tibber469

Whats the best method to clean the inside of the headlight casing and glass? I have some dirt and residue inside mine and I'd like to clean it up so it shines better. Do I have to heat and pry them apart or is there a better way?

Tibbi

Grime inside of the assembly is a pretty bad sign. If you Are certain that the assembly has been compromised It's probably better to replace it.

A better bet is yours, like mine, are clouded from a hard decade+ of service. Gets some Plast-x, painters tape and buffer. I use a buffing wheel attachment that goes on the end of cordless drill. Tape off the body to prevent nastiness, apply a small amount to the wheel and go nuts. Takes just a few minutes.... I assume. I've been lazy and haven't done the job yet. When it get warmer out and I order the HIDs for the fogs I'll get off my butt.





Plast-x ~ $7

Buffer ~ $3

tape ~ $1

bdiggy

^That will work......temporarily. If they're that bad, wet sanding the haze away is the best way to get them sparkling like new again, then maintain them with the Plast-x.



With just plast-x







After 2000 grit wet sand and plast-x

HotBlue02

I did the same thing with mine, wet sand with 2000 grit paper the the plast-x although I had to hand buff it, turned out great. Of course this is not gunna help you with the inside of your headlight at all. The best bet that I know of is to heat them up and pry them apart to get them clean, hell maybe even do some painting if your looking for a change. I have pulled apart 1 set of altezza lights (original version) and painted them white when I had a hard on for white accents on my Accent. To get them apart I used a hair dryer to heat them and some prying with my hands and a very carefully placed flat blade screwdriver. The heating process was very slow using the hair dryer so for the headlights I stepped it up and used the oven(electric). This was a couple years ago but I think I preheated the oven for 300 degrees and left them in for about 5 minutes. Pulling them apart was basicely the same as the tails except the entire headlight was hot to handle but it saved serious time using the oven. Once apart I painted the chrome bezel with factory matched paint (look at my sig) and I think it looks sick!



But not everything was a success, when I got tired of the white theme on my car I bout some new altezza tail lights (newer version) with plans to paint them, little did I know it would be about 2 years before i got to it. So about 4 months ago I began, my plan was still the same, paint them all black except the chrome used to reflect the light. This time I used a gas oven and set it for 350, pulled them out after 5 minutes and they were blazing hot...oops! I set it aside to cool a bit but I didnt let it cool enough. While trying to pry it apart I laid it on a towel face down...OOPS!

After a bit of prying it was coming apart and I sat the light up, a big flat spot developed on the face... LOL OOPS. So in the trash they went. Ironically after hitting ebay up for a new set they were now being offered in black with basically the same paint scheme I was shooting for.