I tossed it in the oven at 250 for 5 minutes, began to pry, and everytime I would pull back, the rubber didn't come anywhere close to coming off, it just broke the tail light trim

What did I do wrong?

 

IIRC it needs to be in for 15 min @ 230

 

I tried 14 minutes at 250, nothing budged.

 

You might have needed to leave them in the over longer. Getting the housings apart is very tricky. My mechanic buddy ruined one of my extra headlamps trying to get them apart. Since you are kind of in the same boat and probably don't want to ruin the next one you buy you might consider sending them out to be professionally done. That's what I am going to do.

You can send them to Black Flame Customs and have them do the mods for you. They specialize in retrofitting projector HIDs into headlamps so they have a ton of experience with taking the housings apart. I am sending and extra set of head and tails to them after the holidays. For the heads I am going to have projectors retrofitted and tint the amber reflectors. For the tails I am going to have them tint just the red lenses inside the housing.

Here is a link to their website. Several members here have used them and given them great feedback.
http://blackflamecustoms.com/

 

If they have perma seal then 320 for 7 minutes.......once they start to cool throw it back in for another 7 minutes.....some housings can take up to two hours getting apart......

 

so theres not a too long of time with the lights in the oven?

 

320 is too high. You want a lower temperature for a longer time, rather than a high temp for a short time. The permaseal is the LAST thing that gets heated. Treat it like a roast, keep it in there for a while until the insides get all cooked. IIRC 15 minutes is going to be the minimum and anything under 275 is fine. I'd say 250.

 

I do 200 for 10 mins on 04-08 housings. Never had a problem and I've Harleyd about 25-30 sets and tinted and cleared them.