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| Demystifing
Headlights Guide/Thoughts |
By:
Ian Crosson |
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OK
so we have all owned or seen a car with fogged up headlights. And
I'm sure most people here don't own expensive buffing
machines, or feel safe wielding sand paper. So
most of us either leave it alone, or spend a hour buffing
them by hand with some "magic product". |
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So
first lets examine what exactly causes the haze. When
you drive what hits your headlights? Bug guts
(very acidic), dirt (70mph sand blasting anyone), and
other airborne materials that get peppered all over these
things. Being that in the US all headlights
(almost all) are plastic so these things get pretty nasty
quick. |
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So
my first thoughts were I finally find a use for that
dremel. Being that this thing starts off at
5,000rpm and goes up to 13,000rpm I had to be VERY careful
and only use speed 1. Anything above 3,000
rpm will generate heat VERY quick. So I go
to Home depot and buy a $3 polish pad. |
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Looking
at this I realized this would take FOREVER to do with
this little thing and the metal bit in the middle make
it only usable on the end. So I cut up strips
and fold it into thirds like so... |
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I
quickly found out a dremel has a weak clutch and absolutly
no torque. If you put the cloth under the
end and try out speed one nothing happens, except that
all familiar smell of burning clutch. So
I decide to tempt fate and just use the end of it. Here
are the results after a very careful play of speed 1
off headlight, rev up dremel, put on surface, slows to
a stop, remove repeat. |
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While
this works It take WAY too long. Time to bust
out the big guns, no jacking around~! |
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Well
this baby definitally has the torque to do the job. I
left nothing the end and let the cut come out about 1
mil to get a little bite on the cotton to spin my little
trifold pieces. The trick to this is to use
alot of lubrication/polish (Autosol plastic cleaner/polish
... Can be found at www.bavauto.com ....but
any plastic cleaner will work). Do NOT apply
any pressure, and don't go faster than the slowest speed
(est. 1,000-1,500rpm). |
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This
method works great, and if careful requires no effort. It
saves your arms from scrubbing, but I had to be certain
the results were good. |
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^^^Can
you tell the difference between the side I did at hand,
and the side I machine buffed^^^
Of course the answer should be I see no difference.
So what did we learn from this lesson boys and girls? Use
less muscle and more ingenuity. Not everything has to be hard. Just
take some terry cloth and cut it up. Pull out a decent drill (take
out all bits and pull the chuck almost all the way into the housing). Put
the strips in 1.5 inch squares and a dab of your plastic cleaner on the tip. Drill
in your headlight at 1,000rpm (speed 1, Low on most drills), Counterclockwise
moving left to right, applying no pressure. Stop if the cotton stops
spinning. It means it needs more plastic cleaner. Buff
off access and enjoy your results with maybe 15min tops for 2 headlights.
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A
friend of mine had a comment that I felt I needed to
share with everyone. He said it was his understanding
that plastic headlights come from the factory with a
special coating that protects them from getting hazy. And
that after you buff them you will have to do it alot
more often, because you removed this layer. Now
I don't know if this is true. And so far my
headlights have never looked better. I have
not hit it again since last time I did it. Although
I will say that the plastic cleaner I use from Autosol
says it adds a protective film while cleaning. So
maybe this "protective film", is taking place of the
previous permanent barrior of protection from the factory. |
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