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G4 Centennial Headlight Mod.. How To Inside...56k No

79K views 162 replies 67 participants last post by  mikeluscher159 
#1 ·
Hey guys today i spent a good part of the day making my headlights look like centennial edition headlights on the 2000 taurus. i took a lot of pictures and am gunna tell you guys how to do it step by step.. Here it goes


Tools:
Oven at 300 degrees
Oven mitt
Towel
Baking sheet razor knife
Silicone
Flat head screw driver
# 10 torq bit.
5/16 socket
Semi Gloss Black spray paint
Masking tape
Gold Scuff pad


Before


First start by removing the headlight. Pull up on the two tabs on each side of the light and release the headlight along with remove two bolts from one side of both headlights with a 5/16 socket. un clip your harness from each light and remove headlight from vehicle.


Next take each headlight and remove bulbs, harnesses, rubber gaskets from each headlight.


Now go and heat your oven to 300 degrees with a cooking sheet pan in the oven.


while the oven is heating take a razor knife and cut the sealant around the headlight so once its heated its easier to pull apart

Once your oven is up to temp place the headlight in the oven with the bottom of the headlight rest on the pan.. Allow the light to sit in the oven for 5-8 minutes.

Remove the headlight from the oven with a oven mitt and place a towel over you so you dont burn yourself.
begine to pry at the headlight with a flat head screw driver along the edges.. i had to bend the one lip up so i could get the screw driver in the light housing.. pry all along the light to loosen the lens up. Also release the tabs holding the lens in. once you get a side up try to get you fingers in there and pull like all heck and get that lens off of the housing.. its a pain in the butt.


Now that you have the lens off your gunna need to take your # 10 torq bit and unbolt the chrome housing from the lens. You'll notice the headlight bulb chrome housing stays with the backing of the headlight.. Also remove the side marker by pushing them out from the back side


Now scuff them with gold scuff pad and wash them down with light soap and water.. get them nice and clean.

Now mask off the turn signal with masking tape. kinda hard to tell you excetly where to mask but you can see in the pictures.



Heres the fun part.. Grab your semi gloss (low gloss) paint and spray the housings black..Allow them to dry for the time the can says..


Now while they are drying clean off the old glue with a razor knife and test fit the lens to make sure it fits back together nicely



Once dry reassemble the housing to the lens with the torq bits you took out alogn with the side marker



Put silicone in the groove on the black housing and place the lens onto the housing and clip the tabs and lens into place. run a bead of silicone along the out side edge of the headlight and smooth with your finger. i then took masking tape and taped them tight together and had myself and my girlfriend hold them tightly for 20 mins till the silicone got firm..


After and hour i reassabled the headlights by installing the bulbs (h.i.d's in my case), all the harnesses and ruber gaskets just like before when i took them out


next i reconnected everything.. slide the tabs down and bolted the lights back in and i was done. stepped back and took a look at my work. then tested al lthe lights to make sure they all worked again.. done


Finsihed product.. More pics are in my myspace album www.myspace.com/a23dranger









 
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#52 ·
<div class='quotemain'>
i didnt realize they made sandpaper that fine.

as long as you scratch up the surface you are fine, regular paint prep stuff
[/b]
yeah they make 1500 IIRC and maybe 2000 :dunno:
[/b][/quote]

Yeah, it goes down to 2000. I used the really fine stuff for my model kits.
 
#53 ·
<div class='quotemain'>
<div class='quotemain'>
i didnt realize they made sandpaper that fine.

as long as you scratch up the surface you are fine, regular paint prep stuff
[/b]
yeah they make 1500 IIRC and maybe 2000 :dunno:
[/b][/quote]

Yeah, it goes down to 2000. I used the really fine stuff for my model kits.
[/b][/quote]
i always use 1000 grit on all my painting stuff
 
#55 ·
<div class='quotemain'>
The headlights look really good. How did you manage to pry apart the lens and the headlight assembly without noticeably bending/prying/marring the clear plastic lens?

[/b]
the plastic lens is stronger then you think.. the back black plastic housing is weaker.. i bent the back black housing lip trying to get to the front lens lip but since it was hot from the oven i was able to bend the lip back down to the point where you really dont notice that it was ever lifted/bent up. hope that helps..

Ryan
[/b][/quote]

So using the oven to heat up the headlight assembly makes it easier to separate the lens from the back without damaging either piece? Was there any mess from any excess OEM sealant on the headlight assembly?

BuFu
 
#57 ·
So using the oven to heat up the headlight assembly makes it easier to separate the lens from the back without damaging either piece? Was there any mess from any excess OEM sealant on the headlight assembly?

BuFu
[/b]


yes... as for excess mess the adhesive/glue doesn't get that messy.. it just gets soft so they can be pryed apart..

would you need the same torq bit for removing the Gen 3 lens? and where actually did u cut the old silicone with the razor blade?
[/b]
dunno.. haven't had a gen 3 open yet.. i may go to the u pull it and pick up a set of gen 3's to mod..

as for cutting the silicone i cut into the glue going towards the lip of the lens... kind of hard to explain .. wish i had a picture to show you..

ryan
 
#58 ·
<div class='quotemain'>


So using the oven to heat up the headlight assembly makes it easier to separate the lens from the back without damaging either piece? Was there any mess from any excess OEM sealant on the headlight assembly?

BuFu
[/b]


yes... as for excess mess the adhesive/glue doesn't get that messy.. it just gets soft so they can be pryed apart..

would you need the same torq bit for removing the Gen 3 lens? and where actually did u cut the old silicone with the razor blade?
[/b]
dunno.. haven't had a gen 3 open yet.. i may go to the u pull it and pick up a set of gen 3's to mod..

as for cutting the silicone i cut into the glue going towards the lip of the lens... kind of hard to explain .. wish i had a picture to show you..

ryan
[/b][/quote]


thats why pics are Great :thumb:
 
#60 ·
Another question for ya :D Do the orange reflectors come off, or are they a part of the headlight itself?
[/b]

the orange reflector comes apart from the housing.. the housing has a recessed area where the reflector goes.
 
#63 ·
People have opened g3 headlights before. I'll search around and see if I can find the thread again.

EDIT: Ok, I found 2 threads...

http://www.taurusclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=18688

http://www.taurusclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=53012
[/b]
thanks for the threads Ashley.

I opened mine and really dont know why I did. It would of been a cool thing if I had some really clear headlights but I dont so basically all I did was took them apart and looked at them.

If I painted the black part silver I think it would look really cool along with my eyelids. But Ill wait until I get some decent headlights first
 
#65 ·
<div class='quotemain'>
i didnt realize they made sandpaper that fine.

as long as you scratch up the surface you are fine, regular paint prep stuff
[/b]
yeah they make 1500 IIRC and maybe 2000 :dunno:
[/b][/quote]

Just depends where you look
 
#68 ·
Ethan, couldn't you just mod these, and then if/when you get better condition ones, just swap the lens?
 
#69 ·
Ethan, couldn't you just mod these, and then if/when you get better condition ones, just swap the lens?
[/b]
I could but I dont wanna take out the headlights again because my HIDs were screwing up when I put everything back together. The drivers side bulb turned from blue to purple to red, then I unplugged it and plugged it back in and its fine now.. maybe

And even if I did mod these now the only one you would be able to tell I painted would be the passenger side because the driver side has no hope of ever being clear again
 
#70 ·
ok so i got my sable lights done!!! they look pretty good but the black just shows how fogged and scratched up they are i got to buff them out and clear them but that will have to wait...

so i took them out of the car and followed the directions the first light i had a little trouble getting appart but i just put back in the oven for 2 mins and it came appart just fine the other one i had no problems with. i used a scotch bright pad instead of the gold pad because i didnt have one of those but it worked fine... i taped it off and painted with gloss black engine enamel... either my masking tape was too sticky or my chrome is very loose but it pulled off a little bit of the chrome plating in places leaving black specks (not very noticable when put back together) and it left a rough edge on the paint (also not very noticable when back together) i forgot to cut the old glue off on the second light :angry: so it now does not fit quite right on the car this is a very important step... also the little metal clips holding on the rubber seals were annoying to get off i broke 3 of them

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heres some more pics

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before
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after
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#72 ·
looks great.. good job man.
 
#74 ·
come on more people have got to get their hands dirty and show us some awesome results... it doesnt cost much in my case only 5 dollars for the supplies and it only took me like 5 hours from start to finish... i love the results and i know you will too
 
#75 ·
too bad it wond do me any good on disco ball 1995
 
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