Hey everyone first post with my new expedition.
I've been searching for a while but haven't found anyone with an expedition who has opened up their headlights. I haven't looked at the headlights yet to see how many screws I'm dealing with or how strong the adhesive is. Being an 07 I doubt they used anything that wouldn't come off after a little while in the oven.
If I missed a thread somewhere let me know.

 

Hello,

I tried the other day. I stopped because it was too hard.

What are you trying to do?

I was trying to remove the bulb shields because I put in LED headlights and the shields were messing up the lights.

Instead all I did was push them down about 1.5 inches to help expose the LEDs more and it worked. It greatly helped without throwing light up at traffic.

But if you find a good way please post it.

Thx.

 

Hey. the chrome trim that divides the headlight and turn signal has bubbled and cracked so I would like to open them up and paint them black like ford's official black housing. If it was easy enough to get open I thought maybe down the road I would consider a retrofit. It looks like someone did one a while back over here: Headlight Retrofit Part 2. This time with Halo/Demon - Ford Expedition Forum

Also, could you tell me which method you used to try and open them?
I was going to preheat to 300, turn off oven, stick in for 10 minutes, quickly pry apart the lens. And repeat if necessary (which sounds likely)

When I do this I will post a DIY

 

Hello,

I scanned that post you mentioned and I am a member there too, however none of his photos come up. Can you see them?

I also notice he does not state the temp or time in the oven. I truly do not understand why people leave out the details on forums if forums are meant to help one another.

The method I was using was a heat gun and nylon pry bars and it was working. I just simply didn't want to invest the time in it as I had a lot of other things to do on my car, so instead I just bent the bulb shield down a tad.

The oven could be good however I have no knowledge of the temp or time. If you try it I would simply wear gloves and keep checking on it, once it is felt hot through the gloves (thin leather gloves) I would remove it and then keep the parts you need warm (the seam) with a heat gun as you pry open.

The heat gun method I like because I am in control the entire time. I wear light leather gloves and can feel how hot the areas are getting through the gloves and I can also make sure that I cause zero damage.

Not sure if you have used a heat gun or not, but once you master one, it can be used on a lot of things.

Quick tips for heat gun:
4-5" away and keep the gun moving back and forth.

takes about 5-10 min to start getting things heated and then once the plastic is heated it stays warm for quite some time, so at first it seems like it takes a while but then around 10 min things speed up and it will feel hot through the gloved hands.

At that time start using pry bars to separate.

One of my favorite non-marring pry bars are here on Amazon:


It was working but I simply did not have the time at the moment to finish it.

Hope that helps.

 

Yes the pictures were blurry but I was able to get an idea of what he was doing. I have opened the headlights on my Ford Ranger and a Tundra and both times I used the oven method which worked well. I have not thought about using a heat gun, that's actually a really good idea when removing the adhesive. I always had trouble with it hardening too fast.

Anyways, I will try the oven method and have a heat gun on standby just in case it needs a little bit more.

*and for anyone else looking at this thread and wanting to open their headlights, I accidentally said 300 @ 10 minutes which is incorrect. It is
Butyl Rubber Headlights: 270 Fahrenheit - turn off oven - set in for 7 minutes
Permaseal Headlights: 285 Fahrenheit -turn off oven - set in for 23 minutes
I'll be sure to write up a DIY on this next week since I couldn't find a good one specifically on expeditions anywhere

 

Thanks for the update. Let us know how it goes and any further updates and I will try it out.

 

Are you doing a retrofit, or just opening the headlights for cleaning?

I'm thinking of trying a retrofit in the next month or so, and would like to see how yours goes! I haven't done a retrofit since I did my Fusion.