Just curious to know how to take apart the 5.5 gen headlight's I wanna clean the inside of them because they're hazy is it possible? If this has already been discussed I apologize.

 

As far as I know, most of the haze is on the outside. I had my headlights sanded and buffed at a body shop, and they were perfectly clear... for a few months. I wish there was a permanent solution.

 

yea its been dicussed before

"To get the lights apart I baked them at about 185° for about 10-12 minutes. At first I had them at 225° but something was smoking so I dialed it back. I took everything that easily came off of the headlights but I didn’t strip them before baking. Also throw a towel down on the rack too to prevent the housing from melting on the metal rack."

"I worked my way around with a flathead screwdriver and they came apart after about 3-5 minutes of working at it."- (FELDMAN)

you can throw them in the oven

use a heat gun or hair dryer

here a link

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2190617/3

 

you can put clear 3m film on them after cleaning

 

Yep, most of the haze is on the outside. Brasso/PlastiX works great for minor haze, but wetsanding works great for all types of haze.

As for desassembling: J2Fresh got the basics.

Heat oven to 210 degrees.

Line baking sheet with damp towl.

Place headlight on the baking sheet/towl combo and put in oven after the HID bracket and all lightbulbs have been removed.

Set timer for 20 minutes.

Wait for the lights to bake.

Once the timer is done, make sure you are wearing some gloves.

Remove the headlight from the oven.

With the rear of the light facing you, remove the THREE SMALL screws on the rear of the headlight. Two should be on the rear outer edge on the turn signal side, and one should be on the rear middle lower lip of the light.

CAREFULLY, using a thin screw driver (or as I found, an old butter knife works best...), carefully separate the outer lens from the rear housing. This should be fairly easy if you allowed the light to bake long enough. The sealant between the lens and the housing should be very soft and easy to manipulate. Once you got a good start, you should be able to just grab a hold of the lens and the housing and pull the two pieces apart.

As for removing the inner bezel on the lens, there are three screws holding it onto the lens. Simply remove these three screws, and CAREFULLY pull the bezel out of the lens.

There ya go. Repeat in reverse to assembly.

I've done this countless times, but I apologize for no pics. PM me with any questions.

GL!

But remember, most/all of the hazing will be on the outside. Clean this before you attempt the disassembly.

 

Just pick up the 3M auto headlight refinisher kit at a parts store, you provide the household corded or cordless drill and get to work.

I am close to jumping off that cliff and giving it a try. There also is a variety of plastic polishes (meguires plasticX) which can be polished with a drill and a mothers powerball.

Just spend 10 minutes in the parts store and you'll get an idea.

I also recall reading you can lightly wax (yes I said it) the newly clear/polished headlight to help prevent it from going cloud again.

Also, post before/after pictures!

 

^ I thought about spraying clearcoat on the headlighs to protect them, but I'm not sure if it would work. The body shop I went to said the clearcoat would "attack" or eat away the plastic. Not sure how true that is...

 

This is very tempting. I might have to do soon.

 

Funny you say put clearcoat on plastic. I have those little dupli-color clearcoat and base color bottles. I opened the clearcoat bottle on accident and a drop fell on my keyboard. Yup it marred the plastic a little and that was only on for less than 5 minutes.

Just polish the headlamps with a clearcoat wax as the wax. The hand polish with a clean microfiber rag to finish.

Once I get over the touch-up paint work I am going to work on restoring my left side headlight.

 

the 3m kit worked best for me. It looks GREAT. I can actually see the details of my headlight housing

 

'Tis my next step...

 

Bingo! I bought my car with 3M clear coat bra cut to fit my head lights and side view mirrors. Works like a champ!!!

 

Sanded mine then wash and dried then used Meguiar's PlasticX with a buffer looked good for a while now starting back to Haze again

 

http://www.shiftice.com/clear_HIDs.html

 

That 3m headlight restoration kit works great. $20 and couple hours of elbow grease.

 

That's all everyone really needs to do around here, best mod ever.. elbow grease > *

 

+1 and upkeep.

You should detail and protect your plastics just as much as your paint. Nissan headlight lenses are very prone to fading and yellowing.

 

i use 2000 grip sand paper and clearcoat duplicolor (500 degress) and comeout perfect...... just make sure to use the sand paper in one direction, (back and foward)and spray the clear coat about 8 inches of the headlight... use 2 or 3 coats of clear coat light sanding 2 more coats of clearcoat let em dry polish and like new..... the best part ..... you expend like 10 dlls in this... good luck

 

^ How are your headlights holding up? A body shop I went to said that clearcoat will eventually damage the plastic.

 

Random question that has some significance to this thread:
I heard from some people that if you bake your headlights and put em back on your car that it would mess with the aiming of the lights. Is that true for those who have baked their lights?

 

I've opened my headlights up a few times each (Umnitza Angel Eye garbage...DON'T ASK!) and my headlights are still aimed exactly as before.