un-fog headlights and clear corners

koolade9 · 01-22-2004, 01:32 AM

I’m sure many of you have questioned how to un-fog your 95-99 headlights. I don’t have a before picture, because who wants to see condensation in a headlight. I started this project with a set of 96’ headlights in perfect condition.

With the headlights off the car, first pull off the metal clips that connect the lens to the headlight housing. There should be 7 or so if I remember correctly. Use a heatgun to heat up the glue. This is the hardest part. Take it slow and pull it apart a little at a time, that’s my best advice. You’ll be tempted to use a screwdriver and pry it away, be careful not to gouge the plastic on the headlight housing.

Okay, now the hard part is done. Now you’ll take the plastic bezel off from around the inside of the headlight, it snaps off if I remember right. Once you have that off, you’ll see that only 1 or 2 screws are holding back the orange lens that keeps your corners amber. Feel free to remove those, you’ll see that the outer lens is already clear, and what you’re left with is a perfectly clear corner. Once you have the bezel off, do with it what you will. If you have 95-96 lights, some paint it black to resemble 97-99 lights; some paint it to match their car’s paint scheme. I sanded my 96 bezels down to get rid of all the little ribs. Below is a before and after picture.

koolade9 · 01-22-2004, 01:34 AM

Now I painted mine emerald green to match my car and cleared them to get the same finish. Be careful if you paint them, because you’re still painting plastic. Be sure to get the surface as clean as possible before you start painting. Below is the finished product.

koolade9 · 01-22-2004, 01:37 AM

Let them dry overnight so the paint has a chance to cure, reinstall the corner lens and put the bezel back in. Now you’ll have to pick up some sealant. I used silicone on one set, and rtv on another, both worked fine. There is a groove around the headlight housing that will already have the remaining glue in it. Use your heat gun again and heat up the remaining glue in the housing and around the outer lens. Take your new sealant and run a thin bead of it in that groove all the way around the housing. If you put too much sealant in there, it’ll ooze out around the lens and can be messy. Put your outer lens back on the housing and use your heat gun to heat up the glue in areas where the lens didn’t seat all the way in. Work your way around the headlight till every part of it sits flush with the housing like it should. Clean off any glue that oozed out, and reinstall the clips, then let the lights sit overnight to make sure the sealant fully cures

Install and enjoy

koolade9 · 01-22-2004, 01:39 AM

You can see the cleared corners, but I used amber corner bulbs to keep the factory lighting look.

koolade9 · 01-22-2004, 01:45 AM

Here’s a set of 97 headlights that I re-sealed and cleared the corners.

There are a ton of myths out there that you’ll ruin your headlights when doing this project… They’re all B.S.

I’ve done it on 3 sets so far w/no problems.

koolade9 · 01-25-2004, 01:48 PM

The actual fogging I'm referring to is a result of moisture inside the headlight housing. When you pull them apart, obviously you'll probably clean the inside of it with windex to get the dust and stuff out. but the real source of the problem is a leak around the seal of the headlights and a small amount of water has entered the housing. by re-sealing them, you eliminate that possibility in the future.

As far as the other problem with headlights, that's yellowing, this is a result of the outer clear-coating on the lens has been chipped or peeled off in some part, then it spreads across the lens in an ugly yellow. I have a spare 95 headlight here with that problem and a remedy for it is in the works.