Headlight Question
 

Does anyone know if the headlight can be disassembled easily? I'm looking to carbon fiber the inside flooring of the headlight enclosure. But I'm not sure if the light can be disassembled w/out destroying the unit.

alex

If you're afraid of braking something take it to a professional. The only problem I see with disassemling the headlight is you might let air into the headlight itself and cause it to condensate. To be honest leave it alone man, it looks good the way it is.

To change the turn signals lets air in the assembly. That is not the problem. The tail light and head light assemblies are constructed from several pieces which are bound together with solvents that fuse the parts into one. They cannot be disassembled by any conventional means. The only way that I can figure out to do so would be to cut them open in a nonobvious location, do the work, then close it back up like a surgeon operates on a patient. This would take a great deal of skill to accomplish such. Sort of like a surgeon puts in implants, the incisions are in not so obvious places.

D Menac -- ah, good to know that piece then .. well, I'm trying to work on 2 little projets w/ my car w/ the help of EuroProjects (Bimmer guys) to get DDE (or angel eyes) into the RX8. BMW's have them and it look so nice on their cars.

What i was wondering, are the enclosures of the main headlight also fixed into place? Or can that piece be removed w/out any tediosu work?

alex

By that do you mean the entire headlight assembly? If so, they come out with a few bolts and mouting screws removed. Not sure about what comes out with them in regards to the power supplies for the HID headlights though. I do believe it is one whole assembled part. I have taken out the tail lights as I had to replace one due to damage from the carwash a few months back. Those came out so easy. I have the one with the crack hooked up to a 12 volt power supply with the LED lit up and am about to hook it up to the tail light also. Just to provide a little mood lighting in my computer room. :D

oh, sorry to hear about the light man ... but it will make a cool, one-of-a-kind light though for your room :)

Oh, here's a link to the DDE's on a BMW

http://jlevistreetwerks.com/OSCOMMER...502ac50b722bb0

The Europrojektz person is the installer and knows Jlevi as well, I think both are in the Bay Area. The only reason stopping me from installing these are two reasons: circumference needs to be measured of the main headlight enclosure face and second, can't get to them to install them.

Any ideas?

alex

Those halos are pretty sweet looking. I only wish they were available for the RX-8 and there was a reasonable way to do them.

If you look closely, there seems to be an access door at the bottom of the headlight assembly. I'm sure someone on the forum can answer as to what exactly that access point is. I may have to get my maintenance manual out later to see if I can find an answer to that.

I have never taken the headlight out to see how much there is for access. I did look at them when I went out to leave for home (only to be back here again working this evening) and looked at what you were thinking about doing. I would think that the headlight assembly could be opened best at the black area at the bottom you are wanting to carbon fiber. If someone were to take a pair of assemblies and have a professional that can do the Carbon fiber layup, that area could be cut out and a CF replacement could be made to perfectly fit that area. I am sure it could be made in such a way that it could be reattached by this craftsman and made whole again.

Perhaps some day I may take a look at it closely. But first, I would have to teach myself CF layup which is on my list of things to eventually do. So many things to do, so little time to do them. I only wish it were 8 years later so I could be retired from this place and have time to dedicate to doing things like this full-time. (sigh...)

I am unsure on the construction of the RX8 headlights, but you might be able to take them apart like many other headlight assemblys. It sounds crazy, but you can take the front lenses off by putting them in an oven with the temp. set to ~300-350 degrees, leave them in for like 2 or 3 minutes and then take them out. The glue that they use to seal them should be warmed up and you can pull the lenses off. To re-install them, just heat them up again and push the lense back on the assembly and then the glue will set again, sealing them. Im not sure if the 8's headlights are the same, just take a good look at them to see if there is a place where it is two peices put together.

-Sean

I checked them out this weekend. Like Sean said, they do come apart. There is a sealant that is very tar like that keeps them sealed. The bottom and back side will come apart from the lens. There are 4 phillips screws holding them tight against the sealant. Even taking them out, they didn't want to budge as this stuff holds them tight. I am not sure about the 300 ~350 degrees but I was thinking about using a hair dryer and lightly prying. The door at the bottom is on the other side of some of the electronics that go into the HID system and it said not to open it because of high voltage. This is true even when they are not connected to the car. I know they will come apart but not sure as to how difficult it would be. I like the idea of the angel eyes and demon eyes. This could be accomplished with some computer fan neon lighting and a bit more of a modification inside the lens. Not sure I would want to undertake that though it would look nice.
Dennis

yeah, wow, 300-350 is way too hot. you'll start plasticizing the units, i think a hairdryer would be enough for some fancy gasket sealant.

Thanks guys, as long as someone has tried to do it, then I'll go ahead and give it a try. I think my friend said all he needs to be able to get around the main headlight and the inner lignt housing so he can attach the light to them.

BTW -- as part of the installation, he has the angel eyes turn off when you arm the car .. I guess a lotof pl burn the ir DDE's when they forget to switch them off at night.

alex

Im sure you can

You get this done, you better post pics and let us know about it. Your frined may need to expect a few people bugging him about doing it for a lot of people on the forum if it works and looks well. :D

Does anyone give me a somewhat detail summary on how to remove the headlight itself from the car? I just want to make sure when I go to his place this weekend, we at least know how to get this done w/out problems.

I found out my friend does bake the lights as part of the process, so things look good :)

alex

First you have to take off the front end. Since you have the MS front end, I am sure it is similar to the stock since it attaches in the same places. Here is a link to some detailed instructions this guy I know wrote about it. Here

Next remove the bolt under the hood next to the headlight marked H. Beneath the head light on both sides there are two black bolts that secure it to the mounting area. Remove them. There is one more bolt attaching the headlight to the white nylon clip which holds the front bumper corners. Remove this bolt. The last part to take off is a nylon fastener which is located right next to the headlight bolt that was Marked H. Once this is removed you can pull the headlight out and disconnect the wiring harness.

Caution: If you have the HIDs, be very very careful when taking out the electronics. Though I work in the electronics field with computers, VCRs, LCD projectors and wiring for audio and video, I would be very cautious about doing this part. The HID stands for High Intensity Discharge and the lamp requires high voltage to light up. This is accomplished by the use of capacitors, I am guessing, and capacitors store energy for some time after being turned off. If you have someone who knows how to deal with HIDs, I would suggest you have them disassemble this part of the headlight.