Ghibli headlight glass removal

Maser73

Junior Member
Messages
53
Hi, in the phase of replacing the headlight glas of my 1995 Ghibli. Luckily I found a set of NOS headlights last year but they have the silver background so have to take off the glas and either spray the silver or exchange it with the black background I have from the old headlights.

I heard of the risks of removing the glass from headlight breaking and thats the last thing I want to see happening with a new set and no replacements on market other than replica’s.

Any experiences here of removing the glass in a good way? Not so sure about oven or heatgun but might be wrong…
 

Wally

Member
Messages
244
I heard: when heated up to 70 degrees Celsius, the glue becomes soft and with care you can remove the glass. Some people use the oven (when the wife is out... )
 
Messages
388
If it was me, I'd start by warming the glass up a bit with a dunk in some hot water. Just to bring it above room temp. Then I'd use a hair-dryer, gently, around where the seal is. If you're holding the headlight (hand wrapped in a cloth/oven glove) you'll soon know if the hair-dryer is getting too hot. And if you're holding it you can test to to see if the bond is loosening. Personally, I wouldn't put the whole assembly in the oven as you risk damaging other components with heat.
 

Maser73

Junior Member
Messages
53
109955

First step completed on the old unit by taking the light parts seperate from the glass frame. For me this was also ‘testing’ the glue/ kit used by the factory as I can use much more force taking these parts out without risk of damage.

I have to say that even with heatgun (on low temp) it’s pretty difficult glue to warm up. I will now do some tests with warm water and other alcohol based fluid to see if I can soften the glue used by factory on the parts I have now removed before trying it with the glass. Using the force I had to use to take the bulb parts out will have too much risk of breaking the glass.

The challenge I see is the top of the glass. They used much glue there as it’s a flat surface. Also difficult to get by with little knife to remove first parts. The sides of glass and bottom-end more accessible.

Lets see…