The Subaru SVX World Network   SVX Network Forums
Live Chat!
SVX or Subaru Links
Old Lockers
Photo Post
How-To Documents
Message Archive
SVX Shop Search
IRC users:

Go Back   The Subaru SVX World Network > SVX Main Forums > General SVX Babble

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 10-07-2002, 10:02 PM
longassname's Avatar
longassname longassname is offline
Just some dude.
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Miami, FL
Posts: 3,986
Significant Technical Input
Cool de-yellow and de-haze those headlights

Are the headlights on your svx an unsightly hazey yellow? Chances are yes, lol. Well I've been reading everyones ideas on how to fix that and determined that none of my fellow svx'ers know how to polish. The good news is I do and in this post I will tell you how to too...along with a detailed how to on the simple process of removing the lights so you can work on them comfortably.

The entire time this method will take you to restore your entire set of lenses to factory condition is about an hour and a half, it's easy on the wallet, and takes almost no tools.

Now for some pretty pictures. I thought it would be nice to see a before and after all in one so here's a close up of the completed center lense next to the nasty headlight lense on the car.


Yes that's an ugly looking yellow headlight and trust me it's even worse in real life, probably just like yours. If you're getting excited already scroll down further and you can see a picture of that same headlight lense clear, shiny, and pretty. You can also see a picture of my beautiful lsi svx with the lenses back on it . OOOoh I love these cars.

What you will need to do this job:
1) 10mm socket with extension and ratchet
2) Philips screw driver
3) Small flat head screw driver
4) #2 steel wool
5) #00 steel wool
6) #0000 Steel wool
7) Meguiar's mirror glaze show car polish (7)

Any decent hardware store will have those grades of steel wool and any decent auto parts store will have the meguiars polish. More good news is you will barely use any of the polish and it's great stuff to get your svx nice and shiny before waxing.

Here's a picture of the steel wool just because:


Ready to get to work? Alright, pop your hood. Now if you look at the top edge of your car's grill you will see that there is a plastic clip on the back of each corner holding it to the radiator support. Insert your small flat head screw driver.....I said the screw driver damn it! into the center of each clip pushing the tab in the middle down as you pull that corner forward and off of the radiator support complete with the clip. After you've pulled each clip free you can pull the grill straight up and off. The only other thing holding it on are tabs on the bottom that slide straight down into a couple of same shaped slots. Here's a picture:


With the grill off the bolts holding the inner side of the headlights are exposed. Using your 10 mm socket and ratchet set, remove them. There are two on each headlight. Another picture....


On the top outer corner of each head light is a philips screw which holds the corner light in place. remove this screw.


You can now remove the corner lights by pulling them straight forward. I found that if you wiggle the headlight a little first it is easier. Not too much. The outside of the headlight is still bolted. After removing the corner lights you can see that each headlamp is retained on the outer edge by two more 10 mm bolts. remove them.


Now you can pull your headlamps forward, unplug the wiring harness from the bulbs, and remove the entier headlight housing without ever fooling with any of the alignment adjustments.

Ready to polish? Don't worry it's VERY easy. You just need to be brave. The first step is to use a surface prep grade steel wool that will quickly cut into the plastic and remove all the hazed, yellowed, sun dammaged material. That grade is, you guessed it, #2. Use straight stroked back and forth accross the length of the lense. Apply just a just a little pressure at this stage. You will find it only takes a minute or two to remove all of that nasty damaged material. What you are left with is a clean white/clear scratched up looking lense just like this:


Now we repeat the process with the #00 grade steel wool. This is the steel wool wood finishers commonly use between coats of paint etc to buff out any imperfections in fancy finishes. In our case it will remove all the scratches from the #2 grade steel wool and replace them with a whole lot more much smaller scratches. Use the same back and forth motion with a modicrum of pressure. Again you will find it only takes a minute or two and comes out nicely like so:


I'm guessin you already got the idea here but we'll cover it all in detail just because us svx people are like that. We now repeat the process with #0000 grade steel wool. This is a fine final finish grade steel wool. It's probably the finest grade your hardware store carries though there is finer made. You'll find that at your local harley davidson store but we don't need it. With the #0000 grade steel wool we use a slightly different technique. You use the same stokes accross the leng of the lense polishing back and forth but now you start with a good amount of pressure. As you progress you steadily start using less and less pressure. Once again the whole process should only take about 1 or 2 minutes for each lense. Now you are probably starting to get excited because your lenses are starting to look clear again and you see those long forgotten projector beams peaking out at you.


Ok. It's time to break out that stuff we all love so much. Car polish. The real stuff. Not the other 49 bottles on the shelf of the auto parts store that say polish but Meguiars. I like the professional #7. They call it their "show car polish" and I can understand why. It's a fine product obviously made just for the fine svx automobile. Shake the bottle and put a nickle sized dollup on a peice of terry cloth (sock turned inside out or hand towel). Now go crazy and enjoy polishing. You'll see results immediately but i suggest you keep at it for say 5 minutes. There's no such thing as too shiny and you don't want to be fooled by that instant shine and clearness you get from geting the lense wet. Ready? Here's what you get.


Aren't projector beams cool?
Want to see my pretty car with it's nice clean lights?
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 10-07-2002, 10:47 PM
wasions's Avatar
wasions wasions is offline
SVX Black Belt Master
 
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Mount Carmel, Illinois
Posts: 1,353
I've tried a lot of different techniques on my headlights, but I must say that this is different than any other. They look real nice - but - how long does that shine last? Six months? One month? First rain?

Nice job. As soon as I get some time, I'm gonna give it a go.

On a side note, I saw some projector headlights on a Buell motorcycle a short time ago that looked very much like ours, but weren't covered up (at all). Does anybody know whether all the projectors out there are made by the same manufacturer, and therefore interchangeable? (A long shot - but it'd make salvage yard hunting a little easier.)

Thanks again, long!
__________________
Steve
'95 Polo Green SVX L AWD, 188K - "Kermit" (Gone, but not forgotten)
'02 Outback LLBean, 56K
'02 Black Sapphire Volvo V40, 133K - "Shadowfax"
'06 Triumph Tiger, 19K
'99 Suzuki DR350SE, 8.5K - "Geezer Killer"
<*}}}}>< ~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ><{{{{*>
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 10-07-2002, 11:26 PM
Red SVX 92 Red SVX 92 is offline
Hitchhikin'
 
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Long Beach, CA
Posts: 593
LOL, quite an entertaining piece of advice. Thanks for the write-up, Mr. Name.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 10-08-2002, 08:32 AM
Alcyone SVX LSL
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Ok i have a better solution to those yellowed lenses. cost of 5 bucks and no removal and has lasted me 3 weeks in rain so far. Go to Wal-Mart and in the auto detail/cleaning section look for some stuff called Meguiars Scratch-X its next to things like compounds. Just rub it on with a little force then polish it off. took me like 8 minutes for both lenses and the bit under the grill. looks like new, ill inform you guys if it does yellow again and when. I put on spray wax after so that may also hold out longer.
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 10-08-2002, 08:55 AM
mohrds's Avatar
mohrds mohrds is offline
Fight Eminent Domain Abuse!
 
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Milwaukee, WI
Posts: 3,175
Send a message via AIM to mohrds Send a message via Yahoo to mohrds
Excellent writeup.

A couple of comments/questions.

Your first photo must be the wrong one. Those headlights aren't yellow at all. The condition the headlamp in the photo is mild at worst. Yellow is when you can't even count the number of bulbs inside the headlamp.

Second, please explain how steel wool will remove stone chips from the lens? Unless you don't drive much, you will have many small stone chips in the lights that need to be sanded out.

Third, your after photo still looks really cloudy like it is still lightly scratched. Is that a bad photo or do they really have a cloud on them?

Not trying to argue, just trying to clarify your post.

Doug
__________________
1992 LS Touring (6/91) - Currently undergoing a five speed swap
Black over Claret with spoiler; 235,000 miles; Mods: 2002 Legacy 5 speed, ACT Pressure Plate, Excedy Clutch, Short Throw Shifter, Aussie Powerchip
1992 LS Touring (6/91)
Black over Claret with 2.5" setback spoiler; 202,000 miles; Mods: B&M Cooler
1994 LSi (4/93)
Bordeaux Pearl; 198,000 miles; Mods: Weight reduction.

1969 Mustang GT Convertible
1970 Mustang Convertible
2000 Ford Excursion
Sola lingua bona est lingua mortua.

My Locker
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 10-08-2002, 09:54 AM
$VX
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
I'd use some 2000 grit sandpaper after the steel wool just to make sure. And yeah, it should get rid of chips. The first steel wool is pretty harsh.

- Ca$h
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 10-08-2002, 02:34 PM
alacrity024
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
I just gave my car a 3-step Meguiar's wax and while I Was at the store, I bought a bottle of Mother's plastic polish. Well let me tell you.. THIS IS ALL IT TAKES TO HAVE GREAT LOOKING LENSES. Seriously folks, my headlights were practically OPAQUE, and now they look GREAT. I'm not sure how long it'll last, but it hardly took any effort to get them looking spectacular, so I'd be willing to do it once a week or however often was necessary..

-adam
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 10-08-2002, 02:40 PM
Alcyone SVX LSL
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Sounds like what i did mine were really yellowed too. Mine have held up good so far. Only minutes even if it is needed once a month.
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 10-08-2002, 10:08 PM
longassname's Avatar
longassname longassname is offline
Just some dude.
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Miami, FL
Posts: 3,986
Significant Technical Input
Quote:
Originally posted by mohrds
Excellent writeup.

A couple of comments/questions.

Your first photo must be the wrong one. Those headlights aren't yellow at all. The condition the headlamp in the photo is mild at worst. Yellow is when you can't even count the number of bulbs inside the headlamp.

Second, please explain how steel wool will remove stone chips from the lens? Unless you don't drive much, you will have many small stone chips in the lights that need to be sanded out.

Third, your after photo still looks really cloudy like it is still lightly scratched. Is that a bad photo or do they really have a cloud on them?

Not trying to argue, just trying to clarify your post.

Doug
Ya like i said, the original condition of the lenses is much worse than you can tell by the photo. It's hard to take good telling pictures of anything transparent or translucent....especially with a digital camera using auto exposure and auto white ballance. Same for the final results picture. If it looks to you like there is still haze on the lense, sorry, but i can assure you there isn't. Maybe you looked at the picture for after using #0000 grade steel wool and not the after polished picture; most people seem to get the impression from the photos. My intention with the post was to give other users an easy to follow solution that i know works for highly degraded lenses and i thought the snapshots helped. I'm sorry but I didn't really want to go through a lot of extra pains to take spectacular photographs.

As for stone chips and my driving habits or lack there of. If i had stone chips the plastic around them had long since degraded away to a point where i can't see them.........so I can't tell you for sure if #2 steel wool will remove them or not. It is however, a fast cutting abrassive and will remove material.....especialy anything creating an edge or degraded. There is a good chance it will take out your stone chips along with the yellowed plastic.
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 10-09-2002, 10:33 AM
laserx's Avatar
laserx laserx is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Toronto Canada
Posts: 259
These are some great tips. Believe me I need them. Just got my SVX back after 71/2 weeks in the body shop. My 17 year old had an accident that destroyed the left front, hood and a list too long to go into, of other parts of my car. Long story shortend, I ended up with brand new side and head lights. To say that the head lights look different is an understatement. The new one is crystal clear and the 10 year old right front one looks REAL yellow. I was bugged enough by it that I was going to order a new one. Before I go that far I will now try the above methods first. I take some before and after pics and share the results, regards dave
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 08:41 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
© 2001-2015 SVX World Network
(208)-906-1122