Opening Headlight without Cutting?

Newm · May 1, 2014

Looks great...nice job!

block8head · May 1, 2014

Looks killer man!.. GJ

Shoulda have swap out the projectors while you at it....

thewhitestallion · May 1, 2014

At first I thought the glue was gonna be too hard to do it, but it does take a little persuasion and some force to get in there. Extremely happy with the result i think it looks so much better than with the chrome. Also very happy that I didn't have to cut them everything went together super easy and like a glove.

Let me know what you guys think, and ask away if you have any questions.

Before

After

wow, that's looks amazing! that is how they should have came from the factory.

one question, what kind of sealant did you use to seal the lense back up? I did my 02 Camaro lights and that came out fine but when I tried to do that with my girlfriends 09 Pontiac g6 the headlight was getting all sorts of moisture inside. any tips on sealing the light up 100%. that is my only fear is not sealing the lights back up properly and always having moisture inside of my headlights which would piss me off.

YQatari · May 1, 2014

wow, that's looks amazing! that is how they should have came from the factory.

one question, what kind of sealant did you use to seal the lense back up? I did my 02 Camaro lights and that came out fine but when I tried to do that with my girlfriends 09 Pontiac g6 the headlight was getting all sorts of moisture inside. any tips on sealing the light up 100%. that is my only fear is not sealing the lights back up properly and always having moisture inside of my headlights which would piss me off.

I remember when I installed projectors in my 2008 Malibu, I was getting some moisture inside the lens. GM used some kind of hard grey glue that won't soften very easily with heat. I scraped the old glue and used ribbon sealer from an auto-parts store, worked like a champ.

OP, your headlights look great!

draino · May 1, 2014

These headlights us a black sealent that's pretty hard. This may be my weekend project, wanna get rid of the orange reflector.

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Jtanner129 · May 17, 2014

At first I thought the glue was gonna be too hard to do it, but it does take a little persuasion and some force to get in there. Extremely happy with the result i think it looks so much better than with the chrome. Also very happy that I didn't have to cut them everything went together super easy and like a glove.

Let me know what you guys think, and ask away if you have any questions.

Before

After

Looks great! How did you seal the lights back together? I was thinking about removing the amber reflector in mine. I'm a little scared of messing up the lights.

MotoMedic · May 20, 2014

What are y'all placing the lights on when in over? Directly on rack? Baking sheet? Asbestos? =)

If GTPprix's reprogramming falls through, I'm considering removing the factory LED strips and replacing them with aftermarket/custom ones.

.

block8head · May 20, 2014

^leave them on the rack. Make sure the headlight doesn't touch the side or the back wall of the oven..

draino · May 20, 2014

I need to do this! I still haven't heard from gtpprix.

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CannonMTN · May 28, 2014

I've got a follow up question for KyleTalbot or anyone else who has baked their headlights open.

I have a 2014 GMC Sierra All-Terrain with the Bi-Halogen projector headlights. I am looking to open up the case to retrofit the projector with HID and baking seems like the best option.

Did you remove any of the equipment off of your headlight or did you leave it on as block8head suggested? What about removing all the bulbs and the DRL control module on the back of the headlight case? That is the grey metal unit identified by part number L90028073 in the attached pictures.

Did you also leave all the caps securely in place in the headlight unit when baking?

It's not completely clear from the previous post, did you bake it at 220 deg F for 8 mins? Does it need more than 8 mins in the oven to completely open the headlight?

Thanks and great work!

2014MallCrawler · May 28, 2014

For some reason im not seeing the pics... Shoot!

Plwtwo · May 28, 2014

Looks great! I was thinking about doing mine white but the black looks pretty awesome!

I painted my grille chrome Satin Blk too, the dealer went ape-poop over it, that and did the bumper center to match truck. Dealer claims the '15 A/AT's bumper centers will come painted if it's the fully loaded model, and not the Sle version A/T, but take it for what it's worth, it came from a Dealer, how often to they get it right..

CoasterCOG · May 29, 2014

Adding this to my to-do list once I'm brave enough to throw might lights in the oven...

KyleTalbot · May 29, 2014

Thanks for all the compliments guys, I have a lot of people locally asking if their aftermarket headlights and Im not gonna lie kinda like it lol. But I will say I do kind of wish I changed the projectors, would of been a good idea when I had the lights open. I will clarify a couple of things for you guys.

First off I baked the headlights in the oven at 220 deg F for 8 minutes directly on the grill but avoiding touching sides or back. Light bulbs were taken out but covers/caps put back on.Nothing else on the headlights was taking off except for the light bulbs. After 8 mins in the oven I would then take the headlight out place it on the ground and slowly pry the edges of the headlight housing away from the lens (You have to move quickly before the glue hardens again..Approx 2-4 min). You have to repeat this process until you've pryed the housing away enough that you can access the edge of the lens. Once you have an edge, you can get under the edge of the lens and very gently pry it away from the entire housing (while its hot) If at this point the lens does not come off easily you need to work the edges away more.

After I got the chrome housing out I separated all the parts from it scuffed it up with a scuff pad cleaned it all up put a couple coats of adhesive promoter and then a couple coats of universal black automotive spray paint. Once I got everything back together i slapped it back in the oven at the same temp and time and pushed it all together until i was able to get the screws in. The screws really helped it get back to its original position. After that make sure everything looks good then seal er back up.

As a sealant i ended up using an All Purpose Silicone Adhesive Sealant which you can purchase anywhere. Others might say otherwise but that's just what i used and it seems to of worked pretty good up to now. I ended up using quite a bit of silicone but i figured i would rather have more than not enough, just to get into every little hole and then running my finger along the silicone around the lens to really push it in and seal it.

Hope this clears a couple things up for you guys, If anyone else does it as well post some pics IMO it makes the truck look completely different

PS... IMPORTANT.... If anyone does do this... make sure you clean the lens and projector lens very very very well I have a couple little streaks that bug the crap out of me. Just a little heads up.

'014SLTguy · June 10, 2014

I'm thinking about giving this a try. Anyone do this with a silver or white truck yet? I'm not sure if my truck would look better with light or dark headlights. Anyone have any thoughts/opinions?

Thanks in advance.