The Best Guide To Opening Permaseal Headlights Without Cutting The Housing | Tips & Tricks

[@Donny_Bo_Danglez]

My first set of headlights I ever opened were permaseal, and I didn’t even know about that at the time 😅 Pretty sure I spent 2 days and so many times in and out of the oven on the first light, so much frustration and feeling defeated. Ended up getting it done though, but cut open the second headlight to save myself the headache. All in all, they turned out great so worth the struggle

[@RetrofitSource]

Yikes, nobody likes permaseal headlights 🥲

[@klaudiobega2]

I opened up my 2017 Audi A3 headlights without knowing it was permaseal... Needless to say it was a nightmare and I ended up breaking the plastic of the channels in multiple places. Luckily some extra butyl sealant helped covering the cracks but damn that was hard..

[@Donny_Bo_Danglez]

@@klaudiobega2 yikes

[@snooka2484]

Just took these ebay headlights out of the oven for the clear signal lenses for a different project. Perfect instruction. Lenses acquired and on to the switchback portion. Thank you brotha 🙏

[@RetrofitSource]

Great to hear, glad we could help!

[@JoeyLovesTrains]

I ended up buying about 3 different pairs of headlights, some of them I cut the housing, others I cut the lens. Was a pain because the first one I tried came apart no problem, but the rest did not budge at all (except for one which was aftermarket, and already looked like it had been apart before). Either way, was still a fun project to do

[@RetrofitSource]

Glad you had fun with your retrofit! 👏🏼

[@Bythirteen]

I love that we're not gonna talk about that totally melted mounting tab on the top left of the housing. 😆

[@RetrofitSource]

Shhh...

[@evolution.motorsports]

With any newer Ford permahell, let it cool and roll it out of the channel with a pair of needle nose. Comes out clean and way faster.

[@RetrofitSource]

Really smart idea 👏🏼

[@rudydaberry122]

I bought bi xenon headlight assemblies for my 2020 GTI because it came with halogens. I got them from aliexpress and they look pretty decent and I’ve bench tested the lights before I put them in my car and the projectors seemed okay but I want to put better projectors into them. How hard would that be? Would I have to go about differently?

[@RetrofitSource]

Retrofitting would be pretty much the same process, newer headlights will always be harder to open.

[@NeonElixir]

What temperature was your heat gun set to?

[@RetrofitSource]

We did 270 degrees for 7 minutes!

[@NeonElixir]

@@RetrofitSource Thanks for the quick reply, but I asked about the heat gun, not the oven. I'm working on a MK7 GTI headlight and I cut the lens off. I've had a little success removing the adhesive, but I haven't gotten anywhere with the remnants from the lens. It seems like the heat gun either barely helps or melts the plastic 😩

[@m.g.5203]

You really mean 270degrees, not Fahrenheit for 7min? 270 is very much, think plastic would be getting very soft

[@RetrofitSource]

270 for 7 minutes won't hurt anything!

[@pichidubz-566]

That still looked too easy 😫 mines were not doing anything with heat and the channels were getting destroyed already so I just went and cut them open after wasting almost 2 days and they are aftermarket can't believe they using this bs too 🤦

[@RetrofitSource]

Cutting isn't a bad decision when it comes to permaseal!