In my quest to eliminate all chrome from my truck, the headlights had to go. I picked up a pair of TYC sport projectors and heated up the oven.
Bake for 15 min at 260 degrees.
https://i.imgur.com/smWaX3Xl.jpg
First one came right apart, started from inside top corner, just pulling the housing and lens apart.
Second one was a *****, took 6 trips to the oven + heat gun which was probably not necessary, I distorted the housing in the top inside area getting frustrated and cut through a couple places of the housing where I used a putty knife to cut through the adhesive. After a couple of 260 degree bakings the housing finally separated. The lens stays rigid but at 260 degrees the housing starts to get a little soft and starts to bend and flex a lot.
The interior section that holds the parts that are paintable and visible are held in place by the adhesive, so a hot putty knife is useful in cutting through the adhesive to get the piece out and it is easier when everything is still warm. A heat gun is useful to soften the adhesive as well. When using a heat gun be careful as the housing will heat up very quickly if you have the heat turned up high. I used my infrared temp gauge to watch the temps and you can get to 230 degrees pretty fast and the housing will become very soft.
Once apart the 60mm halos i bought were way too small so I printed out actual size halo rings I drew on my cad program and put them over the projector to find the right size.
https://i.imgur.com/ul0WZwi.jpg
The 90mm was the best fit, this halo is 7mm wide so the inside diameter is 76mm and the outside of the projector lens is 84mm This is going to sit on the projector, not on the shroud it will not be so obvious but should still look cool. With a black shroud I could not put the white halo on the face of the shroud, it would look out of place. I am not going to run these during the day, I also found some small amber LED lights that I am going to put into the highbeam side to light up that section of the headlight yellow.
I cut off the “C”bars and sanded the projector shroud flat, sanded the paintable parts. I used 100 grit on the chrome projector shrouds and a red scotchbrite on the black plastic parts.
https://i.imgur.com/7u5p5wvl.jpg
Cleaned and sprayed epoxy primer and had paint issues. There were small particles on my epoxy primer, so sanding and new primer are next.
In the meantime I mounted the halos, and the 90mm halo fits nice.
https://i.imgur.com/1M3Ft96l.jpg
Drilled the projector lens housing to mount the halos and then discovered the “micro mounts” were filled with something so I could not get anything to go through these little holes. Ended up using some electrical wire to bind the halos to the housing. I picked a 4” section of 10ga wire and pulled the individual strands to wrap over the halo and tie into the housing. Twisting them together pulled the halo tight to the housing and locked it into place.
Mocked up one light with the halos and found there was some light coming through the gap between the projector shroud and the main housing.
https://i.imgur.com/ZgihTzfl.jpg
When I assembled these for the final time I used some 3M strip caulk to seal this gap and prevent that light from coming through.
https://i.imgur.com/11dykGzl.jpg
I wired the halos into the parking light circuit. Coming from the plug inside the housing, found the 12v positive (I think it is the green wire) and the ground, I did not connect the white halo light, these are switchbacks but I wanted the amber light only.
Sanded with 400 grit paper and applied 1 coat urethane primer / sealer, 1 coat of body color to the headlight housings, and the projector shrouds. Went to mask off the Ram logos on the shrouds and I could not get the paint mask to stick, they would not come off the backing. The plan was to mask off a ram logo and spray the shrouds with black metallic leaving the grey Ram logo but since the masks were not cooperating the plan changed and everything got sprayed with crystal granite metallic. Followed up with 2 coats of clear. I let that cure then sanded with 400 and sprayed a couple more coats of clear.
https://i.imgur.com/yqiW1FBl.jpg
Once all was cured, sanded with 1500 and buffed out the rough spots and a couple of dust nibs. The orange reflectors are required in Hawaii so I wanted to darken these up a little. Sprayed a light coat of niteshades over the reflectors and that did the trick, hopefully not too much.
Next step was to get the adhesive / sealant off the lenses. Tried several different methods. Scraping, pulling, put them back in the oven and the best way I found was to use the heat gun and heat up the adhesive pretty hot and then it peeled off fairly easy. I clamped the heat gun in my vice and just moved the lens around heating and pulling. Took a couple of hours but it got most of the adhesive off.
https://i.imgur.com/h5NCTOIl.jpg
The biggest issue I had was scratching the lenses. These are very delicate, I am not sure how but I got some small scratches and polishing these are a pain. I tried several polishing compounds and did not find any that got these totally clear.
Started the reassembly using morimoto retro rubber and it went smoother than I expected. The adhesive is fairly stiff, but not too sticky so it is not to difficult to get into the groove in the housing. 7 minutes at 270° and the lens and housing were one again.
https://i.imgur.com/hzOR7PYl.jpg
Mounted them on the truck plugged them in and I think they look pretty good.
https://i.imgur.com/tkLBZn1l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/YED6yoSl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/CPrDesnl.jpg
I probably have about 20 hours in these headlights and they are not perfect but I like them. It is not hard, it just takes patience. Total cost was about $600 for the TYC headlights, halos and retro rubber sealant. Best part is the chrome is gone.
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