back to technical
Someone had asked how I went about this
in another thread so I decided to start a new thread so everyone can find this in the
future...
here is what the stock corners and rears look..
here's how I went about it...
Front Corner Signal
--------------------------
1] remove both your headlight and corner bulbs.
2] remove the two bolts above your headlights which secure them to the chassis. you'll
notice the headlight assembly is now loose and that the corner assembly is attached to the
headlight. there is one more screw to loosen which you will see now. it is a long screw by
the corner of the headlight. it is a b*tch, but hey, you gotta do it right? once the
headlight is free the only thing holding everything in is the corner assembly because it
is still being held in place on one end.
3] grab the whole assembly (one hand on the edge of the headlight, the other on the edge
of the corner) and give it a nice tug outwards. the corner assembly is held in place by
snapping into this little rubber mounting hole. by tugging back on the whole thing you
will pop it right out.
4] the whole unit should be completely free from the chassis and when you flip the
headlight/corner assembly over you will see that there is one screw holding the corner to
the headlight. remove it to free up the corner and make it easier to work with.
5] now here comes the fun part... trying to get that silly yellow plastic outta there.
I had heard of people breaking it out slowly... piece by agonizing piece... this didn't
seem like the right way to do it to me. here's what I did....
I'm sure you've heard of a dremel tool? www.dremel.com well I swear by
this thing... I use it ALL the time, definitely worth its small price.
I put a drill bit (about 1/8") in the dremel and began drilling tons of holes into
the yellow plastic. I then took a small cutting wheel bit and put it in the dremel, and
began slicing up that plastic. when slicing through all those holes I made the yellow
plastic break into very small pieces which is what I wanted so that I could just shake
them out. tada, a little ingenuity and I now had clear corners... which they "don't
make" for the car.
6] re-attach the corner to the headlight
7] push the corner assembly in first so that it pops into its holder
8] re-attach the headlight bolts and bulbs.
here's the final product....
REAR Tail Signal
----------------------
1] remove part or all of your trunk lining (simplest thing to do, trust me... just pop out
a couple of those push pins and you're game)
2] you will have to remove the bulbs from your outer light assembly.
3] you'll notice that there are a few nuts which hold the light assembly to the car.
remove them.
you'd think the light would pop out now, right? well there's this VERY sticky black
adhesive "gunk" which holds the light to the car also. I think its mainly to
keep water from coming in.
here's a pic...
here's what I did to free the puppies up...
I took a rubber mallet and from the inside of the trunk and began tapping on the bolts
(the ones we just took the nuts off of) well, this still didn't get me very far I
then took a flathead screwdriver and put a very small cloth around it (only one layer
thick, don't wrap the whole thing up in cloth). right above the tail light where the trunk
lid covers it when closed, I began to wedge the screwdriver in between the light and the
chassis (no damage or scratching done due to the cloth )and while applying force I
tapped on the bolts again with the rubber mallet... this did it!! the light slowly started
to pull apart from the chassis. be careful with that black gunky stuff it makes a mess. I
got it on my fender and bumper and it was a pain to get off. you might want to tape some
newspaper onto your fender and bumper first to shield it.
here's where to put that screwdriver and use it as a lever...
4] now that the light is free I used the same technique to remove the yellow plastic as I
did with the corners.
5] put the light back in. re-attach the nuts. put your lining back. go drink a coke,
you're done!!
here's the final product...
