TheSamba.com :: View topic - Cleaning headlights that are cloudy inside.

Mon Jan 16, 2012 11:39 pm

So, planning to mount some Hella 3000s that have been laying around the garage for about 17 years. They've gotten cloudy inside with a layer of dust and something like an oily film. Just like the Syncro's headlamps. Years ago I tried to clean another set which are on my daily driver with mediocre results. Now I've got a system.

Did this with the lense/reflector out of the lamp and on the kitchen table.

Today I tried with hot water and a strong Dawn solution (favorite dishsoap for cleaning). Poured in about a half inch deep of hot soapy water. Stuck a 3" strip of terry cloth on a gun barrel cleaning rod and wiped away for about 5 minutes. Drained, rinsed with hot water, dried and it looked terrible. Marks where I did and didn't wipe and the clean areas were just little stripes where the cleaning rod hit the inside of the lense. Next.

Next, I tried my favorite glass cleaner - NAPA foaming glass cleaner in the aerosol can (blue). Fired it through the bulb hole until I had a mountain of foam about half the volume of the light. Whipped the foam around by shaking the light until it was distributed all over the reflector and the lense. Stuck the cleaning rod in and swished it around the lense for about 5 minutes. Rinsed with hot water (aggressively splashing it around in there), repeated, dried and WOW! Absolutely crystal clear and I can plainly see the reflector is sparkling clean as well as the lense. I suspect the strip of cloth did not contribute to the cleaning much (or was not needed) based on my not touching the reflector at all, yet it was completely cleaned just by the foam cleaner.

So there you have it. I'll be pulling all my Syncro lights off (very cloudy inside lense) and doing the foam with them. Cleaning both the reflectors and the lights has gotta be worth a 5-7% light output, and reducing the scattered light (sent off out of the pattern) has gotta put another few % back into the pattern down the road.

DougM

Mon Jan 16, 2012 11:49 pm

Try Straight Alcohol--shake & bake, they should come squeaky clean once the alcohol evaporates.
Always works for me anyway.

Tue Jan 17, 2012 12:15 am

Yeah, I wondered about that. Did you agitate in any way? Last time I did this, I cut a cheap sponge into quarter inch squares and then picked them out the bulb hole after putting a half inch of 50/50 rubbing alcohol and water. Must not have been strong enough.

PS - so I take it your Ambien hasn't kicked in yet tonight, either? Heh -> it's 1:15am in your neck o' the woods...

DougM

Tue Jan 17, 2012 12:20 am

Terry Kay wrote: Try Straight Alcohol--shake & bake, they should come squeaky clean once the alcohol evaporates.
Always works for me anyway.

Ditto. Lots of threads on this topic... rubbing alcohol worked wonders on my '90... I then polished the exterior for good measure. 8)

Tue Jan 17, 2012 7:19 am

Great timing on this! My lights are in the same shape.

FWIW, try straight (97%) alcohol and not rubbing alcohol, which has oils, perfumes, etc. in it. I make up a mix of 50% distilled water, 50% alcohol, and 2 - 3 drops of Dawn (for the surfactants) in pint and half pint amounts for general lens and glass cleaning.

But I can see getting medieval on this mess with straight alcohol, yes, indeedy, I can! :twisted:

Tue Jan 17, 2012 7:52 am

I had a nice stainless Thermos bottle go funky a long time ago, and after repeated failed attempts washing and soaking with dishwashing soap, glass cleaner and straight isopropanol I tried incorporating some clean sand into the jug. When I got finished shaking the sh*t out of it, not only was the funk gone, but the many years of coffee stains on the stainless were disappearing, as well. I shook some more, and the bottle looked new inside!

I rinsed it well, and dumped the rinseate through a piece of cloth so as not to send sand down my drain, and the job was finished in minutes. No poking around with sticks, or anything like that.

I think this would do a great job cleaning the inside of the headlamp lenses. I'm not so sure it even matters what the cleaning solution is, although you may want to use vinegar for mineral (hard water) deposits, or mild detergent, window cleaner or isopropanol for anything oily or greasy.

I don't have any issues with my headlamp lenses currently. If I did, I'd try this method.

Tue Jan 17, 2012 10:04 am

Try this out and let us know how it goes.

I think that shaking an aggregate onto a highly reflective surface ( the back side of the headlamp) will dull it down a bit.
Sanding it down if you'd like--

Cleaning stainless isn't quite the same as cleaning chrome.

I'd be real careful with that, or you just might wind up having a headlamp assembly that won't project any light off of that bulb any farther than 3 feet--
Bat Driving--

Tue Jan 17, 2012 11:51 am

Yeah, agreed that the reflector might not take kindly to abrasion. It probably wouldn't bother the lens but active shaking isn't that easy to direct where stuff goes - or doesn't go. I'd pass up using sand here.

Tue Jan 17, 2012 11:54 am

I seem to recall somebody on here posting about using a combination of crushed ice, salt, and water to slosh around the inside. Apparently, the combination was just abrasive enough to clean the film off of the glass but not abrasive enough to damage anything. I have not tried it myself, though.

Doug

Tue Jan 17, 2012 12:01 pm

I can see how ice might be mildly abrasive. But salt??? Either it goes into solution (no grains left) or there's a lot of (past the point of saturation) but either way, some will stay behind and do ugly things over time. Salt? No thank you!

Tue Jan 17, 2012 1:17 pm

no salt!

Doug - people with old Porsche 356s have this down to a fine art - use alcohol and agitate by swirling - try not to get air bubbles/foam in - latter is esp. important if you use soapy water (which will get some things out faster than an alcohol)

you can use an air stream to help it dry

this is a good time to address all electrical connections, sockets & to put on new rubber boots if it should have them

Tue Jan 17, 2012 7:29 pm

Terry Kay wrote: I think that shaking an aggregate onto a highly reflective surface ( the back side of the headlamp) will dull it down a bit.
Sanding it down if you'd like--

Cleaning stainless isn't quite the same as cleaning chrome.

I would agree that the mirrored surface inside of the headlight could be harmed by aggressive abrasion of the sand suspended in the cleaning solution, but you kinda missed my point. Either don't shake so hard, or try a solid that would be less injurious to the mirrored surface (that is rather unreachable inside of the headlamp shell).

How about the styrofoam beads that were all over the floor when Fido chewed up your beanbag chair? Or the 1/4 bag of Basmati rice in the pantry?

Any geologist would probably concur that water with no particulate has very little erosive ability. Energy is transferred by the solids suspended in the liquid. The key would be finding a particulate that will remove a film without defacing the surface that the film lies upon.

If the film is miscible in a cleaning agent - hey, no problem. If you need to use some kind of stick/rag device to dislodge the film, maybe there is a better way.

Tue Jan 17, 2012 7:45 pm

I tried Windex and vigorous shaking/sloshing, followed by water rinse and left to dry in dish drainer. Got the lens really clean and nice. The silvering on the headlight then started to flake off to the point that the whole thing was useless. Whether it was the Windex or just it's time to die don't know.

Robert
'86 Westy

Tue Jan 17, 2012 9:56 pm

I don't think it was the Windex that yanked the chrome plating off of your reflector.
I think it's just a case of old age.

And I agree that you will need something to do a polishing onthe back side of the glass, & refector.

A little farmer wire bends pretty easy to the angle of the dangle--and with a rag hung on the end of it works pretty simple.
Basic glass cleaning tech--101.

Try the sand treatment on your lamps & report back.
Be a good test for your theory.

Tue Jan 17, 2012 10:31 pm

Here's another headlight-cleaning thread. =D>

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=378845&highlight=

Wed Jan 18, 2012 1:30 am

FWIW I did the crushed ice trick a year ago, as well as a rubbing alcohol rinse afterward, to eliminate water spots, one year and they still look great. I just dropped crushed ice through the bulb hole to about 1/4 full, swished with I think some glass cleaner in with it, dumped it all out and rinsed with rubbing alcohol.

When people mention Ice & Salt it's because that's the waitress way of doing coffee pots, the salt grinds at the coffee stains and doesn't affect the glass much if any. But if the salt bothers you most Vanagons don't exactly have coffee stains in their headlights, the crushed ice works well as a mild abrasive.

-Rob

Wed Jan 18, 2012 4:24 pm

This is a timely thread for me too. I didn't realize how dull my headlight glass was until I had an errant rock crack one of mine. I bought a new headlight to replace it, stood back and the difference was obvious. I think I'll start with the alcohol swish and see how that goes.

Wed Jan 18, 2012 8:55 pm

Until the lenses finish drying, I can't be 100% sure, but right now about 150 ml of 70% alcohol (all out of 97%) and 4-5 drops of Dawn sitting in the lenses appear to have worked miracles. I swished the alcohol around a bit, but I think most of the work was done by simply dissolving the crud on the lenses.

I'll let the lenses dry out overnight and then I'll know for sure but, with only the odd drop of alcohol hear and there, the lenses are much clearer than before. The only down side to this is... now I can see all the pitting from tossed grit, sand, and small rocks. The same stuff that had me replacing my windshield last week. With the haze, it was hard to tell what was going on with the lenses. Oh, well, I think I'll get over it. :wink:

Wed Jan 18, 2012 9:12 pm

Iso-Alcohol (91% or more) + Iodized Salt + Agitation = Crystal clear glass.
This works real well with the funk in my glass 'vases' and it works on the van :wink: . Salt doesnt dissolve in alcohol.

Fri Jan 20, 2012 7:36 pm

OK, the rest of the story...

The alcohol and Dawn combo did an excellent job of removing the haze. 70% alcohol, however, doesn't evaporate quickly, not even with an 1800 watt hair dryer blazing away, forcing air into the reflector assembly. The remaining 30% is water and that just doesn't evaporate as quickly. Additionally, even with shaking and sloshing, it took some time to get all of the crud out of the light. I found milky drops that left deposits - a quick rinse with alcohol cleaned them up, but then I had to fire up the dryer again. One reflector assembly needed three rinses to get it really clean.

But... end of the day, the lights sparkle and I'm sorely tempted to say there's more light on the road. And all of this without abrasive sand or corrosive salt, just isopropyl alcohol and a couple of drops of Dawn.