How To: RX7 Clear Bumper Lenses

[Matthew]

I am going to show you how to install the clear bumper lenses from a 3rd gen RX7.

Time: ~1 hour
Tools needed: phillips/flat head screw driver
Parts needed: the clear lenses, the bulbs that come with them, 2 large washers, 4 small nuts, dremmel or some other cutting device, a rag

First thing to do is find a set, which normally run about $35USD shipped with bulbs from ebay. CLICK HERE i have already customized a search so you can click and find them on ebay without having to sort through a whole bunch of crap.

Next, this is what you'll need..in the pic see the big washer with the small opening, thats what youll be using.

Next take the three screws/pop tabs off the fender well (youll have to turn your wheels to get the screwdriver in there)..i know the pic is a bit dark, however, you see the location and if you cant even find the screws youve got some issues.

This picture is the orange marker pulled out. see the metal tab on the left side? you will need to unsnap that tab behind the bumper (kinda a tight fit if you have big hands like me) with a flathead screwdriver, then slide the light back about a 1/4in (it will move ever so slightly) and pull out the right side first then the left side. disconnect the bulb/harness by turning it and pulling out. replace the bulb with one of the amber ones provided. if you leave the clear lense you will be driving illegally.

Next its time to prep. Remove the black foam that comes on the clears it looks like s*** and doesnt serve a purpose for us. remember these are clears that go on the INSIDE of a RX7 bumper whereas ours are on the outside. here is a picture of what the bumper looks like with the lense removed. notice its pretty clean - take a rag or old t-shirt and clean off where the old lense was (im anal).

now comes the time consuming part if you dont have a dremmel, and also the part that you can really **** up if youre a moron. its actually quite simple. i used a small round sanding bit on the dremmel. the parts you will modify is: 1) from the bottom right corner of the far left hole, dremmel straight down until you are even with the bottom of the middle hole, 2) dremmel off evenly (my job wasnt so even) the left part of the middle hole...just about 1/8in or so, 3) from the middle hole lined up about halfway with the right hole, dremmel right towards the right hole, almost all the way through, but not all the way. picture of finished product below:

this next part is the pain in the ass part, at least for me. normally most people would suggest using clear silicone but i just dont have the patience for that bulls*** to dry and i did that on the left side and ended up wtih s*** i had to clean up all over the damn place. its a pain in the ass, and its messy. this is what WERE gonna do (thanks to uclap for the suggestion).

look at the top picture below and see the screw that comes with the RX7 lenses. it screws in and holds the lense in place (meaning it spans the hole and by length alone wont let the lense fall out). however, on our Protege's it doesnt work for s***, and lets the lense sag out. what were gonna do is take the large washer, slide it to the head of the screw, and put one or two nuts (either will work i found) to space it away from the little plastic bracket. when we screw it in it should force the inside away from the bumper, pulling it close to the outside..make sense? well, it works about 98% regardless . the pain in the ass is screwing it in, especially if you have big hands. the wheel is in the way, that annoying fenderwell is in the way, its an odd angle, and sometimes you think its screwing in and its not, and you tug on it and everything falls off. you need to apply a good bit of pressure to the screwdriver and a lot of patience to make sure it screws in nice and good.

once you have it screwed in, on mine you can notice a small gap in the front of the light which you probably wouldnt notice if i didnt tell you. i have two ideas: 1) get some door stripping and put it all the way around the light like KYRED did, or 2) the little clip on the small end of the clear light keeps it in on the right side. if you were to make a smaller gap between the inside of the light and the clip, it would probably hug the bumper better. i havent tried either yet, but i may within a week or so.

here are the two pics kinda showing what to do with the mounting:

and here is the finished product:

any questions or comments are appreciated.

 

[JOS3]

did you use a grommet?

 

[Matthew]

did you use a grommet?

no i did not.

 

[Nutari]

gah.. cutting car.. bad

 

[Matthew]

nah its easy, foolproof, and you can still return back to stock orange markers if for some ******* reason you wanted to revert back to the ugliness. i choose the RX7 lenses because they are like identical in shape to our bumper lenses.

 

[mypfizzle]

looks good man.. vury vury good -=P

 

[Matthew]

thanks! i was pissed last night lol.

 

[stdntDrvr]

matthew...you should have painted them to match your headlights...the chrome on all your gunmetal stuff throws off your theme.

just my .02

 

[Matthew]

if you look at a full pic it doesnt because the sidemarkers are clear as well. i like to have a contrast...remember my fogs are chrome too.

 

[stdntDrvr]

right...put blue batmobile's smoked fog overlays...paint the sidemarkers...that would be P*I*M*P*

just my .02

 

[Subghetto]

right...put blue batmobile's smoked fog overlays...paint the sidemarkers...that would be P*I*M*P*

just my .02

Yeah that would look sick matt here are pics of my sidemarkers with niteshades if you ever do consider doing it.

 

[Matthew]

to me the nightshade just looks too flat and one dimensional...i like the way the clears look, thanks though guys.

 

[stdntDrvr]

my idea isn't just spraying the exterior of the lens...but baking them, pulling them apart and painting the chrome s***...kinda like doing headlights

 

[Matthew]

im not intersted in that s*** again...who knows how much those clears would hold up. they arent exactly the most expensive looking part.

 

[Matthew]

bump...any chance of getting this into the how-to section?

 

[bazooka joe]

matt, you don;t have any gap around the light?

 

[Matthew]

i have a very small gap around the front of the light. however, i think that if you made the gap smaller on the clear lense on the front with the clip, it would hug the bumper closer. see the clip comes off the back of the clear light that holds it against the bumper. the gap is too big. if you put some weatherstripping or rubber on the inside of the clip it would make the gap between the clip and light smaller, so when you put the light in the bumper it would probably make it hug tighter.

im going to try this, just havent as of yet. but you probably wouldnt notice the gap if you werent looking for it anyhow.

 

[bazooka joe]

thanks for the reply! i tried a pair of these last year. they needed to be modified and then of course they leaked(notcool) . wrote to the company and they said "oh ya, we heard of this happening. take them apart and reseal them, you should be fine" of course mine had been stained already. i'd love to get my hands on an OEM rx7 pair!! good luck man!!

 

[Matthew]

damn, i hope these dont leak.

 

[uclap5]

glad you finally got it on

you can do this without cutting the bumper. you simply need to cut more things off the back of the lens itself. thats what i did, as i didnt feel comfortable cutting my bumper.