sandblasted headlights

[Brett Dikeman]

So, as part of the occasional "clean up the car" ritual, I found  
myself looking at the eurolights, splatted with bugs.

I removed them with the usual glass cleaner, but the headlights  
didn't look all that nice.  So I grabbed the "pre-wax  
cleaner" (Mothers) which i use when I've got really dirty  
paintwork...like little spots that won't budge with bug&tar remover.   
One thing led to another, and I was pulling a fair amount of dirt off  
the lights with the stuff, using something that's clearcoat safe.  A  
"looked-like-it-was-from-the-70's" jar of rubbing compound pulled  
even more off.  I didn't spend much time with it or put a lot of  
elbow grease in.

Now- from 10 feet away, they look pretty spiffy.  Sure, if you get a  
foot or two closer you can see they've got 60,000 miles on them easy,  
but it was impressive how much crap came off glass that looked clean  
and had been just cleaned with Clearvue...which has acetone and other  
wonderful solvents.  It may be my imagination, but the glass feels  
much smoother running a cloth over it hard, and there's a visible  
difference in clarity through the glass.

I wouldn't try it with a high speed buffer or dremel- I've heard of  
people cracking glass very easily from the localized heat when using  
glass polishing implements.  I also have no idea if this would work  
well on a windshield (I doubt either goop would leave scratches, and  
it's your windshield, not mine!), but the best stuff I've found  
thusfar for windshields is Autoglym's glass "polish".  Won't get out - 
any- scratches, don't even try.  It will do a great job cleaning  
anything off, and help with blurred windshields in the rain; it does  
a great job on "wiper residue" I get in some spots after using the  
wipers for a long time.  It comes -highly- recommended by the chaps  
at Ahhhston Mhaaaatin, according to the label- so how could you go  
wrong? :-)

Brett
-- 
"They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
http://www.users.cloud9.net/~brett/