Polishing my headlights

It seems there are advance autoparts in 47 states and the Virgin Islands.

Over 4000 branches. but not alaska, hawaii, or california.

For "dead" masking tape here is a trick, put it in a microwave for 10-20 seconds depending on roll size. It will make it like new again.

I have used the 3M kit but as you noted most of the kit's come with nothing for UV. To really make them last the best solution is to sand the old crud off in steps, then polish the light up, clean it very well and spray it with an automotive clear top coat to seal it and keep the UV from damaging it any more. You can buy that in spray cans now with an activator in the bottom. You pop the bottom button and shake the crap out of it, then let it set for however long they say, that lets the two parts start to blend well and then you apply it in thin coats.

Remember when we had sealed beam headlights? Plain, cheap Glass.

You could buy replacements at any store, even Kmart or later walmart.

Now, we piss around with cheap plastic covered expensive stuff.

And bumpers were made of chromed steel and were made to BUMP! Now they have a protective plastic sheath that needs to be replaced. It's made of black plastic, so if your car is white the scuff shows REALLY well.

They're not designed for US any more...

Good to know. BTW, I didn't buy more than one of those rolls. Maybe note even 1.

And they never burned out. Though I decided to get fancy and I replaced them once with halogen, and those did burn out.

Your memory of sealed beams is different than mine. Besides replacing a few on my own cars, I saw many "one-eyed" cars on the road. That's a rare sight nowadays.

Well maybe I didn't drive as much as I could have.

But I drive less now than I did then, and I was one-eyed twice in the last two years. Occasionally when I'm facing something reflective, a store window, certain cars, I test my headlights but I don't know how long they had been out. There are enough street lights here that unless I go to the next town at night, I can't tell by how well I can see.

Also one fog light burned out. Will the police stop you for that? I guess, if allowed, it would make a good excuse and they like to stop people.

The trade off with modern lighting is that to get brighter lighting with the smaller reflectors used they run the bulbs at a higher voltage than they used to. So an older sealed beam may have been tagged as a 12 volt. but the filament was set up to run at 14 or higher. So the sealed beams tended to last a while, unless they were the cheap ones and in poor mountings.

Nope, fog lights are not required lighting. They can stop you for headlights, tail brake (although technically the laws state you need two rear facing brake lights so if the CHMSL is working they cannot give you a ticket for one out UNLESS it is also the turn lamp) And these days for not having them on in the rain.

A different situation: I'd bought an old Dodge pickup where someone with big truck envy had installed clearance lights on the cab. According to New Hampshire law while they certainly weren't required if they were there they had to work.

So, remove them. Caulk the holes with RTV silicon.

Yep. Read my other post. You act like there is one law for the whole country, and that you know what that law is. You're wrong on the first and I doubt you're right about any state.

Since they were added after manufacture, that would probably work, but you never know and I'd check first. And actually it's easier to replace a burned out bulb or two than to remove them.

Don't see that in the V&T laws for passenger vehicles. I know for commercial vehicles that is the case though and many states have pick-ups tagged as commercial vehicles so for a pickup truck it would likely apply under the CMV laws.

In Kalifornia you don't have to register your pickup as a commercial vehicle unless you plan to actually carry something in the bed. Really cheesy. Just like our liability insurance -- which goes with the car rather than the driver. If you have 3 cars you have to have 3 liability policies although you can only drive one car at a time.

They don't have the energy. If they had that much energy, they'd have indoor plumbing by now." -- Ann Coulter

Your sig quotes brighten my day! Thank you, Bev.

Makes me want to vomit.

Most states started as having them commercial, then changed it when they started to become used more like cars than trucks. About that same time was when the double cabs with s 4 foot "bed" started showing up...

Not a surprise on the insurance, anything to fleece the sheep. NY hasn't gone that way yet.

I've got a truck, a car, and three motorcycles. I'm trying for a fleet discount. The truck and motorcycles don't cost much luckily.

Newsgroups: rec.autos.tech,alt.home.repair

I keep seeing this topic and wondering why there isn't an alt.sex.* group in the crosspost.

Elijah

------ polish them slower

Here I have the house, shop and the vehicles all under one policy. That plus the other various discounts drops my total down about 45%. The bikes though are under a "sunny day" policy, so unless it's a nice warm day with no snow they stay tucked in the garage.