Fly eye removal

[scobie140]

I'm planning on removing the fly eye stuff from my rear lights as it looks naff up close and collects a lot of crap. Its been on them for about 5 years.

Anyone any experience of removing this after a long time? Is this going to be a ball ache? any lasting damage?

 

I've not got a lot of time off work just now so wan't to have a rough idea if its worth attempting or not.

[davey_83]

[taybo]

Had mine on for about a year. Harder to remove the older it is and yes it does seem to leave a permanent mark where the adhesive is, even after refurbishment.

[scobie140]

On 21/06/2018 at 17:23, davey_83 said:

I'll take some If I o down the route of trying to remove it.

On 21/06/2018 at 18:55, taybo said:

Had mine on for about a year. Harder to remove the older it is and yes it does seem to leave a permanent mark where the adhesive is, even after refurbishment.

That was my worrie that after all these years it will be brittle, break up and leave the lights in a mess. Hmm don't know if its going to be worth the hassle or if I'd be better buying new lights

[W8BGS]

It will be a time consuming pain in the backside mate,

had to remove from my rear lights on my last car, it took ages as very brittle and needed a tonne of tar/glue remover to remove the glue residue, it also required a load of asetone. In the end that didn’t really work so had to polish it out, in the end it got most of it and I got the lights tinted with film instead.

[marzman]

Do you have LED or standard rear lights?  If standard then just buy another set and replace... sounds easier than removing the fly eye's.  They're about £40 a pair for non-LED lights arent they?

[scobie140]

16 hours ago, W8BGS said:

It will be a time consuming pain in the backside mate,

had to remove from my rear lights on my last car, it took ages as very brittle and needed a tonne of tar/glue remover to remove the glue residue, it also required a load of asetone. In the end that didn’t really work so had to polish it out, in the end it got most of it and I got the lights tinted with film instead.

You've just talked me into not doing it  

 

16 hours ago, marzman said:

Do you have LED or standard rear lights?  If standard then just buy another set and replace... sounds easier than removing the fly eye's.  They're about £40 a pair for non-LED lights arent they?

Just the standard, I did toy with that idea but have now ordered a set of LEDs and will put a tint film on them. So just the indicators and reverse lights to worrie about now

[W8BGS]

Good idea, i had it on the front perspex Civic grill too and ended up buying the Mugen grill because I couldn’t get all the fly eye crap off

[scobie140]

1 hour ago, W8BGS said:

Good idea, i had it on the front perspex Civic grill too and ended up buying the Mugen grill because I couldn’t get all the fly eye crap off

It seemed a good idea at the time ae!

I've just realised that to remove the indicator clusters to do them is a bumper off job so won't be tackling them this summer  

[marzman]

Rear bumper off is an easy job.  3 screws on each side around the wheel arch, and then a few poppers on the top by the boot.

[scobie140]

17 hours ago, marzman said:

Rear bumper off is an easy job.  3 screws on each side around the wheel arch, and then a few poppers on the top by the boot.

I know but then i'd need to spend ages getting all the fly eye mesh off the indicators and this would render the car off the road potentiall for a few days depending on how well it goes / work commitments, the back lights could have been put back on between fixing sessions. I'm scunnered working on the zed, anything not a 5 min job is getting put off until winter so I can just enjoy driving it while the weahter is nice. I've also neglected to change the timing belt & power steering pump on my run around for a year and a half so far cause i've always had something to do on the zed instead plus the mrs wants her brake callipers painted so we all know what will be getting done first haha.