How to disassemble LED Tails?

[DRKNYTE]

Has anyone tried this? Would bakeing them work or will it damage the circuits in the LED system? Any advice would be great! Thanks.

 

[oaklandopen]

my guess is that it's the same for the headlights. the LEDs should be okay

 

[DRKNYTE]

I really hope so cause I`m going to paint those next...

 

[Hank3]

From what I read, other members have discouraged baking and opening tail lights due to a different type of seal. A few people tried baking the tails (like the headlights) and they wouldn't budge. They kept trying and trying and they ended up melting them. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Here's someone else's post from another forum:

The reason why you can't bake them is because they are not sealed with glue . . . the lens is fused to the housing (read: housing is melted along the edges, then lens is stuck on it to while still hot). Or so it would seem from looking at it. The easiest way to open it up would be to cut around the outside very carefully. Not sure what the best way to do that is though since when I was grinding mine down, the plastic tended to melt and turn kind of gooey rather than turn into dust like you'd expect it to. It dremmels like styrene . . .

 

[TheMAN]

do the smart thing and leave the tails alone!
they're 500 bucks a piece and you don't want to **** them up! sticking them in the oven means you'll melt the circuit board inside!

 

[DRKNYTE]

do the smart thing and leave the tails alone!
they're 500 bucks a piece and you don't want to **** them up! sticking them in the oven means you'll melt the circuit board inside!

Yeah, that's what I was affraid off.... the led circuit board. Well that plan is scraped. or at least until I win the loto then I`ll buy 20 sets of tail lights and work with that.

 

[oaklandopen]

a dremmel would work. but that would be extremely time consuming and extremely messy (plastic dust flying around the place). but it would be a small amount of material that would be cut and you could glue it back together yourself.

you'd just have to hold it nice and steady while doing it like putting it in a vise or something

 

[DRKNYTE]

This is why dremeling won't do according to HANK3:

The reason why you can't bake them is because they are not sealed with glue . . . the lens is fused to the housing (read: housing is melted along the edges, then lens is stuck on it to while still hot). Or so it would seem from looking at it. The easiest way to open it up would be to cut around the outside very carefully. Not sure what the best way to do that is though since when I was grinding mine down, the plastic tended to melt and turn kind of goey rather than turn into dust like you'd expect it to. It dremmels like styrene . . .

it"s not worth risking, they are to much money to replace