As some of you guys are thinking about retrofitting LED's into your tails, I thought I would share some of my findings and mistakes to save you the trouble.
Tools you will need: An oven, tin foil and cookie sheet, leather gloves, putty knife, goo gone(to clean up any glue smudges on the lens afterwards)
I had a spare cracked 89+ tail to test out first. Into the oven it went for 8 minutes at 300 degrees, face down on a cookie sheet covered with tin foil.
Good thing I had a spare one to break! I did not realize that the lens had metal rivets holding it in as well as the glue.
I also cracked it here:
It cracked by pulling it up wards like this, putting too much leverage on the lens:
A small cuttoff wheel and a dremel is the best way to cut the heads off these little bastards.
Now, with balls of steel, I stuck my mint JDM tail into the oven! It was not budging before I knew about the steel rivets, but now that they're cut off, it came apart quite nicely. I gently pushed from the inside with my thumbs to get it started (this cracked the diffuser in my USDM lens by the way). Once I could get the putty knife all the way in between the lens and the housing, I slid it sideways, all the way around to seprate the lens without stressing it. The inner parts and diffusers pop out easily from here. It worked well enough that I would be confident to to it again. The heat was enough to soften the glue but not melt or damage the lens or housing.
This was a surprise! The plastic lens is the same for both the JDM and USDM tails. The difference is the darker parts behind the lens make it appear darker:
Now for this, I NEED YOUR HELP GUYS! What product can I use to get this silver paint off the back of the center section? I tried a wire brush and sandpaper on a spare broken peice I have, and it's just damaging the plastic. I must get this paint off in order to light the center up and have it match the side lenses. Help!
Tools you will need: An oven, tin foil and cookie sheet, leather gloves, putty knife, goo gone(to clean up any glue smudges on the lens afterwards)
I had a spare cracked 89+ tail to test out first. Into the oven it went for 8 minutes at 300 degrees, face down on a cookie sheet covered with tin foil.
Good thing I had a spare one to break! I did not realize that the lens had metal rivets holding it in as well as the glue.
I also cracked it here:
It cracked by pulling it up wards like this, putting too much leverage on the lens:
A small cuttoff wheel and a dremel is the best way to cut the heads off these little bastards.
Now, with balls of steel, I stuck my mint JDM tail into the oven! It was not budging before I knew about the steel rivets, but now that they're cut off, it came apart quite nicely. I gently pushed from the inside with my thumbs to get it started (this cracked the diffuser in my USDM lens by the way). Once I could get the putty knife all the way in between the lens and the housing, I slid it sideways, all the way around to seprate the lens without stressing it. The inner parts and diffusers pop out easily from here. It worked well enough that I would be confident to to it again. The heat was enough to soften the glue but not melt or damage the lens or housing.
This was a surprise! The plastic lens is the same for both the JDM and USDM tails. The difference is the darker parts behind the lens make it appear darker:
Now for this, I NEED YOUR HELP GUYS! What product can I use to get this silver paint off the back of the center section? I tried a wire brush and sandpaper on a spare broken peice I have, and it's just damaging the plastic. I must get this paint off in order to light the center up and have it match the side lenses. Help!
