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Headlight upgrade and refurb

M

motivator

Silverstone
Joined
6 Jun 2014
Messages
129
I know htis type of thread has already been posted but I justwanted to clrify some things.

I have ordered the ToreB HIDbupgrade, and while i fit that I intend to refurbish the lens.

I have looked at buying replacement lenses, but would rather not pay the £300ish cost for 2.

I found a seller on ebay offering OEM lenses at a reasonable price, but I wanted to check if they were Bosch ones and he says that Bosch don't make them for the 993?

Does anyone know of any reasonable prices available?

The other option is to clean/polish the existing ones, which I could certainly do. I understand that the item that can't be refurbished is the plastic section at the lower edge of the lens, that becomes discoloured with age. I have seen that some people say you can just remove this and that it makes no difference, can someone tell me if that is true, or what it is for?

Thanks
 
Carparts4less sell the lenses for £100 each. They are described as OE quality.

I've tried cleaning the lenses using a cutting compound to take some of the smaller stone chips out which gave a slight improvement but I can't get them as good as I want them so will be getting a new pair. Cleaning the reflector made a big difference but you have to be very careful as the reflective silver material is very delicate and easily scratched.
 
Bosch ones are hard to source as they are no longer the OEM manufacturer. New are now by Automotive Lighting. So at he bottom of the lens there is AL rather than BOSCH :thumb:

Edit: Automotive Lighting is a German-based company founded in 1999 as a 50-50 joint venture between the Italian Magneti-Marelli and the German Robert Bosch GmbH.
 
Snap - just bought mine from CarParts 4 less, £100 less 13% discount. Each came in yellow boxes as above, Magneti Marelli, seem very good.

Whilst out I also fitted Tore's T light upgrade to HID's, which also includes LED's for the fog side lights, so fitted them into the new fogs.

Also, whilst at it, I have coloured led's for the centre console panel, which i'll fit at some point.

So I now have new lighting for all round the car.

Got to be a good upgrade me thinks, nice work chaps :worship:

Trev
 
ARP, btw did you give the reflective surround a nice wipe?, mine were very dusty and makes a big difference to the reflectivity, just don't go hard at it though.

Trev
 
ARP said:
I've bought a pair of new glass lenses from a German eBayer. Here is the link to the sale. They were well packaged & arrived quickly, and in one piece.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/112145334468?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

They have made a huge difference to the front of the car. When you remove the existing glasses you need to be extremely careful of the reflector, as said before the reflective coating is very, very delicate.
Click to expand...

ARP,

Thanks I have ordered those form Germany.

I will be very careful with the reflectors, i have seen enough warnings on here about the coating.

Thanks
 
motivator said:
ARP said:
I've bought a pair of new glass lenses from a German eBayer. Here is the link to the sale. They were well packaged & arrived quickly, and in one piece.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/112145334468?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

They have made a huge difference to the front of the car. When you remove the existing glasses you need to be extremely careful of the reflector, as said before the reflective coating is very, very delicate.
Click to expand...

ARP,

Thanks I have ordered those form Germany.

I will be very careful with the reflectors, i have seen enough warnings on here about the coating.

Thanks
Click to expand...

I take it all rhd and lhd lenses are the same and it's the actual light units which are handed?
 
motivator said:
I understand that the item that can't be refurbished is the plastic section at the lower edge of the lens, that becomes discoloured with age.
Click to expand...
I believe that the browning is due to the bromine-based fire retardant in the plastic reacting with atmospheric oxygen over time.

I know that 6-12% hydrogen peroxide (+UV light) can be used to reverse this process in ABS plastic, but I'm guessing that the headlight inserts are made from PMMA.

Any chemists in the house? :dont know:

As an aside, does anyone know if the front foglights are ABS?
 
Yes right and left pair regardless of the lhd/rhd configuration. Just make sure that you don't mix up the lenses and housings; with undue care you could possibly force and break the clips.

Once the old lenses were off I cleaned where i could with baby wipes and dried carefully. A bit grubby after 20 odd years, but you must be so careful with the reflective coating. Possibly compressed air blast might be a better idea.

It is the yellowing lower sections on the inside of the lens that really let down the old ones, combined with lots of small stone chips and pitting. The Magneti Marelli lens seem excellent quality and a worthy upgrade.
 
Mine came today they look really good quality,would it be a good idea to change the inserts aswell? Mine don't look that dirty really
 
I now have the new lenses and the T-Light conversion, ready for the car to come back from Precision.

Does anyone have an opinion about a suitable new Main beam bulb to match the T-light conversion?

Thanks
 
Chris993C2 said:
I believe that the browning is due to the bromine-based fire retardant in the plastic reacting with atmospheric oxygen over time.

I know that 6-12% hydrogen peroxide (+UV light) can be used to reverse this process in ABS plastic, but I'm guessing that the headlight inserts are made from PMMA.

As an aside, does anyone know if the front foglights are ABS?
Click to expand...
For future reference, the front foglights are in fact made from a polycarbonate / fibreglass blend.

I stripped one of mine down (removing the projector unit) and subjected it to the Retrobright process - both with sunlight and a UV source - but to no avail.

tl;dr - front foglights to NOT respond to Retrobright / chemical bleaching :(

When I get the chance, I'll have a go with the insert from one of my spare headlight lenses...
 
Chris993C2 said:
Chris993C2 said:
I believe that the browning is due to the bromine-based fire retardant in the plastic reacting with atmospheric oxygen over time.

I know that 6-12% hydrogen peroxide (+UV light) can be used to reverse this process in ABS plastic, but I'm guessing that the headlight inserts are made from PMMA.

As an aside, does anyone know if the front foglights are ABS?
Click to expand...
For future reference, the front foglights are in fact made from a polycarbonate / fibreglass blend.

I stripped one of mine down (removing the projector unit) and subjected it to the Retrobright process - both with sunlight and a UV source - but to no avail.



tl;dr - front foglights to NOT respond to Retrobright / chemical bleaching :(

When I get the chance, I'll have a go with the insert from one of my spare headlight lenses...
Click to expand...

I sprayed my fog light interiors with a plastic primer then finished them off with a chrome spray, they came up brilliantly!
 
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