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Swapping Headlight Front plastic ONLY


JasperIrl
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Anyone know if its possible to swap the front clear plastic on Lupo headlights?

So swap a GTI Xenon to a normal lupo headlight. (Front plastic only)

Reason I ask is, I have a small crack on mine and instead of replacing headlight altogether, I could just replace damaged plastic with a normal headlight, there very cheap to buy to whole unit for a standard lupo.

 

 

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Yeah, i've done it... i have a spare pair of 'lenses' which I refurbed ages ago just sitting in a box. 

The trick to separating them is heat. But not enough to damage anything. Bung the whole headlamp unit in an oven at 60-80c then remove and separate the lens from the chassis. The butyl rubber sealant melts like cheese with long strings. Make sure everything is spotlessly clean to start with or the black sticky stuff acts like a magnet.

Once apart absolutely don't let anything touch the mirroring. You can clean them, but you first need to get the dust off by first spraying with a detergent like washing liquid (for clothes), diluted. Leave for a few minutes, rinse with more detergent, then 'very' lightly wipe the surface with clean fingers, keeping lots of detergent around. Then rinse well. Then rinse again thoroughly with deionised water and dry with a hair dryer. 

Back in the oven to soften the butyl sealant then simply press together again until the clips snap in place. Sorted.

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I have split some Mk3 Hella split headlights before, I would say getting the sealant to stay with one half is pretty much impossible, this is OK if you are replacing the same lens as the sealant will be evenly spaced out, but if you are replacing with another lens it could be problematic. An alternative to the original sealant is Tiger seal panel adhesive.

In passing - I read somewhere that the white clouding film that appears on the inside of headlights is grease off fingers changing bulbs - this gets burnt off from the bulb heat and creates the film.

To the OP - if you open and clean one headlight, I suspect the other will look odd and need the same process done, this is a lot of work with a possibility expensive fixes if you get it wrong. If it was me I would be looking into a non-invasive fix for the crack before opening the headlight up. How bad is the crack? or as your in Ireland the craic?

  • Haha 1
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I was hoping to split the old headlight, (GTI Xenon) and replace the lens with a new one (Normal Lupo Headlight). Its not a bad crack, its just at the verp top edge, where it goes under the bonnet.

 

I think the safest bet is to try repair it first and go from there!! 🙂

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