Before/After Headlights...

[87f383]

Much Better....took a bit of work though


Still have to for the silicone to cure all the way...then back in they go.

The old lenses are in the center for comparrison.... I got tired of polishing and just let them go.

[SVXRide]

Wow, was any light making its way through the old lenses?
-Bill

[87f383]

Originally Posted by SVXRide

Wow, was any light making its way through the old lenses?
-Bill

imagine viewing the world through melted butter... im sure that is about what it was like... I could see fine w/ them... im sure I'll see better now. They were the biggest eyesore in history. Right after the pontiac aztek.

[UberRoo]

Gee, I was literally about five minutes away from starting the exact same thread. ...but with a fairly verbose twist. Mind if I hijack this one?

I just finished renovating the space between my bumper and hood; new corners, new headlights, new grille. The corners and headlights came from Small Car, but I thought their grille looked cheesy, so I made my own.

The replacement headlights lenses are very simple to install. The marker lights are a pain. Small Car includes a spacer and gasket for some of the bulbs. They didn't include screws, and the factory screws aren't long enough to secure the assembly and the spacer. Since I can't figure out what they're for anyway, I didn't use them. The marker lights are much, much easier to take apart if you put them in the oven as the Small Car how-to page suggests. Installing the lenses neatly is next to impossible. Even the ones on Small Car's example SVX look kinda shoddy. ...but it's hard to do, so they actually did a pretty good job.

After mulling it over for a couple days, I finally came up with a game plan that works (worked) pretty well.

Before you do anything, tape up the lights. I used blue masking tape. For the headlights, just tape the face of them, stopping just before the part that folds back. The purpose is to protect the face while you're working. Don't tape up the part around the perimeter because it's good to be able to see how well the silicone is sealing, because the silicone will be applied to parts of it, and because it doesn't matter if it gets scratched anyway since it won't be seen once it's installed.

For the corners, the taping procedure is much more difficult. First, tape the outside. The tape serves two purposes. One is to protect the lens. The other is to keep silicone off the lens. (It's difficult to clean up.) The second goal of keeping silicone off the lens is primarily to make a nice clean line around the outside so you can smear it all over but peel away the tape before it dries. The tape should be carefully run around the perimeter right up to the edge where the lens face is folded back. After taping the outside, tape the inside in the same way, right up to the fold - about 1/2 inch from the edge of the plastic. I put a bead of silicone on the inside edge of the lens and spread it around with my finger until it was even and thick enough to block light. As soon as I was satisfied with my application, I removed the tape from the inside of the lens. The silicone starts to cure within a few minutes, so if you wait too long, it makes a mess when you remove the tape. If you remove it promptly, it will leave a clean line in the silicone.

After letting the first application of silicone dry on the lens, I filled the groove around the outside of the corner lamp assembly with silicone and installed the lens. As the silicone squeezes out of the groove, the silicone previously applied to the inside of the lens hides the mess. Once the second application has dried, I put a bead of silicone around the outside of the lens and peeled the tape from it also. This leaves a nice clean line around the outside. Before peeling the tape, carefully spread the silicone with your finger. Do it quickly, but carefully. Once it starts to dry, it will clump and not spread smoothly. This will be visible after installation.

For the headlights, just make sure you do a good job of cleaning up the edges of the opening when you cut out the faces. I used a belt sander and then touched them up with a file. I applied a relatively light bead of black silicone around the outside of headlight assembly about 1/4 inch back from the edge. I slid the new lens over it and let it dry. (Small Car provides clear silicone for the headlights, black for the corners. I used black everywhere.) Once it was dry, I applied a second bead of silicone around the outside just to make sure there were no leaks and so any cracks around the seam wouldn't collect dirt. The tape can be removed at any time because it's only there to protect the lens. I'd leave it on until all the silicone dries. Even after wiping your fingers, you'll leave silicone fingerprints on everything you touch, and they don't just wipe off.

I don't want to go into how I built the grille. (Trade secret.)

.
Links to very big pictures ^


Also, after I removed the old lens faces, I tried cleaning them just to see what it took. Haha. Right... So, after trying different cleaning solutions, mild solvents, then finally using some very harsh solvents, I gave up with the idea of using chemicals. The nasty solvents did make the lenses look clean - until the solvent evaporated and left a badly damaged surface. The buffing wheel attached to my 8" bench grinder worked wonders though. I used the most abrasive metal buffing compound I had, and worked the plastic lenses very gingerly in long sweeping passes across the buffing wheel. If the plastic gets even slightly warm, the buffing wheel will quickly damage the lens face and it will take a very long time to buff it out again. I have a red and a gray buffing compound. The red compound seemed to tint the lens slightly red, and also left red spots in all the rock chips on the face of the lens. The gray buffing compound is almost invisible. I found that using lots and lots of buffing compound makes the process go much faster and produces a better result. I also noticed that there was a strange ridge on the waterfall grille. It appears as if there was a [very, very thin] protective film applied to the plastic that was peeling off. I can't really explain what it was, but I know that no amount of ordinary cleaning would remove it. The buffing wheel took quite a while to finally get that film off, but it did eventually. The film was peeling before I started, probably from UV damage. The buffing process just exposed it.

I actually replaced the lights on my black SVX and swapped the assemblies with the blue one. For those of you who have seen my blue car, you'll know my lights actually look pretty good. The example lenses [below] from my buffing experiment are from the black SVX.




More pictures in my locker, including comparison pictures. Headlights

[ensteele]

UberRoo - The headlights and grill look great! Good job!

[ensteele]

Originally Posted by 87f383

Much Better....took a bit of work though


Still have to for the silicone to cure all the way...then back in they go.

The old lenses are in the center for comparrison.... I got tired of polishing and just let them go.

The lights look good, but isn't it a little hard to adjust them with that chord holding them in place. I think I would use sheet metal screws instead.

[UberRoo]

Originally Posted by ensteele

UberRoo - The headlights and grill look great! Good job!

I was thinking that when I saw yours. Especially on Laguna Blue.

[87f383]

I didn't get any of the bulb spacers or gaskets w/ my lenses from small car...

[94svxred]

Oh come on! Don't hold out on the grille secret! What are gonna do , get a patent .even if all 14k+ SVX'S were on the road I'm sure you would'nt get RICH . Come clean ,Let us know how you did the grille ? It looks great

[UberRoo]

The grill is entirely custom. I think I already told this short story, but I'll relate it again: I was driving around a while ago and saw another SVX that had a pretty sharp looking grille. It looked like it had been blacked out and I was wondering what he had in there. As I got closer, it turns out the grille was simply missing and I'd been staring at his radiator! ...but it sure looked great from a distance.

So I went to my local auto parts stores and asked them if they had any rice. They said no. I then asked them if they had any bling. Again, they said no. I asked if they were sure, because I was pretty sure I'd seen it there before. The guy behind the counter said, "Look yo, I ain't pickin' up what choo gettin' at." So I said, "I gotsta get my ride lookin' tight. I need summa that sweet stuff to put under my S-type-R performance race touring bumper." And he was all like, "I'm feelin' ya. You needs the super-pimpin' race screen. Homie hookup price, only $36.95."

I said, "You mean that expanded aluminum?"
He said, "Yeah. Expanded aluminum."

That's when I laughed in his face. For $40, I can buy a 4'x8' sheet of expanded aluminum from a metal supply house. Fourty bucks for a 12"x48" piece of tin is obscene and usurious. Instead I went the the hardware store and bought a gutter guard for $1.89. It was galvanized steel, which isn't quite as nice as aluminum, but at 1/20th the price, that's okay by me.

I used the old waterfall grille to trace a pattern in the gutter guard with a Sharpie. I then cut the pattern out about one inch larger all the way around with tin snips. I placed the waterfall grille in a bench vise and carefully started bending the mesh gutter guard to wrap around it like tin foil. I started at one end and worked toward the center only a few inches. I lifted that end off of the waterfall grille, moved it about 1/4" towards the center, and started on the other end. If I simply wrapped the whole thing around the waterfall grille in one pass, it'd be too large to fit between the headlights. I wrapped the other end as far as possible, and then remove the whole thing and bent the center section by hand while just eyeballing it.

The next step was to built something to mount the mesh to. I cut out a piece of sheet metal to fit at the bottom of the mesh grille. The front was cut in large radius to match the curve of the bumper. The back was cut with a tab sticking out backwards at each rear corner. The tabs were bent downwards and placed into the holes that secure the factory waterfall grille. In the center of the sheet metal plate, I drilled a hole straight down and into the metal bumper frame. I tapped the hole in the bumper and used a 14mm screw, but a simple wood screw would suffice. I attached the bent gutter guard screen to the sheet metal plate by welding it. (For anyone who has tried to weld galvanized metal, you'll know it's not easy to do. Add to that the fact that's it's basically 18 gauge wire mesh. ) The screen could also be glued on I suppose.

After the assembly was complete, I spent some time tweaking it to make sure it fit right. I would suggest using great care not to scratch your lights with the cut edges of the screen, or taping the side of your headlights. (At least the Small Car headlights.) When I was satisfied with the fit, I painted it. I painted it a lot. The last thing I wanted was a rusty screen staining my bumper. Once the paint was dry, I used some black silicone and doped the edges of the mesh screen to keep the sharp edges from scratching the headlights, from cutting my hands when I reached in there to unlatch the hood safety latch, and from rusting, should the paint flake off the edges. I painted mine gloss black with an epoxy enamel spray paint. I might change it to a primer black, but for now it looks okay.

Once the assembly was installed, I cut out another piece of gutter guard screen and wrapped a piece of screen door mesh around it. I placed this behind my new grille to further reduce any transparency - which there really wasn't any of to begin with. The downside to doing this is that bugs make their way through the first screen, but get trapped by the second one where they are visible. The second screen also collects water when it's wet, so it kinda twinkles when light catches it. In hindsight, I would not use the second screen and I'd try to find a slightly finer mesh to make the primary screen out of. (The expanded steel screen offered by the auto parts store was a larger mesh and would have been worse.) I may remove the second screen as it is only held in place by a snug fit.

Also, before you paint the screen, put the unpainted one in place and enjoy it for a minute. The shiny looking screen looks pretty sharp too, but it's too ricey for my taste.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

I'm impressed with the results of my smallcar headlight lense kit. here's a picture of one of old lenses sitting next to a replacement lense.

[ensteele]

The picture did not make it.