3rd gen headlight tab reinforcement/repair

LED Tabs coming along.

Had to do a minor revision on the upper inside tab. I also widened the base of the upper outside tab as the LED light has more space here. It appears many of the LED lights break off flush, this will give more surface area at the base if there is nothing else to glue to.

16 hour print time for two sets....ugh. May need to buy another printer.

 

Working on the "wings" for halogen and LED lights now. First test fit is so-so but easy enough to refine



LED tabs are done just need a final fitment test. Print quality on these is not perfect but the print settings are focused on function and strength first.

 

These things do work and you don't even notice them if your not looking. They saved me a lot of money not having to replace my headlight.

 

One of the difficulties in the LED tabs has been that I don't have a LED headlight with good tabs. That finally arrived this week, now giving me two headlights and one with an intact upper inside tab. The result of that was me not being happy with the fit of the upper inside tab.

The first set of production ready tabs is warming up on the printer right now.

 

Great to hear! Youre a savior! Interested in the 20+ LEDs when they're available

 

Ok, FINALLY, the LED tabs are available. That one tab just wasn't fitting as precise as I wanted, its better now.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-led-headlight-repair-tabs-led.801338/

 

Great i picked up a set yesterday!

 

Found a steal of a deal on some Pro halogens (the one w/ blacked out internals) that has some broken tabs. I'll be in contact with you soon if this deal goes through

 

Ok, so these "wings" that are the inner tabs have been a royal PITA.

There is a ton of subtle shape to this area of the housing so rough CAD designs just are not cutting it. I have tried 3D modeling the housing in the past and it never worked well. Well an expensive new phone later, some hacking of a ring light, and now I have some decent scans with enough pixels to do proper photogrammetry. This could be improved with some cross polarization, but all in all its great.



Now I need to tweak this to remove unnecessary polys (its 12,300,000 individual triangles here), mod the shape some, and then I can use CAD software to subtract this from a generic "wing". Once done it should be an "exact fit" replacement, and what I mean is a shape that can replace the wing but fits exactly over what remains of the factory housing. Once done you will need to trim the broke "wing" back until flush with the outer lip, then you glue the printed part against the main housing and around the "ribs" that remain. This will give you the missing "wing" and a ton of surface area for the glue to hold.

This has been a pain, let me tell you. A few dozen attempts later and I'm close. I have taken at least 1,000 pictures just in testing (you can see just some of the 140(!) used to make this reconstruction).

 

Wanted to share my initial experience with these.

First, the way the tabs are designed is AWESOME. So much surface area for the adhesive no matter how broken the clip is. I love that they're designed to "clip" into those holes at the base of each tab. The headlights I found had all but one top tab busted, but luckily for me, the bottom tab on each was still in tact.



The trickiest part of the epoxy process was clamping the tabs, especially the larger "wing". I ended up just breaking off one of the plastic support arches under it in favor of getting a better clamp. I will say, during this process, you will likely end up with tabs that aren't an EXACT fit as they were before breaking, however, they're close enough once you start tightening stuff into place and the adhesive, in theory, should be strong enough to handle a little flex.


I let these lights set for three days before I installed them. According to everything I read, that was overkill, but better safe than sorry. Install was a bitch but that's more on Toyota. I think I might have to readjust some stuff because after I buttoned everything back up, I noticed my bumper panel is a little wonky. That's likely user error.



Everything seems to fit well once tightened up and bolted in. My lights did not have the bottom support tab in tact, which I believe could be a helpful addition to your kit to help with light stability. It's the part that initially slides into a plastic receiver by the radiator. There is a tab that also goes in this area and my lights did have that in tact, so I ended up using bolts to reinforce this area. Pretty much eliminated the VERY small shake that the lights had when I pushed on them.



Overall though, super super stoked with how everything came out. All-in, my investment for this project was $141.86!!! I got the headlights for damn near robbery at $100 from someone who probably didn't know the going rate for OEMs, even broken ones. The tabs and JB Weld were the additional expenses. Maybe three hours of my time too and boom, new-to-me OEM blacked out headlights. Big thanks to you Fern for recognizing how much potential there is in salvaging damaged headlights and creating a solid product.

 

I have a set of OEM halogens from an OR that I'm planning to swap the LED DRL board on with a busted top tab. I was going to embed some paperclips as a plastic weld maneuver before bolting up in my sport, but am totally interested in this as an alternative.

 

I broke literally every single head light tab when I went to fiberglass. This kit would be so handy lol

 

Hi there...
As the Taco is like the only car where the headlights are not attached to the fender...but the fender to the headlights, that spare part is a true blessing!
Any chance to send those to Switzerland? Padded envelope by USPS Priority Mail would be appreciated...as I broke one of those brackets already and don't put too much trust in the other ones left.

 

I think we can work something out.

Do you need a full set or just the lower bumper mounts?

 

great ! thank you! broke the one on top, driverside (connecting to the fender). But if you ask me, I'd prefer a full set of brackets, because if we do an international shipment I rather be ready for all the occasions;-)
what's the price you'd like to get?

 

Hey, sorry, personal matters kept me away from the forum.

I'm printing up some more sets now.

 

Sweet. Just got new headlights I’d like to reinforce these. Before I break a 3rd set completely off again.

 

Thanks for this! Just ordered a set!

 

Also just ordered a set! Thanks a ton.

 

LED tabs installed