Tail light disassembly and cleaning... possible?

[Jonathan]

Can the taillights be disassembled for cleaning without destroying them?

On all but the centre light, it looks like there is some sort of reflective material inside there that probably helps to get more light out when in use. I noticed mine are pretty filthy and wanted to clean them. I don't want to break them though trying to do this.

It doesn't seem obvious if there is a simple way to separate the plastic front from the back. Is there? I suspect maybe it is all glued together and you can't get it apart. True?

Any other methods of cleaning the insides? The opening for those four lights is not much wider than the original bulbs were. I'd love to be able to see what I'm doing and clean up those surfaces to help the light reflect better.

Any ideas?

[Patrick C]

If you are referring the to center reflector, it does pop out:

http://store.delorean.com/images/Product/large/108361.JPG

[Gregadeth]

I don't think there is a way to disassemble the unit. Would be great if there was, a lot of faded turn signal lenses could be re-painted from the inside to restore the original color. You can probably use a dremel and split the unit in two, and then glue it back together afterwards. I'm sure someone's done it before.

[Jonathan]

Thanks Pat. I think Greg caught what I meant though. I'd love to only have to deal with that centre section pop-out portion. It's really the other four though (the two brake lights and the turn signal and reverse lights). Based on how expensive these units are when they are available (just saw they are NLA at the moment with reproductions in progress), I'm not too keen on experimenting with the Dremel and crazy glue. Would still be very interested in hearing from someone that has gotten them apart, whether it went well or they failed miserably.