roskinc

taking a break from painting my m5 style kit, i decided to tackle the job of cutting open these headlights. it was actually a lot easier than i thought, took about 10 minutes and i didnt even trace a line to cut, just free styled it. its a spare headlight i bought for the sole purpose to practice and to get everything ready for a DIY orion install video.

now what do you guys think i should do with this? im not installing this, so it is strictly all for practice and put together ideas...of course i will try to DIY it all!!

some ideas:
- black out
- orion install
- come up with my own lens to take out the orange
- come up with a whole corner assembly, try to make it look more LCI-ish'

if you have any ideas, or any Photoshopping you want to share, im open to try anything on these!





and im on the look out for a LCI tail light to cut open and do the black out mod as well...and ill DIY for that too!

tonyb635

Ouch, is that the normal way to cut them? It seems a bit rough to me and that it would be visible afterwards. That's my fear and the second one is moisture build up, leaks etc. What type of glue are you planning to use when you put it back together? I guess there could be a couple of things you could do to hide the cut line. Keep the progess coming.

Bill109

I think the 2 part epoxy for door skins will be adequate pretty sure 3m makes it.
ill be keeping an eye on this thread! ive always wanted to do the same thing. id always wanted to do the lci fins but paint them with something with a high flake like a nice black sapphire. maybe there is some way to incorporate the lci fin look?
i'd say paint the projector shroud while your in there or research a CF look?
Or go all out like the sabine project and use oakley lenses for the headlight.. haha

roskinc

actually, the cut came out pretty clean...and ill be honest, i cut it with a oscillating tool and cutting the headlight was the very first time i ever used it. didnt even practice on piece of scrap plastic or anything. just got it, and went at it.

far as gluing it back together. ive been reading about using some construction type epoxy glue? im still reading up on what to use, i dont plan on sealing these up anything soon, im going to experiment on different things i can do with it.

yeah im trying to think of a way to make a "lci" type look. shouldnt be too hard, i just need some ideas to put together. again this is a spare headlight just for fun to test out different looks before i do it on my actual headlights.

jimmyboy72

Isn't it true that, you can put the headlights in the oven at 400 for 10 minutes and they will pull right open? Then all you have to do is reseal them when you're done?

socale39

^^^ This. That's what I've done with my previous BMW headlamps. Not sure if the same hold true for the E60.

DFWBMW550i

Subscribed lol

umichchris

great to see others give this stuff a try. it can be fun if you like projects like this

@SoCaleE39 on the E60 its a permasealed light...plastic welded i do believe. it cannot be baked open....dont burn down your house or melt a light trying

subscribed to see where you take the project homie!

roskinc

after i cut open the headlights i got busy with other stuff i was doing to my car, and totally forgot about this project...ill get back to the idea board and start seeing what i can do to these headlights,

nomis_nehc

Why hello there sir, lol.

No, not with permasealed headlights. The glue can soften, but it's basically at the temperature where it will melt the surrounding plastic. There was a "fool" over at M5board that did this awhile back. He used a heat gun and opened it up.

It was really funny because in one post he was saying "I don't know why you guys said this wasn't possible"... and then an hour or something like that later, he wrote "Oh my god, I fucked up my headlights, the surrounding plastic melted..." blah blah blah. And he ended up having to buy new headlights.

I did not feel bad

And even for the headlights that bake open, 400F is way overboard. That temperature will melt plastic for sure.

Please try and let us know.