Part 1:
I fought with getting these bastards apart for quite sometime. It was only when I stumbled across this (bottom of page) and this video that I got the motivation/direction I needed.
First and foremost, 230 degrees for 20 minutes IS THE MAGIC COMBINATION FOR 300 HEADLIGHTS!!!
I tried several other techniques, including:
Anyway, here is what I did;
Obviously first things first, get your tools togather, and make sure the headlight fits in the oven without any issues.
Here are the tools that I used to seperate mine:
The wet towel is just an additional precaution to avoid plastic to metal contact.
While your waiting for the oven to heat up take off any/all ruber, wiring, screws etc that are visable. On the 'Touring' headlights all I had to remove were these 2 rubber grommets;
Once your oven is warmed up place the headlight on the baking sheet face up, and put it in your oven for 20 minutes;
Slam a Red Bull while you wait the 20 minutes.
(I don't have any pics of the next few steps as I was focusing on the process, and didn't want to screw anything up/waste any time.)
Take the headlights out of the oven, and and place the headlight only onto the dry towel on your working surface, face up.
Use your small blade screw driver to dig/pry under the upper corner of the lense, being careful not to distort the housing or the les. Take not that the plastic is VERY SOFT right now. I placed a pot holder directly on the headlight lens to avoid burning half.
Once your work up one corner of the lens you should be able to remove it from the housing in 1 shot, just be careful not to scratch it, and watch for any soft glue that make a mess of things.
Tada!
Again, the write-ups listed above are much more complete, and I am very grateful to have found them!!!
The whole process took me about 30 minutes per light, including bake time.
Part 2 will be painting, and I'm hoping to get that taken care of tonight...
I fought with getting these bastards apart for quite sometime. It was only when I stumbled across this (bottom of page) and this video that I got the motivation/direction I needed.
First and foremost, 230 degrees for 20 minutes IS THE MAGIC COMBINATION FOR 300 HEADLIGHTS!!!
I tried several other techniques, including:
- Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees, shut-off oven and put assembly in for 3-5 minutes.
- 200 degrees for 10-15 minutes
- Hairdryer/space heater
Anyway, here is what I did;
Obviously first things first, get your tools togather, and make sure the headlight fits in the oven without any issues.
Here are the tools that I used to seperate mine:
- Electric oven
- Baking sheet
- Tiny screw driver (I used one that I got at a trade show, about a 1/8" blade)
- Pot holders
- Gloves
- Red Bull
- 1 wet towel, 1 dry towel
The wet towel is just an additional precaution to avoid plastic to metal contact.
While your waiting for the oven to heat up take off any/all ruber, wiring, screws etc that are visable. On the 'Touring' headlights all I had to remove were these 2 rubber grommets;
Once your oven is warmed up place the headlight on the baking sheet face up, and put it in your oven for 20 minutes;
Slam a Red Bull while you wait the 20 minutes.
(I don't have any pics of the next few steps as I was focusing on the process, and didn't want to screw anything up/waste any time.)
Take the headlights out of the oven, and and place the headlight only onto the dry towel on your working surface, face up.
Use your small blade screw driver to dig/pry under the upper corner of the lense, being careful not to distort the housing or the les. Take not that the plastic is VERY SOFT right now. I placed a pot holder directly on the headlight lens to avoid burning half.
Once your work up one corner of the lens you should be able to remove it from the housing in 1 shot, just be careful not to scratch it, and watch for any soft glue that make a mess of things.
Tada!
Again, the write-ups listed above are much more complete, and I am very grateful to have found them!!!
The whole process took me about 30 minutes per light, including bake time.
Part 2 will be painting, and I'm hoping to get that taken care of tonight...