How do I fix a rear light lens?
Discussion
Very sharp stanley knife or scalpel, insert and cut round till lens comes away, clean old gunk of with meths / turps / thinners, clean all inside round lights etc, apply sikaflex or black mastic adhesive type stuff, press back into place hold with tape till dry and clean off excess, horrid job really messy and the worry you will scratch damage the parts, i did mone about a year ago as one was coming away, trouble is one will be all nice and fresh and clean so you will have to other side as well
As stated cut around with a very sharp blade, you should then be able to prise the cover off. It may break in the process, if so you will need to buy a new one.
Best bet is to remove the light cluster then you can push the outer lens out from the inside once your have done the cutting.
You will need to clean off all the black paint (or whatever was used) from the inside with white spirit.
Once clean I used pin stripe masking tape (you can get from halfords) to mark a line inside the lens about 1cm from the edge. I then painted between the line and the edge of the lens with black enamel paint. This has worked (after several coats) but after 3 years is crazing a bit now. If I was doing it again I would use sikaflex thinned down rather than paint.
Once its all dry glue it back in with sikaflex.
If you dont paint the black border back on when you stick the lens back in it will look crap.
Best bet is to remove the light cluster then you can push the outer lens out from the inside once your have done the cutting.
You will need to clean off all the black paint (or whatever was used) from the inside with white spirit.
Once clean I used pin stripe masking tape (you can get from halfords) to mark a line inside the lens about 1cm from the edge. I then painted between the line and the edge of the lens with black enamel paint. This has worked (after several coats) but after 3 years is crazing a bit now. If I was doing it again I would use sikaflex thinned down rather than paint.
Once its all dry glue it back in with sikaflex.
If you dont paint the black border back on when you stick the lens back in it will look crap.
Thread resurrection ...
I'm into this too. It seems more complicated than I was led to believe.
What primer to prepare the perspex? It will have to be either clear or black to make sure you do get the flat black finish (i.e. grey will not work) and I expect flatting the surface will also be a non starter. I had hoped a couple of coats of Plastikote would do the trick only because I have some in the flat.
Which grade of sikaflex? 221?
To seal the gap round the outside, I googled amberseal and in the last 7 years it seems it is now a sanding sealer. Pretty sure they were just sealed with a bead of sikaflex originally, any reason I can't do this?
I'm into this too. It seems more complicated than I was led to believe.
What primer to prepare the perspex? It will have to be either clear or black to make sure you do get the flat black finish (i.e. grey will not work) and I expect flatting the surface will also be a non starter. I had hoped a couple of coats of Plastikote would do the trick only because I have some in the flat.
Which grade of sikaflex? 221?
To seal the gap round the outside, I googled amberseal and in the last 7 years it seems it is now a sanding sealer. Pretty sure they were just sealed with a bead of sikaflex originally, any reason I can't do this?
I am just replacing one of the rear light covers on my Chimaera with a new cover supplied by RaceTech. As supplied, this has a straight-cut edge but for it to fit into the recess and be flush with the bodywork, I need to chamfer the inner edge. Has anyone a suggestion of the best way to remove material (presumably this is acrylic)?
I used a bench belt sander to make the lenses fit, more needed to come off the new lenses than I was expecting. My advice is to take a small amount off at a time. Many many trips between car and sander are needed but you can always take a bit more off if needed, you can't add more on if you take too much off. It's not hard just time consuming.
Jhcolling said:
I used a bench belt sander to make the lenses fit, more needed to come off the new lenses than I was expecting. My advice is to take a small amount off at a time. Many many trips between car and sander are needed but you can always take a bit more off if needed, you can't add more on if you take too much off. It's not hard just time consuming.
Great - thanks for the helpful advice 
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