Hybrid angel eyes, botched by depo, saved by hella

[Reuben Lim]

Was able to swap out the lenses of my depo angel eyes, drivers dim cracked inexplicably. Took a lot of time and effort, but got the old lenses from the stock hella dims and replaced both sides for uniformity. Whew, removing the glue on both sets sure was a pain!

[liquidtiger720]

awsome!

so how did you do it?

[Nick.Hay]

Who knows the quality of the IN-PRO kits?? Feedback??

Found as set on ebay for about $550 aus...

[Reuben Lim]

I don't know what glue they use for the lens, especially for the depot ones, but it sure is strong, with two guys helping me, took over half a day per side, to remove the lens from my old hella us headlight and swap on the cracked depo angel eyes dim headlight. After took out the depo headlight assembly, removed the main bulb housing at rear (three screws), and then removed the small four bulbs which reflect onto the angel-eye ring.

Then pried off the stainless ring around the headlight which has this clip-like thingy securing it, then came the delicate part. There's some space, like perhaps two inches narrowing down to an inch at the back of the assembly, to work with an acetylene torch with a very narrow flame setting. Gingerly applied the acetylene heat (not the flame directly of course!) around the edge of the headlights at back, close enough to melt the glue stuff off of the edges of the old lenses. I didn't do this myself, don't have the skill, got someone who knows his acetylene to do this, he said he has done this on a mercedes headlight before and since didn't have anything to lose, went with the flow. DO NOT LET THE FLAME HEAT REST ON ONE SPOT A LONG TIME. The trick here is patience, going around the headlight edge steadily, then stopping to see with a probe to the front of the lens, at the narrow space between glass and plastic, if the glue has softened enough. The probe was cut from sheet metal, tapering to a point like a pencil, which the torch guy would heat periodically. We would wedge one probe in, then work another one into into the space to scoop out the glue. Repeated this around the edges until lens could be removed. This was the hardest part. On the depo ones, aside from the glue at the side of the lens, there was also some at the inside, this was really hard to remove.

After the lens removed, sharp cutter blades to pick at the glue, including the effing ones sealing the inside. After scraped out the old crap on the housing and the lens, high-quality black silicon-rubber sealant inside and at the edges, position the lens back onto the housing, push it in while glue still fresh, apply fresh sealant at the edges until all of the gaps at the edges are covered, and then smooth out with fingers, wait five minutes then popped the stainless housing back on. Then reversed the above process. By the way, washed the old hella lens with detergent and water, it was really dirty inside.

The results are pretty good though, swapped out the lens on the right side too as the hellas have a corrugated pattern while the depos don't have any. Light output seems pretty much the same. Will not replace the brights lenses, tempted to do that as the corrugated hellas look prettier to me, but the procedure is really hard!

Some observations: the glue in the hellas a bit easier to remove, perhaps due to age? The plastic housing was also noticeably sturdier than the depos, the hella lens was also a bit thicker, noticeably sturdier. In contrast, the depo housing was much thinner, had to take care not to burn through the plastic while melting the glue. The depo lens is also, far as I can tell, not really glass, but like a clear plastic amalgam of some sort. It's also quite fragile, so am comforted that still have my hella bright lenses in reserve in case the depo brights break, too.

[rockyfeller]

Wow someone who actually did it! When my lenses cracked I had the same idea in mind but it seemed like a tough job. By the way can't you get the replacement headlight lenses by themselves? You can get lenses in a 5.5" size on Ebay. Did you check on this? Please tell me you did.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BMW-E30-E32-E34-OUTER-LOW-BEAM-HEADLIGHT-LENS-SET-NEW_W0QQitemZ8003795424QQcategoryZ33710QQssPageNam eZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

May not be Hella but you don't have to bother with sourcing them either. They're plastic but that's a good thing....no more damage. My procedure would be simple....Take hammer, smash remaining glass....scrape off glue residue and silicone these in. I am curious as to how the original Hella size relates to that chrome Depo ring....Is it an exact fit? How is the performance of the low beams with that composite pattern on the lens? I assume there'd be minimal scatter as the center portion has a different pattern. But the depo has a larger ellipsoid portion, I imagine you'll get a pattern on the edges. Your high beams look fine as is. It's a unique combo and looks good.

[632 Regal]

This is definetly archive material

[Phil Sanderson]

Was able to swap out the lenses of my depo angel eyes, drivers dim cracked inexplicably. Took a lot of time and effort, but got the old lenses from the stock hella dims and replaced both sides for uniformity. Whew, removing the glue on both sets sure was a pain!
...a pain to do but well worth the effort.

regards
Phil

[angrypancake]

I had to do the same thing I cracked the glass on the driver's side high beam in my Hellas that were on my car when I bought it. Instead of acetylene, I put my right side headlight assembly in the oven on 350 degrees for 20 minutes (checking it at 5 minute intervals). Took it out and put the left side in, and while the left was in I took a long flat head screw driver and pryed the glass off. The glue was still somewhat sticky, but not impossible, it needed to be worked a bit. I've also heard of boiling water being applied. The over idea might not be the smartest, and it didn't smell the greatest, but hey, it worked out.

[Reuben Lim]

Yup, saw the spare lenses on the net, that led me to thinking that these could indeed be changed if damaged. Far as I can tell, the light output is the same, sure looks prettier though, at least to me. Alignment is a bit off, probably because of the manhandling the assemblies went through, will have to adjust this. The lenses fit exactly, and the additional thickness of the hella ones was no problem, more than enough depth space in the depos to accomodate this.

Actually, removing the glue was the hardest part, it occured to me to stick them in the oven, but was worried about damage to other parts from the heat, and to myself, after my wife finds out...Could a shrinkwrap hot air gun be used to soften the glue? Perhaps that should be tried...Cheers!

[uscharalph]

Was able to swap out the lenses of my depo angel eyes, drivers dim cracked inexplicably. Took a lot of time and effort, but got the old lenses from the stock hella dims and replaced both sides for uniformity. Whew, removing the glue on both sets sure was a pain!
Looks good. I was sure that Angels Eyes with the complete circle wouldn't be worth it. Maybe I was wrong? Maybe.