HOW TO: De-tango Headlights

[azz85]

How To Guide on: De-tango and Blacken Blob Headlight

This is a mod i did recently on my 04 wrx: had no issues doing it this way at all, some of you may do it a different way and thats fine, im just telling you how i did it. If you do attempt this its at your own risk if you break anything, so please dont hold me responsible

What you will need:

* Socket set

* Phillips screwdriver

* Flat head screwdriver

* Oven

* Fine wet and dry (if your painting)

* Paint

Step 1: (Front grill removel) Open the bonnet, there will be 4 clips on the top and 2 either side at the bottom, push down on the clips while pulling the grill out. the bottom clips will need a logish screwdriver to push the clips.

Step 2: (Headlight removel) Undo the 2 bolts holding the headlight in place on the top, the 3rd bolt is hidden at the side of the light (on the grill side) you get at it where the grill used to be (its white bracket). Once the bolts are removed you will notice its a pain to move out, its had like a push bolt on the wing side, give it a good tug and it will pop out, be careful not to scratch your paint as you will need to give it a wiggle to free it.

Step 3: (Disconnect bulbs) There will be 4 bulbs to disconnect, the sidelight, mainbeam, highbeam and indicator, disconnect these and the will be 2 connectors holding some wiring in place, these connectors simply slide off the headlight

Step 4: (Seperating the lense) There will be a number of phillips screws you can see round the outer edge of the headlight holding the lense in place, remove the screws (on mine 1 was hidden behind a peice of sponge tape) next is remove the white bracket (makes it fit in the oven easier). Now people have different tempretures and times but i pre-heated my oven to 100'c then baked my light for around 15-20 mins, worked perfect for me (this is to heat the sealent so you can remove the lense). **The headlight will be hot so use oven gloves** once its baked remove the light and use a flat headed screwdriver on the seal (where you removed the screws) pull on the lense and use the screwdriver to assist (note there there are clips on the underside you will need to use your screwdriver on these)

Step 5: (Removing the orange lense) Take the lense and the chrome surround will have 1 phillips screw holding it in place, remove the screw. It takes a few moves to remove the chrome surround out of the lense so be patient, now you can get at the nasty orange lense. release the 2 clips on the top and the bottom should pull out (be careful not to slip will the screwdriver like i did, it !Removed! hurts lol)

*********** If your not painting move onto step 9 *************

Step 6: (Remove the sidelight lense) you need to remove the sidelight lense in prep for painting. like the indicator lense you will see its held on in the same way, these are stiff though so be careful

Step 7: (Preperation) Sand the chrome surround with finegrade wet and dry to give the paint a good surface to stick to. once you sanded clean the surface ready for painting. i painted in the dinning room so make sure its well ventilated and you use the right ppe

Step 8: (Painting) I used Halfords satin black, it gave a excellent finnish and easy to apply. go over the whole surround with a fine layer and let it go sticky (i gave 15 mins) then another layer (wait 15mins) repeat this process until you are happy with the finnish (i did 5 layers, i was happy with 4 but wanted to make sure)

Step 9: (Rebuilding the headlight) once your paint is dry (i waited an hour) clip your sidelight lense back into position (be careful not to scratch your freshly painted surround) once thats done you can place the surround back into the lense (its easier to get in than it was removing) once in position screw the philips screw back in place. next put the unit back in the oven for another 15mins (to get the sealent sticky to re-seal) once dont push the lense back onto the unit all the way to get a tight seal (make sure its clipped back in at the bottom) next screw back all the phillips screws around the edge of the unit. Replace the right bracket

Step 10: (Re-fitting of the headlight) offer the headlight into position and connect all you removed, pop the light back in so its clips in on the wing side, replace the bolt on the white braket and the 2 bolts on the top, Done

Do the same with the other healight then the grill just clips back on easily.. well worth it!!

[Gambit]

Nice post not done this since the st170 :) And it does look good