3rd Gen BHLM and light mods

Worst case scenario, send them to get professionally done. There's a few shops that do it. In addition, novtech4me is a member on here and he does them for TW members. I literally had him do mines a few weeks ago and I couldn't be happier with his work. I went full out.
-BHLM
-Morimoto HID and Projector
-TRD etched lenses
-Halo Rings
-Meso LED side Markers

Also added Meso's headlight trim to complete the package. I'm the worst person when it comes to modding and he made it so easy for me. So many Tacoma owners ask me where I got my headlights because many of them haven't seen my setup before.

 

Were you using a tool to pry the headlight apart?

 

Yeah I thought about going that route but wanted to take a crack at it myself. But I wimped out and quit before I’d break something.

I was using a flat head screw driver and I have some panel clip pliers, I even broke through the permaseal in one spot but it still wouldn’t separate the black plastic from the clear front.

 

Dang man that sucks, I'd say if you were in socal I'd help you out as I've been waiting along time to do this project bc I'm starting today.

I'll post some progress pics!

 

Good luck! Hopefully you’re more successful than I was. Maybe I was just being too much of a pansy haha

 

Got one apart, set the oven at 250°, said a prayer and put it in for 10 minutes. I managed to pull half of the housing apart easily then it started to become hard as the permaseal began to cool. Put it back in for another 6 minutes and got the other half apart. The trick is to pull at a steady consistent force. Even if it feels like the permaseal is not giving it eventually will.
Taking the permaseal out of the channel was also fairly easy as well. Now to do the other headlight and paint. Will post more pics when done!

 

@poke_taco so did you just pull it from the start or did you pry it at all first to try and break the seal?

 

I actually pried it starting from the projector side of the head light. Once I got enough space to fit my fingers inside of the gap I started pulling working my way down towards the turn signal side. I didn’t want to pry from the turn signal side because there is a lip that folds over the clear cover and didn’t want to damage it.

The trick is to not force it but just pull and hold constant tension until the permaseal gives. It may feel like it doesn’t want to come apart at first but it will eventually give and come apart. Also while you are pulling look at the permaseal between the black housing and clear cover and you can actually see it start to move and separate before you can feel it starting to release.

Getting the headlights apart was actually very easy. It’s getting the permaseal out of the channel on the black housing that was the most time consuming but also very easy.

 

Well man, I really must not have been trying, or didn’t full know what I was doing kinda makes me wanna take a second stab at it.

 

Do it! Once you get at least a section of the light separated it’s smooth sailing from there.

 

Paint done. I really like how the finish came out. I used rustoleum matte finish which was the only matte paint I could find. Now to just wait until dry and then retrofit some halos!

 

Finished mine over the weekend. Put amber LEDs on the OEM drl board, amber acrylic turn lens, d2s 5.0 projectors, and profile hi-lens high beams. Black passive demon eyes and a combo of matte and satin black paint.

How do you guys get good photos? When I try and get a close up all I see is the reflection of my goofy face staring at a camera

 

Nice job. Amber gang!

 

What brackets and spacers did you use for those 5.0s?

 

Yeh trying to get the headlights to come apart was pretty hard, the first one took me a while and the second one I had off in about 5 min.
The key I think is to make sure that glue doesn't cool off when you're working and also I used a screwdriver and in the trench to leverage the lens off.

Depends on what you end up doing to your headlights but this is not a beginners project but anyone thats dedicated can do it if they're careful and patient.

Anyways I didn't take a lot of pictures but here's some. I'll be installing them today.

I had some trouble with the paint I was using as it was a windy and cold/rainy day and got a couple of blotch marks on the acrylic and had to sand them down and redo it which was a painn.

Unfortunately now I'm at my least favorite part, getting the glue out of the trenches and resealing them...any suggestions to make it go faster would be appreciated.

 

Has anyone tried oven cleaner on the chrome instead of paint? I used it on the Anzo headlights on my F150 and it worked great.

From this...


To this with no more work than 5 minutes of the oven cleaner sitting on there and washing them off.

 

There’s no reason to strip the chrome completely. I just scuff it up with 1000-1500grit then start spraying right over it. Never had an issue.

 

He’s saying stripping it off and there is black underneath. I’m not sure that would work on our lights though, I believe it’s just white plastic under the chrome.

 

Well man, I really must’ve messed up. Everyone else is getting these lights apart no sweat. I’d like to give it a second chance but I’d want some help, something a little more than reading how someone’s done it. Anyone near me willing to help out? I’d just need some guidance/assistance on getting the light apart, once that’s done I could take care of the rest. So basically help me out on the hard part

 

You're probably not going hot enough. It's super hard when they're cool, you gotta crank up the heat a bit. I did 300F and it worked well. Got both my headlights apart in 1 bake each. Here's my write up on how to separate them, should be helpful.