24-year-old CAR headlight lenses

[bloke]

- original to the car
- yellow/orange (UV distress), and heavily road-sandblasted
- so old that (rather than cheaper-and-cheaper...ok, plus 2021 - 2024 hyperinflation) they've gotten to the place where they have gotten more-and-more EXPENSIVE. ie. "We're charging a lot for these, because no one owns these cars, anymore."

This car was our "fishin' car" until Mrs. bloke rolled her car...Now, it's (either) Mrs. bloke's (or) my car.

It's an ancient Chevy Prizm (de facto Toyota Corolla, with minor cosmetic differences) INCLUDING (sadly) THESE lenses, which are SPECIFIC to the Prizm, with the Corolla ones being DIFFERENT, as well as (I noticed, online) somewhat CHEAPER.

cheapest online: $180/pair (nope, Nope, and NOPE-NOPE-NOPE)...

...so we went into bloke's workshop, pulled out the 400/600/800/1000/2000 sandpaper, two coffee cans full of warm water - with some Dawn dissolved into them, and went to town (Mrs. bloke on the passenger, and me on the driver).

Once we got them down to the 2000 stage (as well as dried and masked), I pulled out a rattle-can of Nikolas clear lacquer (good-ol' 2105).

This is coat #1.

I plan on three more light/careful coats.
I predict more clarity with each coat.
Previously, none of that interior reflective surface was visible at all.

noticed: The inside surface of the clear lens is a bit checked, but - hey - no way to sand nor spray that.

It's plenty good enough, and a lot cheaper than $180, and (other than going out and hitting the other coats, once the previous have dried) it took less than 45 minutes for the two of us to knock this out.

(I used this car to drive from blokeplace to The Crossroads and back - r/t c. 340 miles...not very good illumination, the condition they were in, previously.)

yeah...I've been avoiding driving at night...

...well I can sure-as-hell see why...

[the elephant]

Sometimes it is the inside, or even the silver that is laid down on the plastic housing (whatever it may actually be) that yellows, but if the exterior is the issue, I have always used my buffing machine after a "sandpaper two-step", such as you danced. (I go up to 3000 when I have it,) And after that, buffing just takes a few moments. I follow up with rattle can lacquer (three coats, half hour between), and the plastic seems to take that very well. I have once used automotive clear coat, but it was too thick and did not look as *clear* as the old school Nikolas. I have only ever had to do this to an old car more than once, a single time.

Good work, sir.

[bloke]

Yeah, I don't think enamel melts/melts-into the plastic surface like lacquer does...
... and the fact that the lacquer actually sort of melts into the plastic sort of (at least that kind of think so) excuses me from having to remove the lens and buff it (or hook up my pneumatic buffer and bring it to the car), whereas really fine wet sanding is good enough.

The reflective surfaces look okay in there, but - again - the inner surface of the clear lens features checking, which limits this job to an A grade job rather than an A+... but I'm glad to have A, and I'm glad that she'll be driving around now with A (vs. D).

...and I'm glad to have avoided spending the $180 for a new pair of these (as well as avoiding hooking them up and lining them up)
as that's money that can go towards paying my next mouthpiece run's bill.

[tofu]

I wonder if the lacquer will block the UV Rays which damage headlamps. Some of these current headlamps are astronomical in price - well over a grand. And some of them require hours to replace whether you or a shop do it because you have to take so much engine stuff off just to get access to them. Even when you DIY its just a giamt PITA to have spend that much time. What happened to the days when you walk into Wal-mart - buy a standard sealed beam off the shelf for $5.95 - walk out to the parking lot & in the dark - pull the plug of the light - pull out the old lamp and put the new one in - basically under 10 minutes.

I’m not convinced the new lights are all that much more effective at illuminating the roadway - they are indeed much more blinding to on coming traffic, but the studies every year show so many are pretty bad at actually throwing the light any distance and most are poorly aimed to boot. When a 16 year old blew through a yield sign this summer and plowed into the front of my car - she hit the corner of the drivers side & took out the headlamp amongst other damage. While the bodyshop was paid by her insurance company - I saw the bodyshop’s (friends of mine) cost of parts at their cost to them from the manufacturer - the headlamp alone was $675 - that’s just nuts.

I surprisingly have not had a headlight get discolored or suffered hazing yet, but the guys who are professional detailers swear by this ceramic stuff: https://www.amazon.com/CERAKOTE-Ceramic ... 51398&th=1

[bloke]

if you aren't the painting sort, you can go a long way toward this by sanding with ultra fine paper and then using compound as a polish

I used urethane clear on some headlights the last time I painted a car, and they turned out rather nice

[bloke]

Everything is style style style, but is it time to go back to glass rectangular and glass round bulbs that are way more scratch resistant and don't turn orange?

[bloke]

I have a car with 4 round headlights. The light projection is so inferior to modern bulbs I dream of upgrading to an LED light that looks vintage.

Too bad they are $200 EACH after tax

[MikeS]

It could be worse. @bloke would no doubt look good driving a Bugatti Chiron, but he would have a few more issues with headlight maintenance. First off, replacement headlights are $90,000 each. Second, Bugatti will not sell them to you or your local repair shop. In order to make sure the replacement is done properly, and to preserve the value of your vehicle, you need to ship your Chiron to France and have repairs done at the factory.

Here is an article about a Chiron that rearended a mini truck at fairly low speed and sustained an estimated $1.7 million in damages. That’s if Bugatti decides it is repairable.

https://www.autoblog.com/news/a-4-milli ... -is-unreal

[bloke]

...but I'm not silly, and even were it that I won one of those billion dollar lotteries - and ended up with $200,000,000 !to 400,000,000 net, I still wouldn't be making silly purchases like that. Even were it that I was interested in owning such things, if I ever actually drove them out of the garage they would draw attention to the fact that I had suddenly come into a whole lot more money, which - in today's post civilization era - would draw visual attention to the fact that my family had become prime kidnapping targets.

[tadawson]

I have a car with 4 round headlights. The light projection is so inferior to modern bulbs I dream of upgrading to an LED light that looks vintage.

Too bad they are $200 EACH after tax

The issue has nothing to do with LED or not. The NHTSA changed the regs when they stopped mandating sealed beams, and that's where the change came in. Build a sealed beam to current specs, and it would work just as well *AND* not $elf de$truct . . .