www.jec.org.uk

Just like Tony Hancock, I`ve been on an economy drive. However unlike him, I saved enough money to buy six pints of IPA Reserve at our local rest house or three curries and three pints of Carlsberg at Weatherspoons.

Last year I noticed how yellow and tarnished the headlight perspexs had become on J44. I put this down to ten years in the open, a high power headlamp bulb conversion, chemicals used at the local car wash, neglect and airborne contamination.

Recently I noted how dowdy J44 looked alongside cleaner better kept Jaguars. A project indeed for our Great Uncle Joe Turner to get his false teeth and ferret stuck into. I`m not a spit and polish merchant and my car is used as a hard worked extension of the contents of my tool box. That said, the car does receive the occasional birthday.

I looked at the propitiatory headlamp referb kits on the net. Most are priced around £20 and include a drill driven pad and several sheets of abrasive P400, P800. P1200 and an amazing P3000 grit papers and super-dooper polish and UV protector.

When I was a boy, I worked in a model maker contractors churning out presentation models of the Harrier for Hawker Sidley. My job was cockpit canopy polishing. I learned to file and fettle to perfection. The final buff up was with McCleans toothpaste!

So one half sheet of P2300 wet and dry paper, a bucket of soapy water, some Lidl paint rubbing compound and some toothpaste, we have a result. Judge for yourself the end result.

Must dash. Need some curry and beer.
Facinating stuff is headlight renovation.

Mike

Nice to see another cheap option for a job, well done Mike.

Brian

can you come round and do the ones on my X-Type please ?



top job


BB

Good job Mike, one I hope to do to my own Car in the next few weeks, also without buying the kit.

Doug.

In the cold light of day, the off side lens are not quite as good as the near side units.

The rubbing down is somewhat arduous. Certainly just using P1200 does make the job a little long winded. Probably starting with P800 before progressing to P1200 would speed up the process. I stuck with 1200 as I was somewhat concerned that I might flat off too much material (correction to original post, polycarbonate rather than perspex) and alter light transmission properties and suffer an MOT failure for wonky pattern lights at a later date.

Given what I have learned, polycarb is a tough old material to work with when it comes to buffing up. The results obtained are in direct proportion to effort expended. I have a duff right shoulder and I have felt the pain today. So I suppose the secret id to do the job in a couple of spaced sessions or use a drill driven kit which would get results rather faster.

So I need to revisit the off side headlights again for a further five minute rub up session on each lens.

The car looks much better now and illumination appears just a tad better. More likely to be my imagination!

I`m convinced that acid stuff the car wash bods use does little to help polycarbonate. I`ll be putting a stop to that caper next time I get the car washed.

Glad the subject raised a bit of interest.

Mike

now headlights are clean Mike why dont you try getting a few bin bags of rubbish out of your 'mobile skip', you never know it may well look as well as it goes !. P.S. if your struggling with a shovel i'l drop you one off on Monday when i go for the ferry, as long as you dont start throwing me round any roundabouts !, Gary

I get it often enough in the back of the neck from The Jennerator for a dirty car. Now I have Gary on the case.

I can justify the muck inside and outside J44. I have the fastest toolbox in Hampshire! An internal site clearance every three months is more than enough. Indeed only yesterday I had the car scoured out. A bit of grunge never hurt anyone.

I thought it prudent to have the car shoveled out for safety sake. Last time i used the blower full chat, I got a face full of fag ash, had an uncontrollable sneezing fit and had to stop on the hard shoulder of the M27 to stabilize matters..

Bless the guys at the local Polish car wash. I love the bit when I drive in and watch their faces fall. A £10 note, an old JEC mag and a pack of chocolate chip cookies does the business. Excellent value. Everybody happy.

Good to hook up Gary. Liked your lorry.

Mike

Hi Mike,

An old Astra that I look after for a friend (I do his cars he does my house painting) has just failed its test on these plastic headlights, and as our S type will also need doing I aim to practise on his lamps.

Would you do anything differently to your method above, 800,1200 and 2300 grit and then polishing compound, I was going to use G4 cutting compound, then tooth paste?

Brian

P800 with loads of cutting compound and water first, Brian.

Then P1200. That will probably get you the result. If not good enough, then finish with P1500.

G4 is ok for the purpose. is it not G3? Me heads gone and can`t remember! Farracla is available in several grades. Small plastic bottles of eac grade available from most body refinishing suppliers or from ebay.

Rub, rub, rub. It good for your arms and shoulders! best of luck. It is hard work by hand. Otherwise buy the drill powered kit from Halfords for around £20.

Mike

Hi Mike,

It worked a treat, I used new 800 wet and dry paper (wet) and then knackered 1200 (wet) then as you said Mike, liquid G3 cutting compound, there are still marks on the Perspex covers, but the milkiness has gone. For good measure I coated the plastic with 'Angelwax' - Guardian as this has stayed on 20 year old red cellulose paint so may well work on the plastic, the MOT awaits after all the brake pipes are replaced!!

I'm happy to have a go at the S type's plastic lights now.

Brian

Shame it won`t work on a rotted out XJR A frame!

Well done , Brian.

Mike

I did one side of my S-Type today. I started with 1200 grit wet N dry before moving to 1500 grit. The final buffing with Renovo Plastic Window Restorer. It is a great transformation, which hopefully I can complete tomorrow.

Thanks to Mike for supplying the inspiration for this.

Regards,
Steve

Aged polycarbonate certainly takes some keeping up with.

The ravages of UV and heat take their toll. I run Halfords road legal Extreme Brilliance halogen lamps in my headlights and the extra heat also contributes to yellowing and gradual milkiness.

The other factor that can spoil the lens is the acid type cleaner these fast car clean boys use. I now tell those people NOT to spray their stuff on any of the car plastic work and to confine it to the alloy wheels only. I meet a degree of resistance and suffer queer looks when I insist on that. Some of these guys have enough knowledge to be dangerous with their cleaners and they find difficulty in understanding long term effects due to their not seeing what eventually occurs. So if you use a car wash, be aware that some of their chemicals can be highly destructive. Ammonia based products such as T-Cut and cream cleaners can also do untold damage.

In place of the typical G3/G6 traditional cutting compounds, I have now moved solely onto the new Farracla fast Cut product. It is fast and much easier to use than G3 and takes much less effort to get a good result. 3m also do a similar product. not much to choose between the two in my experience. There are dedicated compounds also on the market for dealing with degraded plastics. Indeed Halfords do one for about £20 a squirt.

Eventually these lens will need replacement. Constant renovation will probably spoil light refractive properties and an MOT failure could result. At that point the bullet will have to be bitten and the lens and probably lamp units replaced. Until that time occurs on my car, I`ll just keep buffing! Plenty of good cheap secondhand parts on the market now.

Mike

OK, I completed the other side too and have before,during and after photos.
I'm pleased with the transformation, although I can see they are still not 100%, but an aweful lot better than before.

Regards,
Steve

A significant improvement. Keep rubbing!

Mike