DIY: BE/BH Clear corners

[shazapple]

Check out this very informative thread on Nasioc, written up by Fibuz. Ive copied it here for posterity.

Also, look at the posts farther down the page for some helpful tips.
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/viewtopic.php?t=2516

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=512193

This has been discussed before, but I provide some pictures for MY2000+ headlight baking to get the orange reflector out. Don't bash my camera skills either, all these pics were taken with my cell phone.

First off, clean the kitchen, grab a drink, head outside.

Unbolt the three bolts holding the headlight in. There is another plastic clip deep inside, but I didn't have the patience to get off normal, so I just snapped it. Its low and near the back and its color is white. I think its worthless, but now that I've said that it probably has some bigger meaning.

Unscrew the cap, take out all the lights, and gently remove each headlight casing.

Next, head inside, grab a baking sheet, preheat your over to 250 degrees. Remember, don't touch any part of any lightbulb and don't touch anything you dont have to touch, namely inside plastics.

http://www.nbautotunerz.com/infosli/BEBHclearcorner/V29Feb04-001.jpg

Unscrew I think 5-6 silver looking screws holding the back of the casing together snuggly. Remove the last high-beam light if you want, I cooked with and without, didn't really make a difference. There is a huge screw sticking out 2-3 inches and a smaller screw behind some grey plastic. Don't worry about these, I think they have to do with headlight levelling, but do not hold the pieces together.

Also, that white clip that you either broke or did not brake is held on by two screws. I dont think you HAVE to remove this piece, but I did.

http://www.nbautotunerz.com/infosli/BEBHclearcorner/V29Feb04-008.jpg

Once the over is preheated, stick the headlight casing on the baking sheet, put it in the over. I waited about 5 minutes before removing. I think it would go longer and make the glue more plyable if you left it in longer, but I was too anxious, and took it out after 5-7 minutes and pryed the casing open. A few more minutes wouldn't have hurt.

http://www.nbautotunerz.com/infosli/BEBHclearcorner/V29Feb04-002.jpg

Once you pry off the first layer, you'll naturally have two halves.


http://www.nbautotunerz.com/infosli/BEBHclearcorner/V29Feb04-003.jpg

http://www.nbautotunerz.com/infosli/BEBHclearcorner/V29Feb04-004.jpg

Put the back side to the side, and concentrate on the front piece. There are now three black screws holding the silver relfective piece to the clear plastic. Remove the screws, pull the two pieces apart.

http://www.nbautotunerz.com/infosli/BEBHclearcorner/V29Feb04-005.jpg

Now insert a screw driver between the orange relfector and the clear plastic, pop, and its out.

Retract your steps back to put it back together. Once everything was mostly put back together(minus the screws on the outside) I put it back in the oven to heat up the glue again. With the glue heated again, I made sure everything was snug, and rescrewed everything back in. At this point, you may or may not want to use a silicone based liquid to seal everything back up again. I didn't, but this I'm in Arizona, and it doesn't rain anyways.

Check out the difference:

http://www.nbautotunerz.com/infosli/BEBHclearcorner/V29Feb04-007.jpg

After placing back on the car, checking all bulbs to make sure they work, I got these results:

http://www.nbautotunerz.com/infosli/BEBHclearcorner/V29Feb04-009.jpg

http://www.nbautotunerz.com/infosli/BEBHclearcorner/V29Feb04-010.jpg

Not bad. There is still orange visable, but thats from the bulb. This orange will probably keep you from getting any tickets for 'clear corners' because technically this mod is 'illegal'.

As you can tell, the difficulty of this isn't that bad, took under 2 hours start to finish. Good luck!

You can get Silver coloured bulbs which light up orange.
Philips Silvervision
http://www.eur.lighting.philips.com/aut ... ision.html (http://www.eur.lighting.philips.com/automotive/eur/html/products_silvervision.html)
Silver coloured indicators
• Directly interchangeable with existing amber bulbs
• Enhances the styling look of transparent headlights

http://www.eur.lighting.philips.com/automotive/eur/images/CArticle-image_silvermain.jpg

[shazapple]

Bump. Fibuz was nice enough to send me the pics and I was nice enough to host them! :grin:

[OutbackGT]

Nice. I shoulda taken more pics when I did this mod a few weeks ago.

[sansMYSTi]

Thanks Lee :cool: .

[SilentRacer]

There is a common problem with doing this mod, my headlights are fogging up inside and i went over with silicon twice but it didn't help. I'm not the only person it happened to. Does anyone have the solution to that?

[blackgtbeauty]

My best guess is to pull them apart and let them sit by some sort of heat source (woodstove, furnace...), seal them up after a while and let them sit there a little longer, maybe that would dry out any moisture on the inside.

[SilentRacer]

and 3 months of driving with them wouldn't dry them out?

[blackgtbeauty]

Does your car not get wet? is there still moisture that can't get out because they're sealed? I've haven't done this so i'm just suggesting.

[SilentRacer]

Does your car not get wet? is there still moisture that can't get out because they're sealed? I've haven't done this so i'm just suggesting.

Yes it gets wet but not at the rate they fog up. So your saying that its the same water fogging up over and over because it can't get out.....something about that doesn't sound right to me.

[blackgtbeauty]

Either that or it's not sealing out moisture from getting in over and over :-?

[SilentRacer]

Either that or it's not sealing out moisture from getting in over and over :-?

Thats my conclusion but i don't know how to figure out where its letting moisture in.

[sansMYSTi]

It is these moisture issues that make me weary about doing this mod.

[shazapple]

Probably moister stuck inside. Ever see dual pane windows with moisture? Sometimes its there sometimes its not. Cold air on the front, hot engine in the back great for condensation

[OutbackGT]

My clears:

http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/3448/10005482ll.jpg

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/1551/10005216id.jpg

[LegacyRob]

Maybe you have a bad seal on the backside where you put the bulbs in, I know that o-ring drives me just about nuts everytime i change a bulb.

[backpack09]

I had moisture problems with the headlights on my talon when I took out the yellow aswell. What I ended up doing was pulling them back apart, and laying down a bead of clear silicone in the groove and putting them back together. This pretty muched solved the problem for me.

[Supdood]

Do you think this mod can be done to the tails?
so we can make our own Euro tails =]

[SilentRacer]

Do you think this mod can be done to the tails?
so we can make our own Euro tails =]

No, the tailights don't have yellow reflectors in them.....the yellow is part of the glass.

[Supdood]

I did this mod today and it turned out beautiful!
I didn't wanna go out and buy the bulbs to make them look like true clears....so we had another idea for it.
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3082509
On page 2 you'll find what it looks like.
just an idea for all you other BE owners

quick sample:
http://memimage.cardomain.com/member_images/10/web/3082000-3082999/3082509_31_full.jpg

[Airgne]

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. sexy scooby!!!!!!!!!!!

[ConnertheCat]

Did it yesterday myself:

http://gallery.mac.com/connerthecat/100023/photo/web.jpg

Very happy with how it turned out, though the part with the oven and splitting them apart was really a two person job.

[Bianrox]

Jeepers!! Definitely good to have a heat gun hahaha

[Grimmrican]

It took u 2 ppl to split the lens?? I did that mod in like 30 min lol. But good job. Was fairly easy to do nonetheless

[teeceRS]

has anyone ever warped their housings? I might do this at 200? just to be safe. I've done it time and time again on an Impreza, but the late model Impreza's had glass housings, where as here we have plastic. I tried to bake my girlfriend's Camry corners and they warped in the craziest way. lol

[rkrenicki]

I have not warped the housings, but I can say that 200?F at about 10 minutes was enough to get both sets of my JDM headlights open without damage. You really need to put them on a cookie sheet or half sheet pan just to prevent the oven rack bars from doing any damage to the housings. And be careful of anything metal still on them (such as angle adjusters), as they can leave nice scars..

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2014/01/20121012_191528_159-1.jpg

[rougeben83]

200* for around 10 mins worked on all 3 pairs of lights I've had to crack open... Remember to remove all bulbs, screws, etc that you can before putting it in the oven.

[teeceRS]

this was stupid easy. haha idk what i was so worried about!

[PIDDYPLACE]

Anyone have this issue?33453346