Opening tail light/removing lens?
 

Hi,
I'm trying to do a retrofit of some trailer led lights in my tails (Miro-Flex, Sealed, 6-1/2" Oval, LED Trailer Stop/Turn/Tail Light, 12 Diode - Red w/ Clear Lens Optronics Trailer Lights STL22RCB) , and I'm wondering if anyone has tried to, or knows how to open their tail lights up/ remove the lens on a 2nd gen Blazer.
I figured I'd try baking them like most do to get headlights open, but even at 250 degrees for 20 minutes these things didn't budge.(More than enough to ruin a lot of tail lights I've heard) I would later find out that's due to the fact that our tail lights are "sonically welded", and not held together with traditional glue/sealants. :icon_doh:

Someone on the S10 forum mentioned a heat gun worked for their lights, just figured I'd ask specifically about ours.

But it seems MOST people get their lenses off (cars in general) with a dremel w/ cutting wheel. The way our tails have that curved lip around the outside of the light over the mating surface of the housing and lens though, that seems REALLY tricky, if not impossible.

If anyone could share some wisdom/experience, or point me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated. :)

i have used the heat gun method several time on my 2000 jimmy for various items, and it works well, it takes a lot of patience, and its a slow process, also keep the heat moving ot the plastic will soften and deform..
maybe get a junk yard part to pratice on first

From my understand, and when I tried to do this, the lense is "welded" to the housing, so cutting seems to be the only way. I could be wrong, but every pair I've seen is like that. My aftefmarket tail lights are just glued, and maybe if you find a pair of remanufactured OE spec ones, they might be glued. But in general, stockers aren't glued :)

Measure, and cut, and seal with RTV.

Thanks okie, glad to hear something simple works. I don't actually own a heat gun, so I'll have to pick one up, but I do have my actual stock tail lights lying around since one cracked, so I'll have some practice before moving on to the ones I'm running. (I'm using aftermarket ones built to stock specs)

If for whatever reason this doesn't work, I'll try my hand at cutting them. Thanks guys!

Oh, and if I do actually finish and don't screw everything up, I'll try to throw some pics up here!

gee i guessed i missed this one. i am so glad that i used the SEARCH option. lol..
anyway, does this same thing work the head lights. i was thinking about getting some after market ones and doing a little personalizing but i have no idea how to take one apart. after hearing that you just cut of the lens off, i was thinking maybe a Dremel with a cut off wheel. what do you guys that have done it think?

You can bake them, I know I could not on the first gen tails, so I had to cut them. but I believe its somewhere like 200° for 15 minutes... or 250 for 10 minutes. let the oven get to temp first, it will soften the glue, then you can pry them apart

well if you do it that way, how are you suppose to put them back together? same RTV stuff? or would you just use something else because the seam would be so much cleaner.

With the headlights, you can typically just clamp them back together and toss em back in the oven. OR, go get some of that window butyl rubber, pinch some off, and stretch it around the groove on the housing (not the lenses), and clamp and bake again. That's what I did on mine when I did my retrofit.

sounds good then. hopefully i can get some new head lights and start staring at them to figure out what i want to do.