Need tips and pointers for reshaping my fog-light covers.

Growler · **Posted:** Thu Jul 14, 2005 10:33 am

I put my Rockfather lift and new 31X10.5 tires on last week. I've been checking the front wheel wells, and have noticed that the fog-light covers look a little polished. It doensn't look like the tires are hitting or rubbing anywhere else. I was going to try renting a heat gun from Lowes or the Home depot this weekend and fixing the problem.

Any tips or tricks as to how I can reshape my fog-light covers a little, without breaking my fog-lights, or my windshield washer resevior? Has anyone else done it, without damaging anything? Any pictures? Any step by step instructions?

Growler · **Posted:** Fri Jul 15, 2005 8:31 am

Nobody can help me out? Nobody has done this?

1calkid · **Posted:** Fri Jul 15, 2005 8:50 am

What I have done and heard, is to use some type of heat source and just push the plastic in. Other then that, you can cut what ever you need to as well. You just have to decide what you want to do. I have done both.
For cutting, a dremel works the best.

Growler · **Posted:** Mon Jul 18, 2005 9:02 am

Well, I gave it a try this weekend. My garage does not have electricty, it's a rental unit, so I used a propane torch. I heated the plastic until I thought it would melt, and tried to reshape them with my hands. I was wearing thick cotton work gloves of course. The plastic was really hot, I could feel it through the gloves, I even left smudges in the plastic, but when the plastic cooled down, it went right back to it's factory shape.

So, I tried again, this time after I heated up the plastic, I pushed it into where I wanted it and held it there with a hammer while I poured cool water over the plastic. Some how, it kept going right back to factory shape.

I'm losing my patience with this project. I've had my wheels off about a dozen times, installing my lift, then having to put my factory shocks back on because of the poopy DT shocks, now the front fender wells. I'm going to let the tires rub, it's only at full-lock, going backwards. Maybe the tires will cut their own groove, and I won't have to worry about it anymore.

As for wheeling, when I had my rig jacked up to reshape the plastic this weekend, it seemed that the higher I would jack one wheel up, the more clearance it had from the fender-well. Don't know why this would be the case. However, I only had one wheel jacked up, and I jacked it up using the lower A-arm, which should have stuffed the wheel. And, I cranked it up until it was about 5-6 inches off the ground before turning the wheel to full-lock and seeing that there my tire was like 1.5-2" from the fog-light covers.

Perhaps I have nothing to worry about at camp jeep...

dirtykj · **Posted:** Mon Jul 18, 2005 12:51 pm

People have mentioned that they:

(1) heat the plastic until it softens

(2) hold a bottle up and pushes the bottle in so it forms a nice cavity

(3) leave to cool

I think the bottle is a nice idea. Will have to do that to mine when I have chance. The rubbing in reverse is driving me nuts, and I shaved and shaved with my Dremel and the cutting disc

If this continued much longer I'll be able to carve like a pro with it :wink:

Need tips and pointers for reshaping my fog-light covers.

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