Cleaning Your Headlights

Written By Troy (TVR-161) & Paul (TazmanCrash) for SquaredArches.com

• Applies To: All variants of VN, VG, VQ and VP
• Example Vehicle: VP Calais
• Estimated Time In Beers: 3
• Tools Required: Phillips Head Screwdriver, 10mm Spanner or Socket, Glass Cleaner, Cleaning Cloth

 

After spending a fortune on paint, searching everywhere for the rims that will set it off and then lavishing every spare moment on keeping it all looking it's best, it's important that the smaller details aren't forgotten.

Often overlooked, a clean and clear set of headlights can make all the difference to the front of your car. New genuine items aren't cheap and the quality of eBay items is sometimes not the best, however thanks to Troy you can follow this how to and give yourself a chance at bringing your tired old lights back to life.

Also, thanks to Paul, we also have a simple way of giving your headlights a custom look.

Disassembly

Step 1: Disconnect the battery.

Step 2: Undo the 2 top bolts and the one behind the grille. You may find it easier to remove the grille to give better access to the third bolt, but it is not necessary.

Step 3: Unplug the Loom on the back of the light and unscrew the screw which holds the indicator to the headlight. There will be another 10mm nut in the vicinity that will need to be removed prior to removing the headlight assembly.

Step 4: Once you have the headlight removed from the car you can remove the clips which hold the glass lens to the back of the headlight. These clips are shown below.

Note there is four on top, four on the bottom, and one on each side of the headlight.

Step 5: Now you can remove the glass from the headlight assembly. This may require a little force depending how strong the seal is.

Once off the glass cover should have the seal on it, or if it was anything like mine, half on it. We will fix this later, you might as well pull the seal off if it is already falling off.

Step 6: Now we can clean up this thing, its not a bad idea to run the glass cover under the tap first just to wash out any dirt and dust that has collected over the years before you start spreading it around with a cloth.

Step 7: Attack the inside the the glass cover with glass cleaner. I used some cheapo foam glass cleaner that came in a can.

Once sprayed around evenly, use a microfibre towel or similar item to wipe off the excess cleaner on the light making sure you remove any marks or stains on the glass.

PLEASE NOTE: The following actions may ruin your reflective surface if you use certain products.

Step 8: If you want you can clean the chrome reflective surface around the headlight but be warned, due to the age of most the lights this will be very weak and may already be peeling or flaking due to age. Also using the wrong product may cause the reflective surface to be stripped away. The safest bet would be wiping or dabbing the surface with a damp microfibre cloth so as to not damage the reflective surface.

With my lights i just used a microfibre towel to carefully wipe away dirt on the reflective surface lightly, and i even noticed it peel at 1 point so be careful if you choose to do this.

Be aware that attempting to repaint the light with a chrome look paint will most likely have an poor result due to the reflective properties of the paint. It may be possible to get them electroplated, however for the cost your might be able to replace the whole assembly.

Reassembly

Step 9: If you had the same problem as me and the rubber seal came off the glass lens you will need to reattach this.

I did this by putting the seal back in the headlight assembly (not on the glass cover) and i then lightly covered the seal with gasket glue. Other products may also work.

Step 10: Place the glass cover back against headlight assembly making sure it contacts the seal all the way around before reattaching the clips. I found it was easier to start from the bottom, then do the top, then sides.

The clips will require some force to go back on. If you cant force it using your hands, use a flat head screwdriver to pry them over.

Step 11: Place the headlight back into the car and redo the bolts and screw. make sure you remember the screw that holds in the indicator otherwise it will fall out (I know from experience, lucky the loom held it onto the car).

Now reconnect the looms, stand back and admire your work.

Customisation

After removing your headlight assembly it is possible to give your headlights an individual look.

Step 1: With the headlight removed from the car but still assembled, trace onto the glass around the sides of the lens.

Step 2: After removing the glass lens, clean the reflector as described above and using a black hobby paint paint around the outer edges of the reflector.

Step 3: Mask the forward facing areas of your lens- essentially back to the traced line earlier- and then spray the edges with black paint to amplify the effect.

Step 4: Reassemble as described above.