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Has anyone taken apart their stock headlights yet?
I've ordered some switchback's from Diode Dynamics and I plan on blacking the chome shrouds as well.
In the past I've taken apart 3 sets of head lights by baking them in the over and pulling them apart. The last set I did on my 2014 Sierra were a real PITA! The sealant they used was rock solid so it was difficult to get them apart, and then even more difficult to get them back together as tight as they were originally.
If anyone has done this can you please provide some insight? How is the seal that ford uses? What did you use to re-seal them?
Has anyone taken apart their stock headlights yet?
I've ordered some switchback's from Diode Dynamics and I plan on blacking the chome shrouds as well.
In the past I've taken apart 3 sets of head lights by baking them in the over and pulling them apart. The last set I did on my 2014 Sierra were a real PITA! The sealant they used was rock solid so it was difficult to get them apart, and then even more difficult to get them back together as tight as they were originally.
If anyone has done this can you please provide some insight? How is the seal that ford uses? What did you use to re-seal them?
I had a local guy do mine. He said the fords were the hardest he has ever done, they use some perma seal. Which I guess is a lot harder to remove, I think he said it took an hour and a half a light to do. Baked them a little longer maybe a little higher temps. Not really sure exactly. I will email him and ask him for any tips he can offer, then post if he responds.
He used some of the butyl glue from Retrofit source to seal them back up, after a few weeks and some heavy rain I haven't noticed any issues.
Last edited by Lockelamora; 12-01-2015 at 06:45 PM.
If you some cash to spare, I personally would buy another set of headlights or used headlights. Tasca parts are pretty reasonable for their prices on new halogen headlight assembly.
I've done my own retro on my 2014 escape I had. Did the heating two ways. First time baking I used the cardboard box/heat gun method. It works but I had quite a few issues. Like lighting the box on fire lol. I did notice the heat didn't transfer evenly on the whole headlight. So a lot of hacking. The second time I baked new headlights on my escape was with the oven. I believe 220F for aprox 15-20 mins. Work at the permaseal with a flat blade screwdriver. Put it back in and continue the process. This way I had them opened in a half an hour.
If your doing it yourself, having another set of headlights. There's no downtime with your truck. After reseal in back with the butyl. You can use a heat gun to open them back up again less than 10 mins per headlight.
Oh yeah when your resealing it back with butyl. Don't cheap out. The more the better. Or else after you reinstall everything, drive it for a bit and notice condesation happening. Apart they come again. But if that does happen you could alway use those moisture absorbance packs.
I will be retrofitting my headlights sooner or later. But this crappy canadian dollar is making it not worth while to buy another set of headlights or projectors....
Hope this helps
Interested in this as well. I'm new to this but confident, and I really don't want to pay $1800 for raptor retros. Would those of you that had other pro installs mind commenting on price?
Here is what my guy responded in an email: Well there is no real simple answer. If it's a factory headlight, they take heat better without warping. I usually bake at 260-265 for about 15 minutes. Then I pry until I get my separating tool in between, and work the lens loose. If you can pop the seal while it's still hot, don't slow down. Keep the momentum going, until it's off.
Removing the permaseal from the channel is just done with a heat gun, and scraping with a screwdriver. I have different widths that are sharpened at the end, and heat about 6 inches of the channel at a time. Sometimes the permaseal will pull out in a long strip, but most lights you will be scraping out each light for an hour.
It cost a little over $900 with the lights and install. If the lights didn't take so long for him to pull apart it would have cut $1-150 off in labor time. He did warn me about it before hand though.
That was between the light kit I ordered off of Retro fit source. Combined with the installation. The local guy is an authorized dealer/installer for them.
So for the kit it was about $450. https://www.theretrofitsource.com/co...3-kit-d2s.html This is the kit, I upgraded the bulbs and did switchback so it ended up being more than the $315 shown as a base price. Then another $4-5 for the installation. It took him about 8 hours because there was a lot of cutting and trimming to get everything to fit and look right. So total it was a little over $900.
Defiant Custom Rides in Raleigh NC was the installer. A couple finished pics below, first shows with switchback being used as blinker light along with the regular signals. Might have them fully painted, possibly go quad.
Last edited by Lockelamora; 12-02-2015 at 10:17 AM.
that's what I was considering doing. A set of lights would cost me $300, and retroshop said about $600 for parts (projectors, HIDs, etc) labor and shipping. Really, really tempting.
12-01-2015, 03:55 PM
Taking apart headlights - Blacking out/Retrofit/Switchback install
