Got another question for you gurus!

[theGOODWIN2012]

Ok so this time its about my tail lights. The asshat of an owner before me must've thought blacked out taillights were soooo awesome that he spray painted the inside of my tail lights -______- Now i can get the plastic tail light pieces off the car. But i cant separate the two layers of it. I'm guessing 1 is the outer red covering and the white/transparent one is the lens? How can i go about separating these without damaging anything so i can clean off this spray paint? If that all makes sense.....

 

[Riceman83]

I haven't personally did it but I know that you can heat up lights in a oven at idk what temp and it melts the adhesive to allow separation. Google it and see what people say that have done it. It must be possible with the mk taillights as the po obviously did the same thing. Also someone recently said that some chemical will take that stuff off. Can't remember what post I read it on. Maybe someone else remembers.

 

[theGOODWIN2012]

I heard something about the chemical method. Not the oven.. but hey its worth a look so ill go around seeing if i cant find something about it.

 

[Poodles]

It's a bit more complicated than that, honestly you're probably better off replacing them (especially if they used VHT niteshade as it requires sanding to remove, which you can't do on the inside of the light as it's a defused setup)

 

[theGOODWIN2012]

Well they also painted the side indicator lights, which i took off and was able to use brake cleaner on to get like 90% of the spray paint off. Im assuming the idiot used normal matte black spray paint.

 

[te72]

I'd suggest that you just buy a new set of lights, probably the easiest way. However, wolfie003 (I believe that's his name on here, he's in the UK and sells clear side lenses and door panel lenses for our cars) told me of a good way to get the lights apart...

 

[Poodles]

The rear lights are simple butyl rubber seals, so they're hot melt adhesive that you just bake in an oven. The thing is, there are several pins or screws on the edges as well that hold them together (the screws have no heads on them).

Definitely not quite as easy as good headlights to pull apart...