this is one of the very few times in life that i think i shoulda got a 4eye.
just spent the afternoon busting apart my headlights, polishing lenses, painting the reflectors, re-sealing, and aiming the lights again. for what its worth, meguiars plastX does a fine job. if i had a buffer, i think the stuff would be magic!
these were my lights when i bought the car :barf:
(http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c73/gmby23/87%20turbocoupe/DSCF1742.jpg)
some corners and headlight lenses i bought from vinnie. they were pretty clear, i waxed them and installed the headlight lenses to my original buckets w/o touching the reflectors.
(http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c73/gmby23/87%20turbocoupe/P6210007.jpg)
(http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c73/gmby23/87%20turbocoupe/P6220410.jpg)
after a year, they looked like this. i will admit, i did not do a good job keeping them cleaned and waxed last summer, but it all anyhow!
(http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c73/gmby23/87%20turbocoupe/78befbc6.jpg)
(http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c73/gmby23/87%20turbocoupe/0f57ee7e.jpg)
so today i got some time to mess with them again. busted them apart, cleaned and polished the lenses(inside and out). while the lenses were off i painted the reflectors with duplicolor chrome rattle can. not a great visual chrome substitute, but far more reflective than the faded, vaccum plated, trophy chrome that was on there.
(http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c73/gmby23/87%20turbocoupe/82ffbe80.jpg)
(http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c73/gmby23/87%20turbocoupe/3c7722fc.jpg)
one of these days, ima hafta come off some money and buy a NEW set ;)
You are right that is the advantage to the four eyed cars! I was lucky enough to find a clear set of headlamps in a salvage yard that I had to do nothing to them. However I worked on the inner and outer sets of parking lamps and they look much better but there is some yellowing on the outer units that just looks like it's the plastic itself that has yellowed, plus there is a cetain cloudiness on the inside of the clear lens where the amber side marker reflectors are. I guess if I ever get buttstuff about it further on down the road I'll try to score some near perfect ones. Right now I think they look pretty good. But it those lucky Mustang owners can find almost everything new.
Looks nice again now though! I'm glad I don't have to worry about mine, and that these lights are only like $6 to replace. They are admittingly not very bright though but the fogs make up the difference (couldn't imagine not having fogs on this car). Of course I think I am spoiled by my truck's super bright lights these days. I just hope they don't stop selling old squares though. If (when) that happens, its not going to be fun.
yeah, $220 for a new pair of 87-88's on ebay now....but at least i dont have a cougar. :bangcat:
im just glad to be able to see at night again w/o running the high beams all the time.
Much improved, very nice work. My outers have a yellowing that I just cant get out. I will just live with it.......I guess.
Gumby....I just caught your Cougar comment..........., isnt that the truth. Why did Ford make them different??
If you want a longer lasting result..... Clean the outside of the lenses really good. Sand them (gently) with 2500 or 3000 grit sandpaper. Then you can polish it with either light cut compound or PastiX. Here's the "oh yeah" part. Get a machine. Whether its a rotary buffer or the Mother's Ball and a drill you'll need it for this repair. Down here in Georgia, lenses start to yellow after two years esp w/o maintenance. I made a small business restoring lenses and mine have lasted a few years. It's mostly the outside that yellows anyways. Hope this helps for next time (they do look great)
I wonder if putting a clearcoat on them will keep them from yellowing. I dont know if it will screw with the light dispersion or not. Kinda glad I dont have an 87-88 anymore lol.
I've seen some clear coated lenses, they tend to peel and flake after a short time.
also the hear from the lights possibly could make the clear yellow just as bad as if they were not cleared.
AH-MAZING
Long as youve got a drill, this stuff is AWESOME
Does it have a UV coating to apply when you're done polishing ? That's the problem with sanding and polishing it removes the UV protective coating then tends to yellow even quicker. A friend of mine was telling me about a product (can't remember the name)
that involved sanding (1000 to 3000), applying an adhesion promoter, then clearing with a UV coating. Anyone familiar ?
If the reflector on the stock lights has any damage, there is a HUGE loss of light. I had modified my stock lights with polished aluminum tape on the back and while it was the most improvement I could get with very little reflector left, it was nowhere near what new headlights did for me. Between new headlights and installing relays, I gained over double the output as I had with just sanded and polished lenses.
The cleaning of the lenses did get rid of the opaque glow and gave the lights much more of a deep twinkle while also probably tripling my output some years back. Even with new headlights though, fog lights helped a ton but the beam is never anything exciting.
As for protecting the lenses, that's just one of the reasons I went with building my own retrofitted headlights. It's much easier to just vacuum form some polycarbonate once you have a good mold than deal with the yellowing of stock fluted lenses. As always stated about these cars, unless you can build your own body and interior parts that are specific to these cars, or purchase some from somebody, you won't be able to keep it in nice condition.