Darren S
ClioSport Club Member
I have an irrational hatred for the standard light grey 182 lights. I really do dislike them. If there's one thing that I wish I could change easily, it would be these bloody things.
I can never shake the 'sun faded' look that used to plague cars of a certain age - especially the external plastics and bumper areas as looking identical to this. Doesn't matter how clean, polished or tidy the car looks, the lights just instantly ruin the look.
The obvious solution - to buy an older set of 172 lights with the darker surrounds. But getting a decent set of these is proving to be on par with obtaining a pair of Trophy Recaros at a sensible price. I've bought ones with clips broken. With cracks on the internal fittings. With bad blistering on the xenon light surround - or when they do come up for sale, they have gone within seconds.
Today, I even tried to resort to the headlight-in-the-oven method in order to separate the cover from the headlight unit itself. The aim being to see if I could get them apart and perhaps spray-up the internals to a much darker colour. Either the oven didn't anywhere near hot enough (I read it needed to be between 100-110C) or the bond on the sacrificial headlight I had was proper solid. I got a small gap on one section forming, but was nowhere near even close in getting them to split.
So, I'm continuing this seemingly endless grind to find a suitable solution. I really wish the units were simply screwed together and sandwiched a rubber seal that could be replaced. Has anyone tried anything else in the past, or am I just going to accept what I have, amongst the several other sets of headlights that I have stockpiled in the attic!
I can never shake the 'sun faded' look that used to plague cars of a certain age - especially the external plastics and bumper areas as looking identical to this. Doesn't matter how clean, polished or tidy the car looks, the lights just instantly ruin the look.
The obvious solution - to buy an older set of 172 lights with the darker surrounds. But getting a decent set of these is proving to be on par with obtaining a pair of Trophy Recaros at a sensible price. I've bought ones with clips broken. With cracks on the internal fittings. With bad blistering on the xenon light surround - or when they do come up for sale, they have gone within seconds.
Today, I even tried to resort to the headlight-in-the-oven method in order to separate the cover from the headlight unit itself. The aim being to see if I could get them apart and perhaps spray-up the internals to a much darker colour. Either the oven didn't anywhere near hot enough (I read it needed to be between 100-110C) or the bond on the sacrificial headlight I had was proper solid. I got a small gap on one section forming, but was nowhere near even close in getting them to split.
So, I'm continuing this seemingly endless grind to find a suitable solution. I really wish the units were simply screwed together and sandwiched a rubber seal that could be replaced. Has anyone tried anything else in the past, or am I just going to accept what I have, amongst the several other sets of headlights that I have stockpiled in the attic!
