Well walked out at work the other day and noticed the lens on one of my H4's was turned about 45 degrees. Reached down and it literally lifted off the light in my hand. Yikes! Glad I had not turned them on lately.

So - the bucket has obviously had moisture in it and has a fair amount of rust so time to restore these beauties. I heated the other unit up in the oven for about 10 minutes at 300 and was able to use and exact to cut through the old adhesive to separate the glass lens.

Now I need some assistance as I am scared to break any of the plastic fittings. What is the method to separate the two remaining parts of the headlight unit?



Here is where I am. Want to get the surround ring separated from the actual bucket. Plan to clean it all and remove the rust, and put back together.

These type of fittings are what I need to separate but am afraid too much force will break them.

This is the little nub that the ball fits into - ok if I don't drill these out.

Best way to remove these screws? Looks like the upper plastic block is held in place by the two little tabs, but the bottom of the adjuster screw is also help in place.

 

Very interested my self….subscribed!
what is the purpose of the ball and socket anyway?

 

Whassup Ron! I had a vision of Ron turning his lights on and the lens just continuing with a beautiful follow-through right down to the pavement!

The ball is the mount for the headlight adjusting system on ROW cars. On the sealed beam setup for the US, the ball and socket are there (non-adjustable) and I think it just provides extra stabilization for the light unit. So for the US - nothing.

 

With those top fittings, you're going to be fighting a sort of one-way friction fit, as they currently are. What I would do is get a couple of 90 degree picks and try to get them into the little spaces under the tabs that are jammed up at an angle on the center piece. With some careful levering you should be able to keep all the force on the metal bit. The goal is to try to create just enough space between the tabs and the center plastic pillar that the retaining bracket can slide up.

I hope that makes sense.

I'm interested in how you refinish these. I have the same kind of refurbishment ahead of me on a different car (968) so this is interesting to me.

ETA: on the bottom picture, can you tell if the assembly is under any kind of tension? If you relieve the tension, can the screw and bracket slide straight out, or is there some other sort of retainer stopping that from happening?

Good luck

 

Ok great to report some success - see the pics and video link below.



This is the little clip that keeps the tabs spread apart so they can't accidentally press together and pop the plastic clip loose. I pried this up gently with a small metal screwdriver blade under each side applying even pressure and moving up slowly.

These screws do in fact need to be drawn all the way down. I was then able to get a flat blade behind the rubber piece and gently pry away from the center. The screw is in the bottom tab fairly securely. It did bend a bit down when prying but it bent back very nicely.

Other screw - this one actually came all the way off of the tab but I did not investigate how.

Separated. Once the tab is loose and the screws out, the adjuster ring just lifts off...

...leaving the bucket itself.


Plan is hopefully to remove the rust and recondition both the front and back of the bucket, and repaint the adjuster ring using the faux plated technique. I was originally going to have the inside of the bucket nickel plated, but I am wondering if something like a screen paint (a la movie theater screen) might be more reflective. The back of the bucket looks like it was originally a baked on enamel type of finish. Not sure where to go with all of that yet. At least can get it cleaned up while investigating options.

Here is a quick video:

 

So here are a few update pictures. I think the final product is going to work pretty well.



Here is the bucket outside being repainted in Rust-oleum sage green. It's a pretty close match to the factory finish - which has some variation as we will see in a few minutes.

Untaped. Cleaned the top unpainted part with the glass bead media. Cleaned all the plastic/rubber bits with a good wipe down of Dow 111.

The adjuster ring after a fresh coat of "Cad look alike" - well really it is not even close but it is better than tarnished and oxidized mess.

Going back together.

Sprayed the inside with a VERY light coat of metallic silver. I know that is not the best choice for this - but I am not putting the $$ into a resilvering yet.

Adjustment ring back in place.

Light completely reassembled with the LED and the Protizmo kit installed.

My pic of NIB light units for reference. Notice the buckets are finished in a different shade altogether, so I am not too worried about my Rust-Oleum Sage Green.

 

The silver paint isn't close to reflective enough - use chrome type spray paint for a better chance of actually reflecting. This is not expensive stuff and works quite well.

Nice recovery of those - was it salt air that did that corrosion job?

Alan

 

Awesome work Scott! I agree with Alan on the chrome paint, but man, those are awesome!

 

Posted on wrong thread, somehow.