robertbartsch

After several attempts to clean the fog from my 99 Camaro plastic headlight lenzes using various commercial kits, I decided to purchase a replacement set of headlight lenses.

Looking under the hood, the replacement job does not seem to be a simple project.

Is there a tutorial on this? Is this a 4 hour job?

Thx...

billscamaros

iTrader: (1)

I have a '99 Z28 and removing the headlights is a pretty straightforward job, taking less than 10 mins. Unplug the high and low beam connectors, and slide them out of the way. There is one bolt on each side that holds the lamp housing in place. Remove that bolt from each housing. The whole housing will slide slightly inwards ..... towards each other and then they are loose. There are two tabs on each housing fitted into two slots in the cars structure .... look closely to see these, because understanding how these slide apart makes it so much easier to put back together. Once the housing are loose from the structure, I have to wiggle them a bit to get them out of the car. It's pretty easy.

As an aside, you have to remove these headlight housing in order to change your turn signal bulbs.

As another aside, I've pulled the headlamp enclosures out a couple of times to polish them using the 3M kit available at Autozone ..... always with pretty good results. Although they have fogged up again within a year or two.

Where did you get the factory replacements, and how was the cost?

robertbartsch

...lots of these are availible on the Net.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...CXVT7TVGN63CZR


these are OEM style lights which are a tad higher in price....

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

Check out the second post in this thread for step-by-step instructions on this (it also covers removing the blinker housings, so just disregard that part):

https://ls1tech.com/forums/general-l...-housings.html

As for buying new lenses, even the stuff that GM sells at this point is made by Depo. A lot of people seem to be pretty happy with the fit and quality of the Depo models, but I was disappointed. I ended up just re-restoring my stock headlights and put them back on the car because they were a better fit than the Depos (even after I swapped over the stock bracket).

Here is a detailed outline of my experience with the Depos, just an FYI if you care to read it:

https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearanc...-now-depo.html

FirstYrLS1Z

iTrader: (4)

took some pics when I had the front end apart,don't know if these'll help.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

No need to pull off that whole metal mounting plate just to remove the headlights. You can just release the 10mm bolt that holds the top metal brace to the plastic headlight bracket and then remove the headlight + bracket without the brace or mounting plate.

robertbartsch

Youtube video of the headlight removal is below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chm5kPID-24

robertbartsch

This is a good video.

ragtop69

I just used the Wipe New restoration kit on my 2000 Z28. My headlight lenses were damn near opaque. I had used a kit previously by Turtle Wax to restore the lenses. The lenses came out sorta clear and quickly re-oxidized. The Wipe New kit pads really removed all the scale and oxidation quickly. Not nearly as much effort as the Turtle Wax kit. The Wipe New single use pad made the lenses look like a new pair. They are crystal clear and look like the day I bought the car from Chevy. The box claims that's the last time I'll have to do this job. I am assuming that's because the stuff is permanent, although it could be because the stuff is lethal. Anyway, it looks fabulous. BTW, I'm looking for a replacement bracket on which the headlight mounts for the right side of my car. The black metal shown in the photos above. I had a slight fender bumper years ago and it ruined the adjuster mechanism. Any source suggestions?