Stimpy

No I don't. But may sure are very comfortable with the shop. Even a good paint job can be ruined by careless clear bra removal. They should use heat, go slow, and pull toward them for the safest removal, like this:

The first one. Many clear bra and wrap companies won't take on jobs of removing film from repainted cars for this very reason. What I can't understand is why they would keep going after they pulled the paint off of one section. It's possible if they would have stopped and taken a more careful and different technique (steam to soften it, or pulling at a different angle, etc) they could have avoided removing more paint. But these shops are pretty stupid. On multiple occasions, I have had all 4 rims damaged when mounting tires. You would think after they killed one rim, they would have stopped so they didn't have to pay for 4 of them to be refinished.

Update: The hose gravity feed method still works great, but I bought one of these, and it's made life even easier: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004IKM57Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Not cheap, but if you are using those hand pumps from the parts store that fail after 1 or 2 uses, that adds up. Some of my other cars I can't feed a hose through the top to pour in the fluid, so this pump has really helped. I like that the opening is big enough to get your hand in there and clean off the previous fluid before switching to a different fluid. And it's designed to get all the fluid out of the bottom of the tank so none is wasted.

I wonder if he can make an insurance claim on the paint damage since it was done during a wrap removal and not normal wear and tear. I would certainly try because he's looking at a huge bill to repaint the car! Very depressing.

I got it all back together, and all I can say is just wow for how crazy these engine accessories go together. It's a puzzle that will punish you for making a wrong move. I am shock I figured out how to get the new belt on. I cut the old one off so I didn't suffer there. From what I can see, there's only one sequence that will let you get the belt on all the pulleys. It's definitely best with 2 people, with one to hold the tensioner while the belt is maneuvered around the alternator pulley. I did it myself, so it is possible.

Assembled the power steering and compressor assembly, and got it back in. If I had to do it again, it's definitely better to drain the power steering and remove the hoses to the pump. It's just too bulky of an assembly to move around with those hoses attached and you need to be able to tilt the assembly to get it into place.

I made friends over the years with a local mom and pop auto shop and they evacuated the system for me. Some shops won't do that unless you are having them do all the AC work.

Ok, now I am thinking that if I remove the cooling system crossover pipe that feeds the water pump from the radiators and release the tie down straps for the power steering hoses, I can move the power steering back enough to work on the assembly easily and also have enough room to put the full assembly back in. I was planning on doing a coolant change and replacing the rest of the cooling system hoses anyway, so that's not a big deal to take out.

Has anyone done this job? If so, I'd love to hear your tips. I got the old one out, but unfortunately, I decided to follow the shop manual's steps, so it was a royal pain. And I am not sure I can get the new one back in using those steps. Here's the manual's steps: 1- Remove the power steering pump frame mounting side bracket to the cylinder bank 7-12 phase transformer. 2- Remove the power steering pump frame 4 mounting screws to the compressor; remove the frame from the power steering pump without damaging the hoses. 3- Unscrew the three screws which mount the heat-proof screen to the lower support. 4- Unscrew the four lower screws which mount the compressor to the lower support; then remove the compressor and the pulley. 5- If necessary, remove the air conditioning system compressor lower support by removing the 3 mounting stud bolt nuts. These instructions are basically nuts because you can't really get to some of these screws. Step 2 is way easier said than done. I had to remove the power steering pulley to be able to unscrew the power steering bracket from the top of the AC compressor, and fortunately, I have a pretty crazy collection of odd tools that made it possible to hold the power steering pulley while I loosened the 3 screws holding the pulley on. There's no way get to those 3 pulley screws with the drive belt holding it. And some of the mounting bolts have captive nuts and others don't. The ones that don't are very hard to hold the nut while undoing the bolt while the assembly is still on the car. Step 4 is also crazy, and you should not do it. It's much easier to skip to step 5 and remove the AC compressor still in its lower bracket. And for that matter, you can most likely skip step 1 too and just take that bracket out with the compressor as well. You do need to do step 3 to get the heat shield out of the way. I am thinking I should have removed the lines from the power steering pump, and then removed the whole AC compressor and power steering pump as an assembly, but I am not sure that would work to get it out of that space and then back in. Can anyone confirm if they did it that way? It looks so simple at first, but then your find out it's a Chinese puzzle from hell. the LP640 has a much more simple design for mounting, but that different design is probably what makes it hard to get out the stock cat on the driver side.

It was a fun journey even though the destination proved to be the predictable need to replace the starter. Thanks for the education on the Murci's starter system!

Hi John! Your best bet for pics of the housing is to look on eBay or just a general google search. The sellers have all sorts of pics from every angle that I unfortunately don’t have. Lamborghini Murcielago, RH, Right Headlight / Headlamp, Used, P/N 413941032A https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F292758612569 Do you know if those plastic lenses the ones from Poland? Good luck with your project!

I was off a bit. It's $2500 for the service from Nick, not $2000. Plus shipping and downtime of the car. https://www.ebay.com/itm/LAMBORGHINI-MURCIELAGO-HEADLIGHT-HEADLAMP-restoration-repair/151625823011?hash=item234d9a7323:g:YpsAAOSweW5U62R7:rk:7:pf:0

Not sure why 03's would be more reliable than 02's. The 04's got the new coil packs which weren't susceptible to water ingress. The 02 and 03's can have the coil packs fail just from parking the car in the rain. Not sure there's much difference between the early Murci's than the coil packs.

To see what can be adjusted on the headlights, turn the steering wheel so the wheel turned into the car, and then take off the access panel with 3 phillips screws. There's 3 adjustments if I remember correctly. I didn't see anything like a lever.

Thanks to member, "Digibeam" If you need to get a cost effective climate system heater valve that is identical to the Lamborghini, I will mildly point you in the direction of Maserati, they have two such valves (left and right), one is the direct "plug in"replacement... Right Heater Water Control TGK Valve 67635900 Maserati Quattroporte M139

I don't know exactly where Gonzalo is located in Southern California, but you should look him up. He's a mastermind with the Murci. Look for him on the forum under: gmendoza

Thanks and you're welcome! Yeah, it's a pretty dead forum, but they did have at least this one thread on the LHD/RHD topic: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=240&t=1462231 Maybe you can contact the people in the thread directly to see what they learned since it's not conclusive on the thread.

I'd be surprised if Lambo made 2 versions of these headlights given the small numbers, so if I had to guess, they made it so the same lights can be modified to work on both sides of the road. You'd probably get more responses about the needed modifications by posting a more UK-centric site lke Pistonheads: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/forum.asp?h=0&f=240 If you find out what it takes to modify them, I just posted a DIY on how to safely open the headlights for cleaning.

Here's another rambling video showing the design of the headlights:

Here's a drawing of the before and after cross sections. You can see how hard it is to get a blade around the original design, which is why I cut the lip off. And you just don't need that much silicone to hold this glass down. Even if you didn't glue the glass down at all, it couldn't go anywhere once installed in the car. It sits on top of the plastic housing with nowhere to go but up, and when installed, the body of the car is keeping it from being able to go up. I am confident there's no way the glass will come loose with the amount of silicone I used to attach it back on, but with the modifications, it will be very easy to cut it open in the future.

Thanks! And a result of posts about dropping and breaking the glass, I did most of the work sitting on the ground so I wouldn't be that guy. You should call your insurance agent. My specialty insurance would cover the cost of an OEM replacement. But really, your body shop should call their insurance agent since they are the ones that broke it.

With the holidays, I finally took the time to tackle the hazy headlights that were making my Murci look old. I always tried not to look directly at my headlights because it looked so bad. Now it’s a pleasure to look at them! Even though extremely little and “hazy” information has been posted on how to open the headlights by the people who have done it before, I had a few ideas on how to tackle it, and here’s a write up with full details so you can see what exactly is involved. You may be shocked that I used a cutting tool to get them open, but hopefully you can learn from my write up and videos and find a better way to do it and document it for everyone to see. My main goals for this project were to be very careful not to damage the glass, and to make it very easy to open the headlights again when inevitably they haze over sometime in the future. The haze is very much like the haze that develops on interior car windows from the off gassing of plastics in the car. I am sure the heat from the headlamps being on contributes this off gassing, but I bet most of the off gassing comes from driving in the day and parking in the sun. The heat from the greenhouse effect must get that plastic extremely hot, very quickly. Turning on your headlights won’t generate anywhere near the heat as the summer sun beating down on the car. So in my opinion, feel free to turn on your headlights when you need them knowing they are not the main culprit of the hazing. I have heard a guy named Nick charges $2K to open these headlights, but not only did I not want to pay $2K to have them opened 1 time, I didn’t want to pay that every time the headlights needed opening for cleaning, so my method below makes it very easy re-open the headlights using a simple Xacto knife, or even a kitchen knife for that matter. Opening them the first time is a big job though. Special Tools Used for this Job: Dremel with flex shaft accessory, and a multi-purpose cutting disk (1 disk does the job) https://www.amazon.com/Dremel-4000-4-Rotary-Shaft-Attachment/dp/B01MAVY0AB/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1546400309&sr=8-3&keywords=dremel+225-01+flex+shaft+attachment Spudger, and metal cutting shears to cut spudger into a point https://www.amazon.com/JerryRigEverything-Metal-Spudger-Repair-Professional/dp/B01F1G8YR8/ref=sr_1_17_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1546400463&sr=8-17&keywords=spudger GE black silicone https://express.google.com/u/0/product/922842571459891451_14931684530078332295_1183006?utm_source=google_shopping&utm_medium=tu_cu&utm_content=eid-lsjeuxoeqt&gtim=CKrs6rni7c2XExCBlNK1-5iHil8YkJv_BSIDVVNEKKD99OEFMJ6aSA&utm_campaign=1183006&gclid=Cj0KCQiAvKzhBRC1ARIsANEXdgwdcwj8VPI63sjfNlwhkRawA_LpKW3kjNZEFuvgdvlYE-vrMYhunY8aAlqrEALw_wcB Trim pliers https://www.amazon.com/Performance-Tool-W86556-Upholstery-Fasteners/dp/B003WZRLZ2/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1546409959&sr=8-9&keywords=Clip+Fastener+Remover+Pliers Glass polishing kit https://mercedessource.com/store/windshield-fine-scratch-removal-and-glass-deluxe-polishing-kit-w-power-tool Summary of Steps: -Jack up front, put on stands, remove both front wheels, remove front and top wheel liner, and remove both headlights (couple of hours going slow) -Cut off and remove the lip around the edge of the light fixtures (takes about 10 minutes per headlight) -Use a spunger modified by being cut into a point and threaded around the glass to cut the factory silicone (complete pain to do, and can take hours if you aren’t getting the blade in far enough to cut all the way through the silicone) -Remove the glass (pops right off when you have cut through all the silicone) -Polish the glass, clean the black plastic housing (about 15 mins per glass) -Paint the full rim of the glass with black silicone, let dry completely (15 mins per glass, plus waiting time) -Put thin bead down around the perimeter of the plastic housing (super quick) -Put glass on top (quick) -Fill channel with silicone all the way around (15 minutes per headlight, plus waiting time for it to dry before reassembling the car) -Put everything back (couple of hours going slow). The trick to aligning the headlights is to tighten all the screws in the brackets just enough to hold the light fixture in place, but allow repositioning. Youtube Video: My Notes: Videos are not a professional production and there’s a lot of rambling because I was figuring it out as I went. Hopefully the videos will paint a better picture for you of how the glass is glued on to the housing so you can figure out a better way and post up. The plastic that is used for the headlight housing is very strong, and much more like a fiberglass. Just to give you an idea, it doesn’t fold like plastic when bent, it cracks violently. You won’t be able to cut into this plastic with a knife, but the Dremel cutting disk on a medium speed made quick work of cutting it. I have Xpel clear bra on the outside of the headlight glass, and it’s very nice to have that on as a protection during this job. You may see what looks like cracks in the glass in the video, but that’s the edges of the clear bra. I know people are doing this job without cutting the plastic, but I can’t see a way to get a thin cutting tool all the way around the glass to cut the silicone completely. The video shows why it’s a challenge to do the job without cutting. I could barely put any part of the spudger between the glass and plastic before cutting the plastic, and it’s such a tight fit, that I could barely move the spudger. It seemed impossible to have a really long piece of metal and be able to pull it all the way around the light housing. If you are worried about the Dremel cutting and breaking the glass, don’t. You can see in the design that the glass is recessed from where I am doing the cutting. If the cutting disk does by accident touch the glass, it wouldn’t put a breaking pressure, but just sand the glass a little bit. The glass really is like Pyrex dish. It feels about the same thickness, so it’s not super delicate, but like any glass, you don’t want to put any pressure on it with a hard, sharp point. I painted on a layer of GE Black Silicone with a brush around the perimeter of the glass to paint it black for cosmetic reasons and also to provide a protective cushion for when the glass is placed on top. I let that layer dry completely before putting the glass on top of the housing and then sealing the glass to the housing with more black silicone that filled the channel. This way I can re-open the light with just a flat blade in minutes when it comes time to do this job again. Even though I cut the lip off the housing and used silicone to seal it, you can’t see any changes from stock once installed unless you remove the front wheels and wheel well liners. Everything looks completely factory stock when looking at the outside of the car. I hope someone posts a better way to do this job and posts the details. I am happy with the results, but I am very curious how people are removing the glass without any cutting. Final Take: This job is a complete pain, like replacing the struts so the doors open on their own, but it’s also one of those jobs, like the door struts, that has you kicking yourself that you didn’t do it sooner because it makes such a big difference the enjoyment of your car.

It's glued on. I have read that people take it off by heating it and prying gently. Probably with a spatula type tool. Expensive to replace, so go slow.

That's what I needed to know. Thanks. If other people aren't having the fronts wearing much faster than the rears, then I must have an alignment issue because I am not doing any driving that would explain it. I will get it aligned asap. Side note: I have the new Corsas mounted and balanced on my Hercules wheels now. The truth came out when I took all 4 wheels yesterday to the same Discount Tire to have them put on the new tires. The manager came out and said they didn't have the right equipment to do these low profile wide rims, so he sent me to another Discount Tire down the road. They had no issue doing it. I just wish the employee had told me that the first time I went there for the nail repair so we didn't end up in this mess.

You could try putting the bolts in the freezer.