Hella euro tail light lense repair, anyone heated and rebent them to suit housing ? Options

[porschetub]

Back working on my car and found trunk has some water in it,located the leak to the LH side light,sealing rubber is good but lense is bent so seal not contacting housing.
I remember some folks heating their poor fitting aftermarket ones to correct this issue ,would be interested to hear from those that have done this.
Kinda cautious about this as its a genuine lense and in good condition besides.
TIA,cheers

[vitamin914]

Back working on my car and found trunk has some water in it,located the leak to the LH side light,sealing rubber is good but lense is bent so seal not contacting housing.
I remember some folks heating their poor fitting aftermarket ones to correct this issue ,would be interested to hear from those that have done this.
Kinda cautious about this as its a genuine lense and in good condition besides.
TIA,cheers

I tried heating an aftermarket lens with disastrous results.
Post #19 http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...=359320&hl=

The aftermarket lenses have a clearly visible "wow" in the curvature that I don't see in the OEM lens. I tried heating only the area with the issue with a heat lamp. I obviously did not reach the glass transition temperature of the plastic where it would bend without breaking. When I broke the one piece I had, the experiment ended. I don't know exactly the type of plastic the lens is made from - making it hard to look up what the proper temperature it would need to be at.

I gave up and concentrated on the seals instead of busting expensive, albeit aftermarket parts. I would never experiment like that with an OEM part.

I am glad the seal route has worked for you. Mark at 914rubber ( @Mikey914 ) was looking into better (more pliable/softer) sealing cord for the lenses to help seal the aftermarket lenses. Not sure if he ever had time to explore it.

[porschetub]

Back working on my car and found trunk has some water in it,located the leak to the LH side light,sealing rubber is good but lense is bent so seal not contacting housing.
I remember some folks heating their poor fitting aftermarket ones to correct this issue ,would be interested to hear from those that have done this.
Kinda cautious about this as its a genuine lense and in good condition besides.
TIA,cheers

I tried heating an aftermarket lens with disastrous results.
Post #19 http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...=359320&hl=

The aftermarket lenses have a clearly visible "wow" in the curvature that I don't see in the OEM lens. I tried heating only the area with the issue with a heat lamp. I obviously did not reach the glass transition temperature of the plastic where it would bend without breaking. When I broke the one piece I had, the experiment ended. I don't know exactly the type of plastic the lens is made from - making it hard to look up what the proper temperature it would need to be at.

I gave up and concentrated on the seals instead of busting expensive, albeit aftermarket parts. I would never experiment like that with an OEM part.

I am glad the seal route has worked for you. Mark at 914rubber ( @Mikey914 ) was looking into better (more pliable/softer) sealing cord for the lenses to help seal the aftermarket lenses. Not sure if he ever had time to explore it.

Sorry you had to break a lens to find this out (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) ,my reasoning for not heating was the shape of it,the seal channels top and bottom make it very strong @ those points,then there is the issue of how hot can you get before it melts ? so its a fine line between it bending or snapping I would think.
Also my thoughts that the lens was out of shape were largely wrong as a check against the RH indicated they were pretty close,thats when I decided to address the seal .
I also removed the housing and cleaned all the dirt and crap off the seal for that part...pretty sure that helped to some extent.

[porschetub]

Back working on my car and found trunk has some water in it,located the leak to the LH side light,sealing rubber is good but lense is bent so seal not contacting housing.
I remember some folks heating their poor fitting aftermarket ones to correct this issue ,would be interested to hear from those that have done this.
Kinda cautious about this as its a genuine lense and in good condition besides.
TIA,cheers

I tried heating an aftermarket lens with disastrous results.
Post #19 http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...=359320&hl=

The aftermarket lenses have a clearly visible "wow" in the curvature that I don't see in the OEM lens. I tried heating only the area with the issue with a heat lamp. I obviously did not reach the glass transition temperature of the plastic where it would bend without breaking. When I broke the one piece I had, the experiment ended. I don't know exactly the type of plastic the lens is made from - making it hard to look up what the proper temperature it would need to be at.

I gave up and concentrated on the seals instead of busting expensive, albeit aftermarket parts. I would never experiment like that with an OEM part.

I am glad the seal route has worked for you. Mark at 914rubber ( @Mikey914 ) was looking into better (more pliable/softer) sealing cord for the lenses to help seal the aftermarket lenses. Not sure if he ever had time to explore it.

Sorry you had to break a lens to find this out (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) ,my reasoning for not heating was the shape of it,the seal channels top and bottom make it very strong @ those points,then there is the issue of how hot can you get before it melts ? so its a fine line between it bending or snapping I would think.
Also my thoughts that the lens was out of shape were largely wrong as a check against the RH indicated they were pretty close,thats when I decided to address the seal .
I also removed the housing and cleaned all the dirt and crap off the seal for that part...pretty sure that helped to some extent.

Still no leaks so happy for now,the reversal of the seal isn't a long time fix as it will compress on the lens again and leak,so with that in mind may as well sort it more long term.
Did some research in my country and found the following ;
4mm neoprene cord,
closed cell foam,
skinned finish,
waterproof up to marine standard,
Sounds like it is right for this application but is black and not supplied in white...can't do much about that,reckon it is the same as factory spec ?
Thoughts and idea's welcome,TIA.