Sanding / cleaning / polishing inner lights

[svoson]

Hello All!

I tried to search for an answer on this and I didn't get anywhere. I am pretty positive that I have seen this discussed on here before, so I apologize if this is a double-post, but here goes...

I am looking for CHEAP weekend projects to do while I get back on my feet financially (just started working again). I wanted to clean my inner marker lights (all other lights look good, maybe been replaced), if possible.

On other 2.3 boards I found various tutorials for cleaning plastic Ford lenses, but some suggested finer and finer sandpaper, others a Blue Magic Metal Polish from Wal-Mart. Pics were posted and the results looked good, but I wanted to ask here.

What have folks done to clean up yellowed lenses?

FWIW, even if the effects only last awhile, my car is garaged and is not a daily driver, so my UV / oxidation exposure is lower...

Thanks!

Bobby

[richsvo]

svoson,

I just did mine yesterday with the cleaning / polishing products from 3M. They worked well, and it is faily cheap...approx. $20 for the two products. It was also extremely fast. Check out this thread to see what products I am talking about:

3M Products

I also saw a thread here which links you to a site that has a film which protects lenses (and other things) from harmful UV rays. See the below link to their website:

UV Ray protection

HTH,

Rich

[svoson]

Aha! Thanks!

Rich,

Thanks! I knew I had read about this, and I thought it was clustered around the repro threads, probably...

I was searching under 'yellow headlights.'

Thanks!

Bobby

[GAboySVO]

How to clear those yellow lights

Here is a site I found using Ask.com. It is a step by step "how to" for Lincoln Mark VIIIs. There is also some before and after.

http://www.lincolnsonline.com/article19.html

[svoman2300]

A friend of mine who owns a custom motorcycle paint shop polished his 89 gt lights then painted clear coat on them.He did that about 5 years ago and they still look like new but he doesn't drive it much and it's always in the garage so I don't know if this helps . Also I think I remember reading somewhere that someone did not recommend doing this.

[High Roller]

Someone on www.************** posted a thread that says to soak yellowed lights for a couple of hours in Tang. Yes, the favorite drink of the astronauts! I own an 84 so I've got recessed headlights and my marker lights are in good shape, so I haven't tried it but what have you got to lose?

[svobud]

Originally posted by High Roller
Someone on www.************** posted a thread that says to soak yellowed lights for a couple of hours in Tang.

Consider the source!

[Pat_in_L.A.]

Tang

The guy who posted that is from Louisville Kentucky. I'm surprised he didn't use Jack Daniels.

But how would pouring it inside the lens do anything to clean the outside?

Another thought: Maybe he has a bunch of lenses to sell?

[svoson]

Jack is from Tennessee!

I grew up twenty miles south of Louisville and two miles west of the Jim Beam distillery! So I think you mean Jim Beam... When I would go to high school in the morning, part of my wakeup ritual (that I can still remember quite well) was the smell of corn mash.

Citrus is a good natural cleaning agent (if there is citric acid in Tang), but I don't know what it would do to yellowed plastic - from all of the tutorials and resources I have seen, it looks like it is best to physically remove a minute layer of the plastic itself.

Do we have any tutorials yet? If I do this, I might use the Lincoln tutorial posted above. I'll take pictures and make some HTML pages of my process if anyone is interested in having that as a tutorial. I am not highly experienced when it comes to cars, but I am patient and obsessively meticulous, so I think I can do this...

[SVOeric]

I grew up 10 miles from Makers Mark, and it would be sacrilege to use it for such purposes



BTW:: Jack Daniels is Tennesee whiskey ---

[Mr. Pink]

Here's another thought......what about using plastic sanding sheets. I build model planes and recently picked up a Polishing System Assortment produced by Detail Master (http://www.detailmaster.com) from a local hobby shop. It's designed to polish clear plastic (such as aircraft canopies) to a "glass-like" look. The kit contains the following "Micro-mesh" Abrasives -

3200, 3600, 4000, 6000, 8000, and 12,000 grit sheets

This kit sold for $17 from a hobby shop here and I imagine that would probably be about the same price other places.

I'm thinking about trying this with some 3M compound and see what kind of results I get. I'll let you know.

[svoson]

Plastic sanding sheets + 3M

jzleach,

Why add the 3M plastic compound? I'm asking because I imagine the compound has a certain granularity of particulates in it. If it does that might cancel out using such fine grain paper. I could be way off, but it's just a thought.

When you polish the airplane canopies, do you wet sand with those sheets? Why did you decide not to go with that process?

I'm just asking, by the way, to learn; I'm not saying you're doing it wrong...

Bobby

[Mr. Pink]

Bobby;
Actually....you're probably right on the use of the polishing compound with the sanding sheets. I'll have to give it some thought.

When sanding the aircraft canopies, I usually don't wet sand. I've sanded the clear plastic and then followed it up with an application of floor wax (such as Future). This is a pretty common procedure in the hobby....but like anything else, you'll find folks who use a different process (or variation of others) and get excellent results. Kinda reminds me when I first joined the military and must have been told a dozen different ways to polish my boots.

[lonchair]

I used a plastic polishing compound and a polishing wheel on a bench grinder. I belive the brand is Dico PBC for plastic www.dicoproducts.com. The yellowing cleaned up quite a bit (one looks almost new) and the lenses are now shinier than the NOS ones I have. I wet sanded one of them, but it realy was not needed as the the one I did not sand actualy looks better.

EDIT-I remembered the name of the polishing compound company-Dico.

[svobud]

Originally posted by SVOeric
I grew up 10 miles from Makers Mark, and it would be sacrilege to use it for such purposes

BTW:: Jack Daniels is Tennesee whiskey ---

YUP ... and I grew up 40 miles from the Jack Daniels Dist....and 20 miles from George Dickel Dist.

Maybe that "tang" guy is originally from the Land of the Fruits and Nuts?