT THE LIGHT, I KNOW! I Sell them. Use relays though, that is always something to help any lights work better. If you want to use HIGH WATT BULBs you need METAL BACKING AND GLASS LENSE. Regards, David Hayes oh okay, good point, that sucks, how high of watts are the stock bulbs? Either way, we already have the plans in the works on how we are going to do an H3 bulb.... Oh oh, I got the Powerball thingy with some plastic polish, did 1000 gritt sanding a bit, then that, they cleaned up pretty good. Hopefully the car will be running by next weekend, so I can see how they will look in sunlight with the glass lights. They should be good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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