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Cleaning up rear lights


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Hi all

Maybe I get a roll of the eyes and a 'oh I knew that' but I found the following of much use when I took my back lights off for a cleanup and tidy.

Some of the lenses were very dull and almost misted  - -  and very dirty, so I soaked the lenses in soapy water for 24 hours and scrubbed with a soft brush and this gets the core dirt and grease off.

This only cleaned and de-greased them but they were still dull, the super tool was the use of metal polish and a rag, with about 5-10 polishes.  This brought a gloss like new.  The polish left white where the Lucas lettering was but this washed off with cold water.

Final was a bit of window cleaner and they look like new.

Hope this is of help

Rich

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Oooorrrrrrr.... You could put them into the dishwasher.

Works an absolute treat. (But quiet advice: Don't let the lady of the house catch you)

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1 hour ago, matttnz said:

Oooorrrrrrr.... You could put them into the dishwasher.

Works an absolute treat. (But quiet advice: Don't let the lady of the house catch you)

I ( bravely) did this and the results were mixed.

the lights cane out great but the cost was high.....

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Dish washer and a buff with tooth paste.

On the dish washer front I once put a cylinder head and other oily bits into ours when the Mrs was out for the day. Only thing was she came home early and discovered my dirty little secret and boy were my ears sore! 

Andy

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9 hours ago, Steves_TR6 said:

I ( bravely) did this and the results were mixed.

the lights cane out great but the cost was high.....

I did that with the sump before painting.

Left a scum mark like a dose of dysentery in the bath.  Let’s say I didn’t get away with it!

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There is a lessons learnt here obviously:

You should restore the car for her, not for yourselves.

Waldi

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You can just get a 4 cylinder exhaust manifold in a typical double oven - why ? To cure the VHT paint you just painted it with - unfortunately no room for the sunday joint at the same time.

Does make a bit of a smell, so she needs to be out of the way for a while, and find a plausibe other reason for justifying a smell - I just about got away with it!!

Cheers

Rich

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Another on the lights - I found the reflector part also pops off BUT be very careful as many PO's have glued them so use plastic feelers else they can crack.  As for the foil, I rolling pinned them flat and used metal polish again.

For the cluster, I am seeing the stop light has no shine left on the bowl so will look into aluminium leaf or chrome spray.

Rich

 

Edited by AarhusTr6
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Hi all

I tried spraying the inner cusp of the brake light stop.  It was grey plastic and all traces of shine were gone.    The 'chrome spray' was nothing like on the lid, but it make it 200% better.  I read one guy used aluminium leaf but that was a bit far off for me.  The remaining chrome plastic is a bit pitted and I polished this, but not much I can really do on this less then send the plastic away and have if scrubbed and re-plated, so I will say the bumps are part of the character of the 50 yr old car :-)

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On 5/31/2019 at 9:37 PM, rcreweread said:

You can just get a 4 cylinder exhaust manifold in a typical double oven - why ? To cure the VHT paint you just painted it with - unfortunately no room for the sunday joint at the same time.

Does make a bit of a smell, so she needs to be out of the way for a while, and find a plausibe other reason for justifying a smell - I just about got away with it!!

Cheers

Rich

Next time use a gas barbeque that has a lid!!

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Guy - fair point but a bit more difficult to accurately control the steppes temperature increases required on the tin, but I suppose I would end up with a smokey exhaust!! Not sure it that’s good or bad!!!

cheers

Rich

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