how to fix a broken tailight lens

Truck got back from its new paintjob and stupid me, I dropped the tailight lens while putting the tailight back, chipping off the corner

Since I didn't want the repair to be too obvious, I had to find a way to make the glue blend in with the lens colour. That's when I got the idea to use clear epoxy with a drop of red food coloring

Polished the exterior side of the lens until I was left with an epoxy filled crack colour matched to the lens!

We can still see the crack in the reflector area due to the rough and reflective surface, but still, not bad!

before polishing:



white residue is from a previous failed crazy glue attempt at gluing it back. It was too weak of a glue for this type of repair... and/or plastic I guess?

inner side of lens:




had to leave a little epoxy joint here, over the crack, to give some strenght to the repair


after polishing:




as I said, can still see the repaired crack in the reflector area due to the reflective surface, but what isn't in the reflector area is much less visible because of the colour matched epoxy. The mighty power of food coloring!



at night, with parking lights:



Honestly, I didn't think it would have worked this good, as I was thinking I'd probably end up having to buy a new one, but decided to give it a try, just to see. Pleased with the result

Of course, if your tailight is broken in many pieces, better buy a new one, but if it is just for a corner like this, try this first!

 

Now that's scrappy; not a bad repair. I also like to put some silicone grease along the aged rubber seals to keep out moisture.

 

Nice job! looks great.