Rep Power: 585

yeah,

so after fixing the dent in my parents accord today i felt all accomplished and decided to go ahead and clear my headlights on the civic as well. ive helped Hawk do it on his coupe and ive taken off the bumper myself before, so i thought it wouldnt be a problem. everything went smooth as silk with the removal of all parts. tried the hair dryer on the headlights to get them warm, but it wasnt doing it. i have a sedan, so i got that grey goo and apparently is like super strength compared to the black stuff they have on coupes.
so i pop the lights in the oven for half an hour at 170 (thats the lowest temp. my oven went) and had no problems separating them in half.
so far so good, right? right.
i took out the chrome part off the lens, took out the amber thing and noticed that some goo got on the chrome. i wouldnt have worried, but it was in a place where it would have shown from the outside. so i decided to try and get it off. tried wd-40, because it always works with gum and **** like that...guess what. it dont work on the grey goo they put on sedans. whats worse? wd-40 took off some of the chrome!!!!!!!! [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-mad.gif[/IMG] so im like "crap!"...decided to finish the job and put the light together so i can at least drive the car. tried to scrape the grey stuff off the housing, and this stuff is stuck on there like theres no tomorrow. the black stuff on coupes was easy to take off (might have also had something to do with it being a warm summer day), but this stuff just wasnt budging. so im like, "crap!" so i go and calk the seams and try to seal the housing back together...and it wont come together so that the little snaps are in the little holes that theyre supposed to be in. this is a word of caution, if you have a sedan, dont attempt to clear your lights unless its ***** hot outside. if you cant take the factory goo off, you wont be able to put the lights back together. im not an idiot, ive dont this before, but its absolutely imopossible.
so now i went and ordered myself a set of TYC projectors, i hope they get here soon. good thing my parents are out of town for 2 weeks because i can drive one of their cars to work. my civic is out of comission until my headlights get here. that absolutely sux BTW, because im supposed to be getting my rims tomorrow and i wanted to show them off.
and to add to the whole mess, im gonna have to shell out another $300 for OEM headlights for when i have to return the car when my lease is up. [IMG]i/expressions/moon.gif[/IMG][IMG]i/expressions/moon.gif[/IMG] oh well....

 
Rep Power: 318

damn sorry to hear that! when i cleared my headlights i had some trouble, you know what you could do is paint the chrome inserts black and make them look tyte, it wont matter if you have the gray goo on them... just scrape it all off with a putty knife thats what i used, came right off too... try it out.

 
Rep Power: 0

yeah dude its such crap the lights on my friends sedan were so much ahrder to do than on my coupe, and turned out alot worse.

 
Rep Power: 0

yeah don't know wuts up with clearing sedan headlights, it sucks like heck

 
Rep Power: 337

One of my friends tried to get some black adhesive off my headlight lens with ACETONE and it permanently stained my lens.

 
Rep Power: 0

that chrome stuff just wipes off without chemical aides, you can see some finger prints in mine

 
Rep Power: 320

man, sorry to hear that. Another set of sedan headlights bite the big one. [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-frown.gif[/IMG] It was horror stories like this that prompted me to buy another member's already cleared headlights.

 
Rep Power: 0

I cleared the lights of my sedan w/o any problems. I heated up a corner with the hair dryer. Then, I just pryed the corner apart with a flat head and had my wife cut the glue with an exacto knife. She cut while I pulled the 2 pieces apart. They didn't go back together all nice and flush. I just used a bum load of silicone and haven't had any fogging or anything. It's been 6 months now.

 
Rep Power: 0

One thing I learned when I was clearing my buddy's headlights on his '00 Altima SE is that you have to scrape a lil of the adhesive out of the groove that the lens sits in if you want the lens to fit properly....just heat the housing up again, get a thin, flathead screwdriver and scrape some of the adhesive out of the groove...then put the lens back on while the housing is warm and it will fit perfectly...make sure to leave some adhesive in the groove as to seal the lens and avoid fogging of the lens...


2Hottie

 
Rep Power: 585

thats what i tried doing. i mean thats what i did for Hawk's coupe lights, but the sedan goo just wasnt scraping off. i might try again with the second housing so that i only have to buy one when i return the car after the lease is up...but for the time being im getting projectors.
i wasnt planning on making this mod, but between paying $310+ for OEM lights that i really dont feel like going to the trouble of clearing again, or TYC projectors for $220...i went with the projectors.

 
Rep Power: 0

Wow...never seen so many horror stories before. I have cleared headlights myself for coupe and I'm getting rid of it in a month. One person in my area is already interested but I'd like to help one of you sedan owners out if I could. I live in southern cali and I'd like to get the stock ones so I was figuring I could do trade with somebody plus 20 bucks or so for my time and effort of clearning them. If anybody is interested, hit me up at t_bone03@yahoo.com. Leave your # in the email so I can get a hold of you so we can make the trade.

 
Rep Power: 0

I just cleared my Civic Sedan headlights too. It took forever to get the casing off. My brother did his first and it took him a good 2 hours before I started to help him out. But finally got them off. The key to it is patience. I took my time and eventually got my brother to help me open the casing. I think it is easier with two people doing it. But I feel sorry for you. Take your time. That is all I can say. [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/IMG]

 
Rep Power: 0

I completely understand you guys, it took me almost 5 to 6 hours to clear my brother's headlights.
I first threw them into the oven at 200 degrees for like 10 minutes. (I think longer then that)
Then I pulled them out with oven mits (feeling hot hot hot)
and proceeded with a hair dryer heating up the out corners. the grey goo actually started to bubble and I used a old butter knife for two reasons (1.it was alot thinner then a flathead screw driver and 2. the knife was able to get through easier and since it's wider it was better)
now. after they were apart and i got the amber crap out it the key part of the process.
I let the base of the headlights chill out for a hour while i clean the inside of the headlight glass with alot of windex and a bit of vinger (keeps the fog out),,then i used a knife and clean the edges of all the clips before sealing it......it's funny cause the time it took me to take one head apart and put it back together my brother put on the back and side body kit parts.lol[IMG]i/expressions/laugh2.gif[/IMG]

 
Rep Power: 585

i think you guys are absolutely right. patience is key. it actually didnt take me long to take the lights apart (i did the oven method too). what screwed the whole thing up is that i didnt know that WD-40 would take the chrome off the inside of the lens thing. goo gone works great on taking the goo off, but it takes the chrome off as well. thats the whole problem, theres so much of that grey stuff on the sedan lights that its a matter of luck of whether you get any of it on the chrome inside.
when i tried fixing the lights, everything was great. i repainted them and they looked really good. i must have spent like a sum of 6 or so hours taking and cleaning the grey goo out of the grooves of the lights. but once that was done, the lights sealed perfectly.

its a shame that i didnt know goo gone would fvck up the lens, cause i tried cleaning some stuff that got on the inside that wouldnt come off with windex...and goo gone pretty much frosted the inside of one of my lenses. the other headlight is beautiful tho.

oh well...im riding with projectors now.

good luck to all of you who are gonna attempt this. READ AND SEARCH about how to do this and the mistakes that others have made. its not a hard DIY, but the tiny things could really mess the whole project up.

 
Rep Power: 319

when you're ready to reseal the sedan's headlights, you should heat them up again to make the glue soft. you'll have no problem making them flush again

also, i wonder if chrome spraypaint would work for you?

 
Rep Power: 813

I cleared my sedan lights recently and all went well for the most part. The oven idea worked great to separate them, and I didn't scratch or touch any chrome. The only problem was I got a lot of grey goo on the outside plastic. Once it dried, I had to scrape it off with windex and my fingernails. Now there are swirl marks and scratches all over, but they're hard to notice most of the time.

I'm really surprised that the lights weren't way out of alignment. One beam is slightly lower, but its not very bad overall.