Rear Lights - lenses rebuild
 

As the front of the car was all tidied up I thought I'd do the same for the back so ordered a pair of new old stock smoke rear lenses.

Got the parts on Tuesday and did one yesterday and the other today.
Not a very pleasant job, basically you have to destroy the old lenses breaking them out bit by bit.

Whatever adhesive Jaguar used to fasten the lenses, it really gripped and even heating it up didn't seem to make any difference, those lenses were super-stuck into the recesses. :icon_frown:

The best way I found to remove the remnants is by digging the bits out with a sharp wood chisel. You'll need to re- grind the chisel after you get finished too! :icon_smile:

The smoke lenses come from the supplier without the black trim, so first job was to mask the lens and paint the trim black. I used flat black primer ..even though it's flat, it's on the back so the effect is a shine through the lens. Nice quick dry too.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...5899a82fcb.jpg

As they came from the supplier ..


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...1ff14c6792.jpg

Painted with flat black lacquer primer ..

To take apart the old lens assembly, pry back the metal tabs on the long side of the chrome trim and remove the trim. You may find a rubber gasket under the chrome trim, ease that off as you'll be wanting to re-use it when you reassemble.

Now comes the fun part. Take a dremel cutoff wheel and cut a slot along one edge use either the curved edge or the indboard edge, but cut just inside the black area - (use the new part for reference). Try and cut *just* through the outer lens as you don't want to damage the inner lens assembly which sits about 1/4" below the outer lens.

Once you have a slot cut, you can use a screwdriver to start prying and cracking off the old lens. When you have more room, use a pliers to twist and crack the lens pieces out. Wear goggles as the pieces fly everywhere!

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...ae48f87f36.jpg

crickety-crack!

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...80d4c8a9fe.jpg

no point saving any of this stuff!!

Once the lens is removed enough to release the inner lenses, take them out and set them aside. You'll wash them later when you reassemble.

The inner lenses were originally "tacked" to the front lens with polystyrene cement and lightly tacked to each other also.

There's a central rubber gasket that runs lengthwise across the centre of the inner lens assembly, mates up with the centre horizontal divider on the reflectors. Do your best to preserve this strip and re-glue it in position on re-assembly.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...d6a69694f8.jpg

outer and inner lenses completely removed

My reflectors on the cracked lens (driver's) side had deteriorated enough that there were areas of black in the reflectors, so I gave the reflectors a shot of "chrome" paint (misnomer if there ever was!)
The passenger side was in good condition but I sprayed that one too as I wanted the effect to be "even" when the suckers were lit up.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...d7882372d0.jpg


Doing the reassembly, I found it easiest to clean up the inner lenses and tack them together, re-inserting them as one unit into the outer lens which was face down on the table.

I question the use of epoxy in this situation (to assembly the outer lenses to the housings), not because of it's holding properties but mainly because it would be very difficult if not impossible to get a "tight" weather seal.

I decided to go with silicone, and filled the housing cavity with a good even 1/4" bead, then assembled the housing to the lens assembly which was face down on the table. Refitted the chrome trim and then wrapped the whole thing in shrink wrap for a couple of hours.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...6ec4cfb9e7.jpg

Lens assembly ready to fit to car

So not a very pleasant job, but well worth it as the results are pretty nice - here you go, the view that most other drivers see:

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...1b07dc4f22.jpg

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...b3b805ea16.jpg

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...1949e688cf.jpg


Now - what's next? :icon_steer:

Cheers

Larry

That looks damn fine Larry!:icon_clapclap:

I will get a set of new ones and do Champ car for Cindy.

Where did you source the lenses,and how much?:icon_question:

Cheers,Jim

Yep, not bad eh!


here ya go, best price out there hopefully shipping won't be TOO steep, I got mine shipped to Seattle ..all in US funds tho Jim ..:icon_frown:

Cheers mate


Larry

NICE Larry!!!

Thanks for taking the extra time to take photos and post them for the rest of us!

I especially appreciated your decision to use silicone instead of epoxy to mount and seal the main lens - that seems like a very good decision.

Cheers,

Don