[cdmccul]

Looks fantastic Bill! Really nice.

[Duds]

very nice. Looks new again!

[cdmccul]

Now I get a chance to look at it on a PC screen, not the smartphone - wow, looks great Bill. Really good.

[peva]

Thanks. I had a highly recommended local shop do the job - they took all the top surface areas (hood, roof, trunk lid) down to metal, I posted a more detailed account here: http://300mclub.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=28729 (sorry - it's members only area, I know some here are members).

Oh man! Brandon sent me a good pull cup, and Josh is shipping me a trunk seal. I hope you didn't go to too much trouble.

Thanks Duds and Cean. I'm pleased with it.

[Squilliam]

Wow Bill! Those look great!

[tgs]

No trouble at all, I can return them when I go back to the yard this weekend.
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[peva]

Thanks Squidward!

OK.

[paintballdude05]

Wow looking really good Bill!

[peva]

Thanks Stephan. Your help and encouragement made it easier. I mentioned you in my thread on the 300M Club.

[Intrep_ED]

Wow! Your car looks fantastic there Bill!



I don't think I've ever seen any other pics of it other than that same sig pic you've been using for years lol

[BatCaveTrep]

I'm getting ready to work on my headlights. I wanted to know how you setup the oven. Did you set the temp as low as you could go and set the light in during the warmup? My oven's lowest setting is 200. I'm going to place the headlight on a cookie sheet, so it doesn't receive direct heat from the bottom element.

[peva]

Glad you like it, Ed. Thanks!

Yeah - my kitchen oven is the same way. I used a cookie sheet too. I kind of guessed at the dail settings somewhere below the 200 setting - but the temperature varies wildly as the thermostat clicks on and off. I kept an eye on it using a cheap infrared thermometer I aimed at the cookie sheet.

When it came time to put it back together, I remembered that we have some laboratory ovens at work that have ±3° accuracy - so I used one of those. I experimented with the temperature it took to soften up the butyl (with just a sample ball of the butyl in the oven), and pretty much anything above 135°F is good. I suspect everything would be OK at a good bit above 150 for short periods in case of overshoot. 180 might be pushing things (educated guess on my part).

[BatCaveTrep]

I've gotten them apart and it was not an easy task. I started below 200, but after the first light I increased to 250 and kept a watchful eye. I only let them bake a few minutes at a time, but it worked much better at 250. My lights had some grey stuff that was just not wanting to loosen up. Do wear gloves though, because my fingertips are sore.

How did you go about putting them back together to gain a tight seal? Did you put the butyl on one piece, bake it some and then shove and hold the halves together?

[peva]

Wow - 250°. I would have thought there would be problems that high. Apparently not. Good to know for future reference.

Stephan had descibed earlier how he rolled whatever he used into strings - and that's what I did.

At room temperature, I pulled and rolled the butyl into approx. 1/8" diameter strings and laid it into the grooves single file (tapering the ends of successive strings and overlapping them a little for even fill) - it's just insurance to make up for any loss of material that has been displaced - any excess will squeeze out the sides of the tongue and groove. Then I put the other half of the assembly in place so that its tongue part rested on those strings. Then I heated it into the oven and let it soak. Then I opened the oven and carefully squeezed around the outside of the tongue and groove parts (using pliers) - as it cooled a little, I put it back into the oven to heat up again, then worked them tighter together some more. Repeated until the parts were fully mated all around.

Ideally, and no doubt this is how the manufacturers do it, you would clamp the whole assembly with enough pressure to squeeze it all fully together with one heatup cycle. But it's probably more practical for the DIY'er to just work inefficiently with the pliers and repeated heating cycles.

[BatCaveTrep]

The first light, I started under 200°, and baked for 10 mins before it actually started to pull apart. It took some time to get it completely seperated. On the second light, about a third of the way, I turned the heat to 250° and baked it, literally a minute or two, at a time. It definately worked better, but is advised to keep a strict time limit and have heat-resistant gloves handy. The sealant was grey and extremely rubbery. A blade had a difficult time cutting through it, and it cools extremely fast.

I figured you put the butyl in the groove, but wasn't sure if you heated just that piece and then pressed them together. I may look at doing it that way or involve some wood clamps, but that's later on. Mods first.