DIY – Headlight Lens Replacement for Silvia/200SX S15

Headlight restoration products from the local auto shop can do a pretty good job, one of my lens’s was clear proof of that.
The other lens however, proved to be very stubborn and to be honest I’m not a fan of Forest Whitaker look.

So to return Pearl’s front end to her former crystal clear glory, a 326 Power Headlight lens replacement kit was acquired (pretty much the same as the Behrman/Wisesquare).

If you’re thinking about changing the inner black headlight colour too, here is your chance.
Thankfully my red coloured Vertex headlights came with the car on purchase.

Tools: Screwdriver set, 10mm socket, oven/hairdryer
Time: 2-4 hours
Difficulty: Easy
Profanity Level: Medium to High

1. 4 x 10mm bolts hold the headlight assembly to the chassis. Unbolt the easily reachable 3 on top.

2. The other 10mm bolt is underneath so jack up your car and remove the undertray if required to get to it via a spanner.

3. You will want as much wiggle room as possible (unless you want to take off your front bar) so remove the 2 X 10mm bolts on this bracket and the nearby clips holding the front bar in place.

4. Unbolt the 3 to 4 x 10mm bolts on the fender – more wiggle room!

5. Unclip the 4 connectors at the back of the assembly, flathead screwdriver helps.

6. Wiggle the headlight out. Bit of pulling and stretching of the front bar is ok just don’t break anything! Worst case just take off the damn front bumper but I managed without doing so.

7. Remove the bulb and wiring.

8. Unscrew the 5 screws which hold the lens to the assembly.

9. Pop the headlight into the oven at 60 degrees for 30 minutes. Admire shiny new replacement lens in the meantime.

10. Use some gloves to remove the headlight from the oven as some areas will be hot.
Proceed with using a flat head or chisel and slowly prying the lens from the assembly. The corner edges should have some decent gaps to start on.
You will need to push down on some of the lens clips for complete release.

11. While the glue is hopefully still hot, remove as much as you can from the grooves.

12. Unscrew the 3 screws on the headlight shroud so it can detach.

13. Now’s the time to change the colour if you’re after a change!

14. Give the assembly and shroud a quick wipe down and proceed to screw it into the new lens.

15. With the new glue provided, stretch it out and insert into the grooves on the assembly. Don’t use too much so that it is packed to the brim, you want to leave some space for overfill.
Make sure you push it down enough and cover the whole area leaving some gap for the screw holes.

15. As the glue is ridiculously sticky, you pretty much only have one chance to get the lens into the correct position. Line up the 5 screw holes and go for gold.
There is only a tiny bit of play and you will need a lot of force to make it budge.

16. You can use the 5 screw points as a bit of leverage to get the lens clips in so screw in as you see fit.
I had to use a clamp for some extra force to push in some of the clips.
17. Once that’s all in clean up any extra glue residue that may have been pushed out and it’s pretty much doing reverse order of installing bulbs, inserting back into the empty eye socket and bolting all those 10mm bolts back!
18. Thankfully I only needed to do one side so sucked in if you need to do the other side! It’s pretty much the same process.

All in all definitely worth doing if your headlights are badly UV damaged from the inside like mine. Beats buying a brand new set of headlights that’s for sure!