I made an offer on a car that has these headlight eyelids on it. Imgur link of said eyelids Not a huge deal, and not nearly as offensive as I thought they would be in person, but I'm still going to want to take them off. That said, what would be the best method? I'm assuming they are just held on by an adhesive, so my main concern is potentially stripping the UV protection from the headlights with an adhesive remover solution. Anyone dealt with these things (or similar) before?

 

Depends how they're held. If it's super glue, you're probably hosed - anything like acetone to remove it is probably going to damage the headlight itself.

If it's just adhesive, I'd probably hit it with a heat gun/blow dryer (quickly moving back and forth to not melt the lense) and then slowly start peeling up the edges.

 

I haven't seen those in years. They are probably just attached by an adhesive. I would be worried about what the plastic looks like underneath them. Might be best to swap them with someone who likes them.

 

That's my main concern. I know a new set of these headlights isn't cheap, and I'd really like to keep the AP1 style. Just don't know if I'd be able to fully recondition them if I tried to take these off. At this point, I don't know if it's worth the risk. I just think they look super tacky.

 

I had them unpainted on my car when I bought it. I honestly didn't notice that they weren't part of the OEM light for a few days. I removed them with no issues and I think they were attached with what seemed to be 3M double sided tape. I just used a piece of string to "cut" the tape and then used Goo Gone to remove the adhesive. There have been zero adverse effects almost 2 years later and you cannot tell any difference in the plastic. My guess is these were sold with some sort of adhesive tape already installed.

Before:


After:

 

Thanks, that's kinda reassuring. I'm hoping 3M tape is all the guy used to install them. Don't see why they'd use anything else unless they just weren't thinking. And that's a very nice looking garage, contents and all. I'm a little envious. Haha