How to fix broken headlight mounting tabs

[svT-Rex]

I recently bought my 2000 SVT and its in excellent shape, except for a hemorrhaging driver's side headlamp and passenger side headlamp with broken mounting tabs. I bought a new left side assembly from Ebay and fixed the tabs on passengers' side.

I removed the whole assembly, and cut out some thin aluminum strips I had lying around. I cut them about an inch wide by 1.5 inches long to fit between some reinforcement ribs on the factory plastic tabs. I then sanded the aluminum and plastic to give the Gorilla Glue a mechanical tooth to adhere to. Gorilla Glue is super strong and amazing stuff!

I then put my aluminum pieces on top of the broken plastic tabs and glued and clamped them together for about five or six hours with some vice grips. After the glue dried and set up, the new aluminum reinforced tabs were very stiff and strong. Now my headlamp doesn't flop all over the place when I'm driving down the road. Descriptions are above the following pictures.

Here is a view of the aluminum reinforced tab. I should have painted it black and cleaned off some of the Gorilla glue.

Here is a picture of both tabs mounted inside the car.

I'm gonna finish wet sanding and polishing the headlights today, it was hard to do with the light flopping everywhere.

I also installed some $50 Ebay HID kits last night, they really light up the road and I haven't gotten flashed yet. I did aim them down a little bit.

 

[Dougs SVT]

Melting Stuff Back Together.

Melting Stuff Back Together.

I used a soldering iron and melted the peices back together. You have to spend a lot of time with it. I had a 12" crack in my bumper and repaired it with a soldering answer and used some sand paper to make it smooth. Most parts on the car that are plastic can be melted back together. BE CAREFUL, IT GETS REALLY HOT. DO NOT BREATHE THE FUMES FROM THE BURNING PLASTIC.

Tip: ABS is the material in mirrors and the crome plated parts are made out of reform easily. So if you break your mirrors in 8-9 peices (like completely apart), it will take about 3-4 hours to reform the plastic with intermediate experience. Use a fan to keep the fumes away, especially ABS fumes. GL. Message me if you have any questions.


You can pick up one of these below from home depot for about $15-$19.


http://www.cooperhandtools.com/brands/CF_Files/model_detail.cfm?upc=037103042101