From
this thread, here is my attempt to remove a Sunfire tail light lens using the oven method.
First the sacrifice...
and the implement of sacrifice...
Step 1:
Remove the rubber surround from the rear of the tail light. That will melt in the oven and make quite a mess. It may or may not be held in with some adhesive. Take care removing this as you will need to reuse it.
Step 2:
If you have the quick nuts still attached, remove them. (This would be the case if you ordered/picked up a donor tail)
It was suggested 250 degrees, 15-20 minutes, so I did 200, just in case....
Enter the sacrifice...
5 minutes in, the oven door was cracked slightly to prevent overheat, the lens started to warp.
So... here comes phase 2. I like dual ovens.
I set the top oven to 175...
Entered the sacrifice again...
and more warpage.
Unless someone has an idea to remove a lens off a Sunfire coupe taillight using the oven method, I suggest a thin Dremel cutting wheel on an AC powered Dremel.
it would take alot longer, but what about a hair dryer?
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| < Chillin' Lake Side!
I going to be the first to tell you that you are a dumbass. Fist off you don't put the lense so close to the top. Second you put them in the oven on there side, also I might add you chould also if you do it that way again put a 2nd sheet on top of them so the heat sorce doesn't hit it right on. Also saved you the best tip for last.
Preheat your oven!
Also I didn't see you had it cracked! I guess you never have cooked. That just means that the oven was on the whole time. That would burn anything at any heat setting. i'm guessin' your mom wasn't helping with this or she would of told you that. Sorry if i'm being rude, but I think it is common sence.
A) Oven was on bake, not broil, that's why it was on the top rack.
B) This is a donor light. I only need the housing, not the lens, so I don't care if the lens warps.
C) Oven was preheated.
Also, on the second attempt, the oven was closed... 10 minutes in (again on bake, not broil), the lens continued to warp, even on the lower temp
I didn't see you left the door open. That is why it melted. Cause with the door being left open it couldn't get to the right temp. It would just stay on for all of those 5 min's. You could always preheat the oven, and then just turn it off. I did that before.
Kardain wrote:Also, on the second attempt, the oven was closed... 10 minutes in (again on bake, not broil), the lens continued to warp, even on the lower temp
Yea you weakend that part of the lence. Why wouldn't it keep melting cause it is the thinest part, and has lost all support from the angle it once had.
Daniel Alonzo wrote:there tools for that
don't be ghetto
I wrote:This is a donor light. I only need the housing, not the lens, so I don't care if the lens warps.
TRD: The pic with the door completely open is in the the 10 seconds or so between after the oven preheating and the light going in.
I'll try again using your advice, preheating then shutting it off, see where that goes. Mainly I was following what I read about baking headlights... IIRC, the door was cracked during that baking process... I could be mistaken though.
02 redbagged: A hairdryer puts out too much heat in a concentrated area. It will melt the lens faster than the oven did.
I just used a knife a to cut all the glue out...takes longer, but much less likely to to warp, melt, or anything like that...
i like how you said "the sacrifice"..very entertaining
89Sunbird, the way that the Sunfire lens is designed, there isn't a way to get a knife down in there to cut the glue out... If you look at the last pic (the one with the pen) there is a dark line where the refractor and the reflector meet. That's where the lens is glued into the housing...
This pic should show a little better as to the lens compared to the housing (and this is not a finished product... I still have to fab a mounting plate and rewire one of the boards):
It wraps around the housing fairly well and due to space constraints, a knife doesn't fit in there. I've tried that approach already.
Ok, well that was promising (the preheating, shutting off oven, insert tail light)... I got a tad side-tracked and it was in the oven for a bit too long, and cooled off too much. However one corner did come up, and no further warping. At least the housing is holding up nicely.
One more time through the oven using the above method (and watching he clock) and it came up a bit more... didn't warp any further until I started playing with it. but not enough to get the lens completely off.
(Now, I don't imagine that anyone else is going to put a tail light in the oven 4 times to get the lens off, but its late and I'm bored and not tired enough to go to sleep... so this is the best time filler I can find)
Mainly this is an attempt to remove the lens without leaving alot of material behind in the channel. Weasel is interested in retaining use of the lens afterwards (why, I'm not sure)
But even then, the glue does not soften enough to allow the lens to be removed without retaining its shape using either method - direct bake or TRD's suggestion.
Hrothgar suggested oven at 250 for 15-20 minutes, I dropped it to 200 leaving the door cracked. What I didn't show was my thermometer in there that showed the oven at 215 max before the lens warped. 175, door closed didn't help any further. TRD's suggestion of preheat and shut-off worked somewhat, but I'll have to go one or 2 more cycles to get the lens fully removed...
2enthusiast4 wrote:i like how you said "the sacrifice"..very entertaining
lol Yeah, I planned on putting this poor tail light through more abuse than it'll ever see in it's lifetime. So far, its not holding up too well. (the lens that is)
well i'm glad you tested this out, i was waiting for somebody to do something like this. good work kardain, the sacrificial taillight did not warp in vain!
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Why dont you contact IZN TRBL, I'm sure he knows more than anyone else on this site about customizing tailights/headlights.
I'm doing a set of custom tails myself... I'll see what IZN recommends... heck for all I know, his lenses are ending up the same way that mine is (all he is showing pics of is the housing, which is all that I need anyway)
Thanks for the efforts, bro!!
I need the housing since after modifying the inside, I actually want to put it back together. I'm going for a stock looking light with a unique light-pattern.
One of my lenses is fubar'd though so I might just give this oven thing a shot as well. It's not melting the housing at all, right? So the worst that will happen is I wreck my lens even more but at best, it might separate cleanly and show that I can do the same with a new one?
Then I'd only have to buy one more light instead of two.
6 trips through the oven so far and the housing is holding up great...
For the record... I got pretty much the same results here. Slow heating in the oven didn't even slightly loosen the glue, though the red plastic started to warp.
Stupid lights.
The glue just never lets up at all, eh?
Did a little bit.. that's where the artwork came from...
Gotta give props to GM for this.... the tails definately should not leak cause of the lens seperating from the housing.
i tried boiling a set of tails once thinking it would be milder than the oven and the hot water could seep into the cracks where the glue is.... i got the same warping results. im convinced the easiest way to do this is get two full sets of tails... on one set, crack the hell ouf of the lense and spare the housing, on the other, go in from the back and break apart the housing, sparing the lense. then join the two spared pieces together.
Adam (StealthCavalier) wrote:i tried boiling a set of tails once thinking it would be milder than the oven and the hot water could seep into the cracks where the glue is.... i got the same warping results. im convinced the easiest way to do this is get two full sets of tails... on one set, crack the hell ouf of the lense and spare the housing, on the other, go in from the back and break apart the housing, sparing the lense. then join the two spared pieces together.
Yep. This is my current plan. Much as it sucks.
Of course, that means I now need another set of tails...
