Need DOT lamps on your GT-Four? Do a lens swap!

[Jeebus]

Bought myself a Milwaukee digital heat gun at Home Depot the other day, and got crackin'!

Lens Transplant day 1:
'94 JDM GT-Four low beams & '94 USDM ST low beams


The ultimate Goal: Transplant the glass from the USDM lenses onto the JDM casing. This way I can use the accent bulbs, perhaps to use for the DRLs at a later date, and also because I need this little detail to pass the out of province inspection.



10minutes of heating at 250F didn't quite get the sealant soft, so I cranked it to 950F for around 5 min, onto the glass, and I may have gone hotter for a couple minutes.


Repeat.
(Lens pattern notably different, amongst other areas, if you look closely at the center)


Top Housing = USDM / Bottom = JDM
For whatever reason, the JDM housing has a metal blocking disk where the tip of the halogen bulb ends up when plugged in. I tried just swapping them, but one had an extra slit in the casing, whereas the other one didn't, so I could not easily swap them without cutting the metal. I do not have the tools to cut sheet metal, so I ended up just bending the disk forward and backward until it broke off.


I swapped the glass, and tried heating up the glass only this time to avoid melting the plastic. I figured the glass would get hot enough to soften the sealant, and the glass fit no problem, but I think I may have a few too many millimeters of gap still in some areas where I didn't clamp together well, so some clips won't fit.

I was then called into work, so I only completed the one lens.

I'm going to try heating up my oven to 250F, and placing my now aborted USDM housing with the JDM glass (that'll blind oncoming traffic) in for 15mins and see how that works.

[Jeebus]

Day 2: using the oven.

Pre-heat oven to 250F. I used a baking tray because I didn't want direct heat from the bottom element straight onto the lens and housing.
What is this, a reverse EZ-Bake oven? I tested with my useless USDM housing first, to see how well the housing would hold up, and it worked fine, so I moved onto my 2 left lenses.


After 15 minutes in the oven, the glass came off quite easily with the help of a smaller flat-head screwdriver.
*Caution* Be careful how you place your housing on the table, as the plastic can get quite malleable at this point. I accidentally had it resting on one plastic tab as I was trying to remove the glass lens, and the tab bent quite easily. You can just bend it back to it's original position though.


Next up, the metal piece that surrounds the 9006 bulb inside the housing.
Left = USDM / Right = JDM


I just simply bent the centerpiece back and forward to remove it.


Last, just pop your glass back on, as the sealant should be quite soft still since the whole process of taking the glass off takes a few minutes, and pop the lights back into the oven one last time. I put the lights in glass side down so that the weight of the lens would push down and minimize the gap between the glass and the housing. I left the lights in for an additional 10 minutes, brought them out, made sure there was very minimal gap by squeezing the two pieces together, and put them outside for them to cool.

There you have it, my little mini mod.

On a side note, anyone want to buy a pair of USDM low beam housings with JDM glass on them?

[dah_hunter]

nice little walk through..

[jdmvip]

It's weird how some Toyota JDMs have DOT headlights and others don't, eg. JZS161 Aristo has stock DOT headlights.

After going this far do you still prefer this method or would you have bought DOT lights from a USDM Celica?

[Jeebus]

I bought my pair of USDM lights for $95 after shipping costs, so if I could have gotten JDM DOT approved lights for around the same price or a little more, I would have done that.

[jdmvip]

This is very interesting even for models with no DOT equivalent it may help others.

[Hugo4]

So you did all this just to have the option of adding DRLs in the accent bulb spot? I take it you wanted your future DRLs to look like as close to a "stock" look as possible by having them in the headlight.

I thought wiring a relay into the fog lights would be pretty simple. Hopefully that would be sufficient for inspection purposes, but I haven't had to find out.

I thought your technique with the glass was interesting. There is a thread in GT4OC about fabricating projectors for the 6th gen. Celica. I don't know if they ever made any of those projectors with DOT stamps, but I still want some.