1) Let me say that I do not recommend you proceed with this oven baking process unless you are prepared to take full responsibility for the outcome. This is simply a blog style demonstration of what I did to separate my headlight assemblies and as such I take no Responsibility for any failures or damage caused if you carry this method out. Here I started with an OEM sealed headlight assembly. TIP: I placed a towel on my bench to work on.	2) I next grabbed a baking tray big enough to sitmy headlight assembly on. I placed a Tea-Towel on the tray to keep the headlight assembly from coming into contact with the metal tray while in the oven. Tip: See my screw drivers and scrapers in the background... I just grabbed an array of tools to have on hand.	3) I thought I might need a heat gun for later in the process. This is my Ryobi that has had more use than a Taxi Cab. I had a wide flat flange nozzle about 75mm or 3 inches wide. Tip: Notice the 100mm or 4 inch narrow tip screwdriver. haha...I grabbed that one at the last shed visit.
4) Now pay attention!! This is the ONLY scraper I needed and believe me when I say it is the THE one/style to have. I got it from Bunnings in Australia but I am sure this type is available world wide. The circular cutout works as a hand grip and the triangular tip is the action end for this job.	5) I Started off by removing the case screws. There are 4 in total. This is so that the heat does not concentrate more with the metal screws in place. (I am no expert but that was my consideration)	6) I next removed the metal clip you see at left but I could not remove the light bulb housing. But I did remove the soft plastic cap that covers that housing as I feared it would melt in the oven.
7) TIP: I placed my bits and bobs into a plastic container.	8) Now I really had no idea what temp to warm the oven. Based on youtube videos that said 220 (Fahrenheit) I went with 120 Celsius. Ours is a gas oven and I preheated for about 15 minutes.	9) While the oven was warming I placed the headlight assembly onto the baking tray making sure that nothing contacted the metal tray. TIP: I tested that the headlight actually fitted into my oven before warming the oven. Mine only just fitted on an angle.
10) This was a scary moment. The heat hit my face and it was that moment of no return.	11) I had to place the light on an angle to avoid the corners coming into contact with the oven wall. I assumed that would be a disaster and the housing might melt if it did. I closed the door and waited for 15 minutes.	12) Out she came... crispy hot to touch. I had no idea where to start so I just grabbed the scraper.
13) I figured just start running the scraper along the seam line. Again, at this stage I had no idea other than what was intuitively kicking into my thought process.	14) I just worked my way around.	15) and around.
16) Suddenly I realized the black plastic was soft and I could turn the scraper in under the black outer channel as seen here.	17) I got a bit gamer and started to go around again digging in harder.	18) The black perma-seal started coming out. But the housing had now cooled. So back to the oven. It was frustrating though as I went back and forth to the oven 6 more times... 15 minute bakes for the first two and then I went 20 minute bakes for the last 4 times. I was beginning to worry if it would ever come apart as the perma-seal would cool and was not that stringy consistency that most youtube videos showed. In fact, I now know why no one shows this whole process... It really sucks!
19) So I got sick of the repetitive process taking so long and by the 6th bake I thought bugger it, and I pushed the temp to 130 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes.	20) Back in for two more bakes at 130c for 30 minutes repeating the process each time.	21) I grabbed the screwdriver and found the perma-seal was able to be dug out in large amounts. Seemed I was onto something here.
22) The black plastic was very soft and more pliable than I thought it would be. The lens itself was very solid. The perma-seal was a tough gasket rubbery consistency.	23) Here you see I was getting impatient and began levering the plastic outward. The reason was I just did not know what or how far the channel structure went in. I was working blind for the this first attempt as nobody truly explains it on youtube.	24) I then thought if I run the heat gun around to soften everything even more that it might help. I ran the temperature at 500c but worked it around very quickly so as to not damage anything.
25) I finally worked out that I could now hook the screwdriver under the lens edge and started prying it apart at the Tri-Bar DRL end.	26) Now the lens was breaking away but the perma-seal was not giving away easy.	27) Now I could get my hand in and started pulling apart ever so hard!
28) It cooled. I didn't want to go through the oven process again so I just got the heat gun and ran around at 500c with a slow gradual movement.	29) More screwdriver prying.	30) More hand grappling
31) More heat gun	32) More hand pulling	33) BINGO! She finally popped open!
34) I realized a few mistakes now that I could see the full story with the channel and lens frame. The bottom seam line extends in very deep and was holding it tight. Next one I will work the bottom more before trying to pull it apart.	35) Some perma-seal still remains on the lens. Will clean that later.	36) Look at the damage I did to the channel
37) Desperate times equals any measure! I heat gunned the channel until soft and then tried pegs to pull it back into shape.	38) Was working OK but the surface was wavy. Then it struck me... Clamps with a plate either side! Off to the hardware tomorrow!	39) So I bought 4 x 2 inch clamps and had a brain fart of an idea... door hinges! Yes, door hinges 1 x 4 inch, 1 x 3 inch and 1 x 2 inch to work as straitening plates.
40) They worked perfectly. Just heated up the plastic channel with my heat gun, placed the hinge over top and bottom side and clamped until it cooled again.	41) All three in action.	42) See how I was working the top plate nice and straight again.
43) Closer look	44) Less heat and I found for curves I could clamp the heated outer end back to the cold inner end of channel to get shape back again.	45) And look how perfect I got the shape back again. This is the same section as shown in step 36...! I was so excited at this stage. My headlight was coming back into shape again!
46) Now the tricky bit! The opposite "Rounded Corner" has a splayed curve. This is the corner where you pry apart (step 25) and it gets distorted badly. But I had an idea. I got some paper to make an inner channel stencil by running my finger around the top edge to make an impression.	47) Now I marked 10mm offsets along the same line as a parallel dotted line.	48) Now I joined the dots together.
49) Here I cut the shape out along my marked pen line.	50) I placed the paper template over the end. See how far the outer channel plate is pushed out of shape.	51) Another brain fart idea! Carpenters Gang Nail Plates. 190mm or almost 8 inches long.
52) Just bend the gang nail plate to follow the template shape.	53) I Trimmed the plate length as shown here. I just need to get he tip shaped.	54) I sat the plate over the tip just to confirm the right bend shape.
55) I realized the screw cowling was in the way.	56) So I marked either side of the cowling.	57) And cut away with tin snips. Easy as!
58) I heated the corner with my heat gun and then pulled the metal plate in hard and held until the plastic went cold again. About 2 minutes.	59) Looking down while cooling.	60) Now its cooled and the shape is back. Just some flat edge waves to fix now.
61) Almost done now!	62) Back to the heat gun for a 500c heat blast.	63) More clamping
64) working the final shape. The clamp on the end was protecting my rounded shape that i recovered with the gang nail press.	65) I found as the plastic was 3/4 cooled I could do some tweaking with multi-grips.	66) The final treatment.
67) Next I turned my attention to the lens and reflector housing.	68) 4 screws hold the inner reflector assembly to the lens.	69) After removing the screws I just pulled at this point and it popped out.
70) Both components are now separated.	71) I will be painting the reflector and chrome black later before reassembly.	72) I wrapped the inner component with cling wrap to keep it nice and clean until reassembly.
73) Now to clean the perma-seal off the lens.	74) My trusty heat gun at 500c again should do the trick.	75) I just held the heat for about 10 seconds.
76) The perma-seal was hot but soft enough to peel away with my fingers until it went cold again.	77) TIP: I heated the screw holes to work out the perma-seal. This i thought would solve issues when I reassemble the headlight assembly.	78) After heating I just gently screwed the screw back an forth until it eventually went all they way in.
79) I was very careful to take my time screwing back and forth.	80) eventually it went in all the way in.	81) I finally got to test fitting the two outer shells of the headlight assembly.
82) Given all of the destruction during initial opening of the headlight assembly I was very pleased with the final reconstruction lines.	83) The top plate looks really good now. This is the only surface seen when the hood is open so is most critical. I never thought I would get it this good. Thank you Mr Heat Gun, clamps and door hinges...LOL	84) Underneath suffered some cosmetic issues but will not be seen once installed.
85) Housing resto complete. Both sections click in nicely with a good clean channel for re-sealing when I complete the internal mods. BUT... Check out the "Heat Gun Method Page". I developed this new method which is soooo much cleaner, quicker and NO OVEN required!