Made a small amount of progress with the nearside headlight today - managed to strip it down without breaking any plastic, so that's a major bonus!
Managed to get the rubber trim off the outer edge of the outer lens housing without any dramas - didn't bother taking any pics of this stage as it's well documented elsewhere
Couple of my outer lens:
It looked pretty good on first removal, but with the side on view you can see some milking of the lens which should improve with polishing.
I trial fitted my new LED sidelight bulbs and sure enough they fit perfectly when mounted from the front! Having worked out there's enough depth to get them through from the front it's on to deciding how to access them in the future....
The inner lens needed to come off as that was cloudy and I wanted to have a proper go at it. I found the best way to get it off was to start with the upper clips as these were harder to access due to a small gap. I used finger pressure on the front to relieve any tension on the cover and just teased the clip up with a thin screwdriver. The bottom you can get to with fingers and once they're moving they seem pretty easy to remove. Once all 4 were freed off I carefully tweaked the cover off trying to keep it square to the body so none of the clips got too stretched.
It's only when you look at it against a white background that the discolouration is fairly obvious. I think I'll be hand polishing this rather than using the rotary tool that came in the Meg's kit.
I'm unsure what to do with the sidelight bulb setup - the LEDs I've bought are just under 12mm diameter. The inner lens cover is pretty much 11mm diameter, so literally only needs 1mm of relief to the inner lens cover to allow the bulb to be removed via the normal route. The housing is conical and of decent plastic thickness. If it weren't for the cutout in one corner I'd just run a 12mm HSS drill bit down the hole and open it up a little. My worry is that the drill bit will grab and crack the plastic around the cutout....
My other options are to use a Dremel with a sanding drum on it, if mine will fit in the hole which I think it will. My dad suggested just using the drill bit but twiddling it by hand to see if it's sharp enough to cut away gently at the plastic without grabbing.
This is the assembly without the inner lens cover fitted:
You can see distinct scoring from the bulb on the reflector above the bulb. I'll have a light rub at that with a microfibre but otherwise will have to live with it.
Think that's all I'll do today on it - all the bulbs are safely wrapped in paper towel in a box to keep them safe. Need to find a cloth to stop any dust getting in. Will aim to polish the lenses during the week ready for reassembly on Friday and then I'll do the other side.
Any suggestions on opening up the sidelight housing before I dive in?! By the way the bit I'd be opening up doesn't have any influence on holding the bulb in situ
Adrian