if you want a great way to clean up your headlights (since they still look rather yellowish, I'd recommend the Meguars Clear plastic cleaner, you can use it on your headlights, tail lights, inst. cluster plastic etc.

I purchased a bottle and used it on my buddies 95 Nissan 240Sx with plastic lenses similar to the ones on the 240's, and there was a remarkable difference from the heavily oxidized, yellowed, and clouded lenses he had. It also made all of his plastic much smoother, AND clearer! (very similar to new lenses, w/o the $$!) The only way you can tell that the lenses are not new, is if you get within 6-12 inches of the lenses and caarefully inspect them.

If you don't wanna spend the $$$ on that stuff, I'd recommend using toothpaste to clean them, and follow it up with some car wax. The lightly abbrasive materials in the solid colored toothpastes (not the gel types), work great for this application, without damaging the factory finish.

Personally, I just took the easy way out, as I always use what's best for my e30 BMW ;)

happy motoring!!!

P.S. if you guys want any other useful auto detailing secrets, just leave me a message on the board, or email me at bmwguy22@roadfly.org

On the recommendation of somebody on this board, I bought a bottle of the Meguar's product and did a test on the 240 that I had most recently acquired. On one light I used Mequiar's, and on the other I used oven cleaner and some fine steel wool. The oven cleaner did a better job, and was easier to use. Though if you had nothing else to compare it to, I can see how you'd like the Meguar's product. But after my experience I recommend that people not spend the money on it, since most people will have a can of oven cleaner already. From what I can tell, most of the yellowing on these lenses is actually a film of some sort on the lens, not actually yellowing of the plastic itself. The filmy haze comes off really quickly with the oven cleaner, and for the slight bit of yellow left over, I doubt there's much of anything that will make it look perfectly new.

Oven cleaner will destroy electrical stuff, especially the light duty
tracks in late-model taillights. It will also severely damage or strip
paint and likewise your skin. I'd be very reluctant to use it on any
automotive application. Note that the active ingredient is sodium hydroxide,
aka lye. In any case read and heed the warning label on the can!

Seems like the finest steel wool I can lay hands on (0000 or 4/0 grade)
does not polish things all the way shiny - still leaves fine scratches.
Even if you can't see them they do accumulate dirt and also the crevices
are places for crazing to start.
--
George Downs, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Central US

i think I recall KeplerNiko talking about Novous2 for plastic cleaning. The Novous line is designed to be used progressively, 2, then 1, then cleaner. Mild abraisives in each, getting progressively finer. Similar product to Maguiers that Stanley recomended. Not sure how the two brands compare though.
--
Steve in Minneapolis - 1987 245DL 253k

Ha ha, no, that wasn't me. I've never talked about any cleaner, and I actually didn't even think to use any when I cleaned my headlights a few days ago. I took the covers out, washed them in the sink using a brush and normal dish soap, and I put them back in.

The headlights cleaned up only a little bit, so I do kind of wish I had tried out some sort of plastic cleaner. However, my headlight covers were in really good condition for being 15 years old each, I think, so there wasn't a ton of yellowness initially.

I've come to accept that the only way to get truly a lot of light on the road will be either a headlight relay or switching over to the glass Euro lights.
--
'89 244 GL -- 105,XXX miles (see profile for info on car)

I'm strong for glass light lenses. They just don't have the problems that
plastic lenses have, and the plastic lenses still break. (Plastic ain't
cheap anymore either!) I can get regular sealed beams for $2.95 and super-
duper ones for $14.95. I could get fancier lights, I guess but I have worse
problems with my eyes than I do with my lights!
--
George Downs, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Central US

If it wasn't you, then who was it?!

Anyway, your front end looks great. I dig the new grill. And your headlights look pretty clean too, so it only made sense... (to me, and that's all that matters, right?).

Brick on-