JJSCUTLASS

I was wondering if there is a way to pull the plastic out of these.
Are they glued in??Can they be heated up to remove??
And can these be re-chromed??
Mine are pitted pretty bad and I don't feel like spending 180$ for 4 reproductions.
Anybody have any ideas or tried this before??
Any input would be welcome

70Post

You'll spend A LOT more than that trying to rechrome them if they are pitted or bubbled. Try to find a SUPER CLEAN set of originals if you can...they are out there. You'll need to find someone willing to give you some time to look them over carefully and get you some good pics (chrome can be hard to get good photos of).

Lady72nRob71

I heated mine in the toaster oven on about 150* for 5-10 minutes just to soften the glue, then popped the lenses out (still took come careful pressure). I was able to clean them well after that.
To put the lenses in, I heated the metal bodies in the toaster oven again for about 10 min. on 200 to make them hot. Then while holding the body with an oven mit, fill the groove 1/2 full of hot glue (like for crafts and such), then press the plastic lenses in and set somewhere level to cool.
Heating the body before gluing keeps the glue from cooling and hardening before you can get the lens in.

Pitting cannot be removed, but they can be cleaned and polished, and improved when apart. Mine cleaned up well, but I was not too picky about them. Light output increased dramatically!

70Post

The lenses can be rehabbed with fine wetsanding paper and some polish and cotton towel or cotton *****. Start with a very fine paper like 1200 or 1500 wetsand paper and some slightly soapy water. It can be tedious and time consuming, like most of the stuff on these cars but you can get the lenses looking pretty darn nice.

Excellent tip on the "preheating" Rob!!

Contact some of the people on this board like OldsPackRat and 2Blu442 and see if they have any real clean chrome markers in their inventories.

Be aware that the chrome die cast side marker housings aren't the most "perfect" castings from the start. There are all kinds of odd, small "defects" in the underlying die cast part that can sometimes make you think the chrome itself is bad. Rough edges and stuff like that.....but it's not the chrome in many cases. What you need to worry about is a lack of bubbles and pitting.

Make sure and clean the backside of the lenses as well...those little pyramid things can get filled in with dirt (especially along the bottom). An old toothbrush and soapy water works well there.

Use some chrome polish to clean and brighten the housing inside where the bulb will be...this will help brighten things up when the lights are on as Rob mentioned.

Don't necessarily pass on a set that has real nice chrome on the outside but some pitting and bubbling on the backside of the housing (not the part behind the lense but the back of the housing that is also fully chromed)....these things seem to sometimes develop bubbling and pitting on the backside before the outside gets bad. You can just dab some paint, etc on those areas and they remain pretty much hidden once installed.