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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

Clear headlight Lenses pt.2


d-_-b
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Well as some of you may have already read previously I was "de-lining" my stock pre-facelift headlight lenses.

 

This all went quite well for a "learning by doing" task however it still bugged me that the lenses wern't as clear as I was after. not sure if this is because I didn't go any finer with the sanding - but i was going up to as high a grade as I could get (was around 3000 grit) then compound on top of that and then T-cut & polishing.

 

This was the result after that process (for those who didnt see the original thread)

 

image

 

They don't look bad by any means, and they are very much clear, but in bright weather they are just not as clear as I wanted for the headlights. (Granted some of you may just think i'm being "picky" / slightly fanatical about this but if I am not happy with something then it will bug me until I correct / change it). I call it "attention to detail" :lol:

 

 

So anyways, que next part of the headlight saga.

 

Was browsing the For Sale section and saw jackso11 was selling a clear headlight kit.

(great guy btw)

 

They arrived last Wednesday I think it was, very well packaged indeed - big box and plenty of padding :thumbs: and so I set about discovering what I had to work with.

 

The kit pretty much consist of 2 of each of the following bits:

 

image

 

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As you can see it comprises of a moulded outer lens pressing and a inner frame section which when "together" reproduce the stock lens front, only clear.

 

Will update with more shortly

Edited by d-_-b (see edit history)
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First task was to cut off all the excess from the lens mold;

 

image

 

When cutting off the excess lip I left a slight excess, manually shaping the lens once the excess was removed.

 

Prepped & painted the inner section:

The inner section I sanded to ensure that it sat correctly against the inner side of the lens face & once was done this part was re-primered & painted. It did arrive in primer grey but wanted to make sure all was done "fresh". Did it a satin black to match up with the stock version.

 

Once this had dried I bonded the 2 parts together, then fiberglassed the outer edge of the lens to the inner section.

(Previous posts in regards to how to attach the lens I have seen done in a few fashions and a fair few seem to use wood screws through the front. However I opted with Hard plastic glue on the inside and fiberglassing the outside. In this way the lens is not "damaged" but very strongly attached. Effectively they are as good as 1 piece now.

 

image

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ooooo, ab-flug inserts too :) look nice!

 

Yea have wanted some since I had my first Supra only got them a couple of months ago. that was what triggered the first lot of "clear headlight work" - is a thread in the members section about all that here :) - fingers are just about normal again lool

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Update:

 

Left glue & fiberglass to fully harden over a day then released clamps. Left to settle, then masked up the main lens section & using extra stretchy masking tape, ran the edge I wanted for the painted edge.

 

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After a few alterations to get the outer line looking correct, I prepped the edging, cleaned it, primed it, left to dry then painted with gloss black.

 

image

 

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1 lens not far off,

 

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and second lens at "the start"

 

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Granted looks a bit overkill for just using a dremel but cutting plastic = hot plastic bit's flying off from the cut as well as muchos noise & melted plastic fumes >

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looking good there!

 

How come heaps of other cars have lot's of aftermarket headlights available but there is none for the supra? if a company was to make complete clear headlights for the supra i'm sure they'd sell.

 

Cheers dude, yea the supra never seemed to fall into the market of aftermarket headlight suppliers. Rx's, NSX's and other similar era cars seem to have a few companies doing parts (allbiet costly, but were available from UK companies) the Supra was more ABFlug do the kit - only in Japan, then all the other clear headlight lenses are hobbyists or made by people with their own molds.

 

you have done very well!

 

Thankyou for the words of encouragement :D, I remember these when I get the bits of plastic that somehow manage to find a way around the protective glasses & stick in my eye >

Edited by d-_-b (see edit history)
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Looking good mate.

 

I totally forgot to reply on how I got on....

 

With the new kit I had it done in jig time. From 80 grit to 600 grit took around2 hours of work total to have it completely flat. I then moved onto hand graft with 1200 and 2000 grit. After that I had a good enough finish to set about with lacquer (the key to having clear lenses that you missed, sorry never even thought to mention it to you). In total I was at it for around 6 hours.

 

First light took at least double that time lol. It's amazing the difference when you use the right tools :D

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Looking good mate.

 

I totally forgot to reply on how I got on....

 

With the new kit I had it done in jig time. From 80 grit to 600 grit took around2 hours of work total to have it completely flat. I then moved onto hand graft with 1200 and 2000 grit. After that I had a good enough finish to set about with lacquer (the key to having clear lenses that you missed, sorry never even thought to mention it to you). In total I was at it for around 6 hours.

 

First light took at least double that time lol. It's amazing the difference when you use the right tools :D

 

Yea I didn't do the lacquer part! >

 

You got some pics of yours dude you could send me? Would be cool to see how you got on! :D

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They are in the boot of the car the wife has, will take a pic once she gets home :)

 

Great, look forward to seeing your hard graft outcome! :)

(Your now part of an elite club of the headlight de-liners, only those whom have done it know what you have to go through :lol: )

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Yeah, definitely never again. Funnily enough the task that you are tackling right now I did a couple of years ago. I used the bonding method too, rather than screws etc, far better IMO.

 

You can see I ran out of lacquer before doing the outside of the 2nd one, so that shows the difference it can make :)

 

 

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That looks great Scott!! You did a brilliant job there :D See what you mean about the laquer, does finish it off!

 

cje, link to my thread about delining is Here think it details most the process (or at least what I did) Scott found a few better tools which could be used so maybe he will add up the bits he used. (If your gonna attempt this feat you need all the help you can get lol!)

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Not had much time to work on these but updates from the last few days:

 

image

 

All masked for prep, primer n' paint.

 

image

 

Had redone the black line on the 1st lens but didn't like how it came out (black line wasn't sharp enough due to the tape.) so decided to redo it whilst I did the second lens as this time I was using fine-line bodyshop tape to create the masked of line I needed.

 

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and how they are currently;

 

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