Page 3: My page for the repair and restoration of my broken red and white tail light lens.

Have already started doing work on it and documenting them. Will post them once I'm done. Watch for it...

THE STORY:

My tail light was rear-ended last April by a crazy delivery van driver who never bothered to stop. Lucky for him I wasn't able to get his license plate number. And lucky for me there was no damage on my ride's body except for a big long scratch on the bumper. Photo below left shows the damaged tail light piece and on the right the original amber and red tail light piece that I have to make do with for the meantime...and I know it looks awful...sigh...

THE WORKS BEGIN...

It's been almost 3 months looking for a replacement for the damaged after-market tail lights but still unsuccessful finding one. Even the guy I got them from cannot find me another one. I had these installed back in the year 2000.

Left with no other option, I decided to just try to restore it. Started working on it...I know it's gonna take me quite a while to finish this one...watch out for picture updates...

July 03 - Started off my project resto. Dipped the broken assembly in boiling water to soften up the silicon adhesive of the lens. Had to dip it again for a second time in newly boiled water (right photo) because the first dip did not soften the adhesive enough...

Chipped off the broken pieces of lens (mind you, it wasn't easy...the adhesive didn't come off without a good fight) and, after some bruises in my hands, this is what was left. Had to take extra care on this side so as not to break the white lens.

After a third dip in boiling water, finally the last remaining piece of the broken lens gave off...whew!!!...

The broken pieces I took off with some of the adhesive "gum"...

I'd like to know the brand of the silicon adhesive they used on this thing...it's VERY good...and stubborn to take off...lol...

Here's the finished product (for now) after some cleaning and drying. I'm worried about the inner reflector which became dull due to the scaldings it took from the boiling water dips. I'll just deal with this later as I go along. You might have any suggestions on this one, let me know. I thank you in advance...lol.

All for now...Next step is to find a good piece in the surplus shop, take off the lens from it (again?!), paint it red (because the original is amber colored as in the top photo of this page) and transplant the lens into this one. Wish me luck...

I'M LOOKING AT YOU...