That's ''progress''

snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@storefull-3171.bay.webtv.net:

Yup. My niece said she tried one of those kits (I've mentioned her headlights several times, so I don't know if she just made it up or not) and got nowhere.

Has anyone here tried them? It seems to me there's no reason why they wouldn't, so long as you went down in abrasion.

I have some 3M Microfinish. I take that and rub it in until it starts to get dry and gritty, and then I buff it with a buffing wheel. Works pretty good, and since I already have 2/3 of a quart, it costs me nothing.

I would imagine a $5 tin of "polishing compound" would work about the same.

snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net wrote in news:15166-4C802F98-6394@storefull-

Not "progress", but NHTSA safety regulations.

It seems that the safety nuts are afraid that pedestrians clobbered by your ride may get sliced by headlight-glass fragments, so they mandated plastic lenses.

I tried one of the kits on the '96 I30. Took a lot of elbow grease and it was marginally better, but 6 months later it was right back to the same thing. There's got to be a better way.

A good excuse to use that Powerball and battery powered drill.

As far as I know plastic was never mandated in the US. Plastic shards can slice as well as glass can, especially at the forces involved in such an example.

The US has a rather cruddy headlamp regulations that shape what we get on the cars.

I didn't use a kit, just paint stuff I had on hand and it worked great. But as time went the interval got shorter and shorter. Eventually I just bought some replacement lamps.

I'm glad my '98 Breeze has glass headlights.. but my '01 Ram Van 2500 has plastic ones. :(

Yes that 3M products works.

I've even heard using toothpaste works, but I haven't tried it myself yet.

Headlights are now a maintenace item along with other parts of the car.. brake lines fail quite often now too.. I bet you still have your original lines on your '80's van Cuhulin.. Now brake lines are failing at 5-10 years old.

Car manufactures are doing this on purpose. It forces you to keep buying their products.

As far as I think I know, all of my vehicles still have their original factory installed brake lines.My 1914 Ford Model T is a whole nother story though.

Back in the 1970's, I traded my second hand/used 1967 Ford pickup truck in on a big old 1954 one ton Ford truck.One morning when I started that

"E. Meyer" wrote in news:C8A65354.1FE9D% snipped-for-privacy@msn.com:

Did you go through *all* the abrasives?

The only thing really comparable is telescope/eyeglass making, and that takes ages manually.

Some boats and aircraft have plastic/plexiglass.I wonder what those people use on those? cuhulin

Brent wrote in news:i5ra0o$ntb$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:

It appears you are right. I was taking someone else at face-value; a mistake, apparently.

The actual text of the latest FMVSS 108 I can find (2004, link above) does not mention anything about a prohibition on glass lenses, but it does specify that glass lenses do not need to meet the abrasion standards that plastic lenses are required to satisfy.

After some actual thought, I now suspect that plastic was chosen for three reasons:

Probably numbers one and two are the most dominant.

So I'm told. There is certainly a hell of a lot of terribly annoying glare with modern headlamps. Not all of that is due to my aging eyes, I'm sure.

Somebody swiped Jesse 'Hijack em' Jackson's Escalade.

snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net wrote in news:15166-4C81AD94-7363@storefull-

...and discovered that all the CDs were of Jackson's own speeches...

;^)

Tegger wrote in news:Xns9DE95760AC746tegger@208.90.168.18:

What? not *one* of him performing "Don't let me down hymie town"?

Tegger wrote in news:Xns9DE8C771DC481tegger@208.90.168.18:

No, it isn't. I *always* go outside wearing a hat after sunset for just that reason. I tilt my head and I don't get the lights in my eyes. Bloody annoying. It's almost impossible to tell now if someone has their high beams on.

Yes !