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I'm going to re-lens my stock lights and see the ~#100 sets on Amazon, which I assume are cheap Chinese parts, and also these https://www.c6c7vette.com/
Has anyone used these "made in Mexico" lenses, and if so did you have any experience with the cheap ones?
I'm not trying to be cheap about it, especially for the work involved. If the more expensive ones are worth the cost, I'm happy to go that route.
Headlights are something that I would not cheap out on. The quality of the sealer and the application of the sealer is the key besides using a quality lens. You only want to do this once so bite the bullet and go with a known quality product.
The China aliexpress lenses or amazon will do just fine. Its the same clear plastic the manufactures use, there is no difference. Not like the GM ones are any good, they all fade with time. I ceramic coated my new lenses that I purchased from aliexpress and they look great. I've swapped lenses on many cars over the years and chinese,oem,mexico doesn't matter, its all the same clear plastic. What's more important is you coat them with a protective layer like wax or ceramic to make them last a long time.
Get yourself a roll of butyl sealer and take your time taking them apart, the original glue will fight you.
I would never use the cheap China ones!! Just did mine using the made in Mexico lenses which are IDENTICAL to the OEM lenses. Contact RLSebring on the site (here) and he will fix you up with both lenses, all the gaskets and necessary materials to do the job yourself for under $400. He's also got a great video on his website showing how it's done. It's a project to do it right but well worth it when you're done. Mine came out looking like brand new lights. Robert some how got the original molds or bought them from GM, I'm not sure but they are absolutely what GM used when your car was new. The gaskets that he will send you are thicker than the originals too which make for a much better fit at the fender and bumper. Biggest PIA of the whole project is getting the old factory cement out of the groove so you can put the new stuff in and set the new lenses. There's just no easy method as you'll see. One thing that is not quite clear in the video is when you put your headlights in the oven first heat the oven to 350 then turn it off!! Then put the headlights in (one only at a time) and let the oven gradually cool. DO NOT leave it on at 350!! Leave the headlight in for 20 minutes then take it out and you have about 10 minutes to get the old lens off before it cools too much and would have to be re-heated. The 10 minutes is plenty in my experience. No parts are harmed by heating them this way. The heat is necessary to release the factory cement. Happy to help if you want to PM me. Good luck.
I would never use the cheap China ones!! Just did mine using the made in Mexico lenses which are IDENTICAL to the OEM lenses. Contact RLSebring on the site (here) and he will fix you up with both lenses, all the gaskets and necessary materials to do the job yourself for under $400. He's also got a great video on his website showing how it's done. It's a project to do it right but well worth it when you're done. Mine came out looking like brand new lights. Robert some how got the original molds or bought them from GM, I'm not sure but they are absolutely what GM used when your car was new. The gaskets that he will send you are thicker than the originals too which make for a much better fit at the fender and bumper. Biggest PIA of the whole project is getting the old factory cement out of the groove so you can put the new stuff in and set the new lenses. There's just no easy method as you'll see. One thing that is not quite clear in the video is when you put your headlights in the oven first heat the oven to 350 then turn it off!! Then put the headlights in (one only at a time) and let the oven gradually cool. DO NOT leave it on at 350!! Leave the headlight in for 20 minutes then take it out and you have about 10 minutes to get the old lens off before it cools too much and would have to be re-heated. The 10 minutes is plenty in my experience. Happy to help if you want to PM me. Good luck.
Have you compared the "China ones" to the original equipment yourself? I did and they are identical. There's nothing special to clear plastic, they will all start yellowing and fading no matter who makes it if you don't take care of them which is why OP and probably most C6 owners change the lenses on there's.
Changed my own after I first bought the car. It was a trial to get the "glue" out of the channel on one light. It was black and the other side was gray and came out very easy. I did all that work, they came out perfect, (Chinese lenses) and then after riding in a buddies car with Morimoto's, I sold the OEM lights for $400 and bought the Morimoto's and there is absolutely no comparison. The light is incredibly improved and of course the updated look is worth every penny. That's my 2 cents worth....IMHO.
Changed my own after I first bought the car. It was a trial to get the "glue" out of the channel on one light. It was black and the other side was gray and came out very easy. I did all that work, they came out perfect, (Chinese lenses) and then after riding in a buddies car with Morimoto's, I sold the OEM lights for $400 and bought the Morimoto's and there is absolutely no comparison. The light is incredibly improved and of course the updated look is worth every penny. That's my 2 cents worth....IMHO.
I'm sure the Morimoto's are bright but if you like the original C6 headlights, some quality D1S upgraded blubs will be very bright in the factory projectors. I've always ran the OSRAM Xenarc Cool Blue Intense which are extremely bright
Ive tried them all and Itwargssf is right... they all yellow or delaminate over time. I've just accepted it as a bi yearly maintenance item now. Just redid mine last week for the 3rd time... didnt buy the fancy ones this time, chinesium will do just fine and doesnt hurt the wallet as much. My last set was a set of the good ones and they didn't hold up any better than the first set of Chinese ones.
Mine aren't yellowed or delaminated, they just have a lot of pits and tiny bubbles you can see when you turn the lights on. No way in hell I'm paying $1500 for aftermarket headlights. For me the big problem with any of the aftermarket ones is not being painted body color inside. And I don't want C7 or C8 style, I like the C6 style as is.
I'm already running LED D1S replacement bulbs and 100W LED high beams, but now I've finally found a solution to the junk fog lights. I bought a Hella 60mm projector high beam lamp from Summit and it's going to be a great fit into the stock fog lights. Just one more project to complete while I'm doing the widebody stuff up front.
An updated look .......with a much improved field of light
Itwargssf........to quantify my statement about the brightness of the Morimoto's. You obviously can use bright lights in the OEM headlights, however, the flood of light in the Morimoto's spans a greater area than the OEMs even with the newer bulbs. I also much prefer the updated look of the Morimoto's which to me lets the front end of the car look more modern than the bug eye type look of the OEM's. Again, it's all in the eye of the beholder! IMHO.....a much better look to the front of the C6
I like the moris and the c8 style but going to these guys in the stockers I think I probably have them all beat on output. Infact I'd probably put money on it... that being said, retrofitting them was no easy task.
Itwargssf........to quantify my statement about the brightness of the Morimoto's. You obviously can use bright lights in the OEM headlights, however, the flood of light in the Morimoto's spans a greater area than the OEMs even with the newer bulbs. I also much prefer the updated look of the Morimoto's which to me lets the front end of the car look more modern than the bug eye type look of the OEM's. Again, it's all in the eye of the beholder! IMHO.....a much better look to the front of the C6
Yes the DRLs are much larger so I get what you mean by brighter. I'm going to get the Morimoto LED foglights to clean up the front but I personally love the look of the oem C6 headlights over the C7 look. That being said on different color C6s I can see the benefit. I wouldn't want paint color matched headlights other than black which is what I have.
[QUOTE=StayinStock;1606997730]I like the moris and the c8 style but going to these guys in the stockers I think I probably have them all beat on output. Infact I'd probably put money on it... that being said, retrofitting them was no easy task.
Those must be nice, LED technology sure has come a long way but the HID wont be too far behind in a projector housing. The upgraded D1S bulb really have a nice crisp modern look and are much brighter than what they had available in 2005.
headlight relensing
