blackout questions.

[phenomic]

I bought some AVS headlight blackouts off someone and the adhesive was used and doent work

. What should i use to stick em on so they wont come off even at highway speeds.

BTW, i used brak kleen to clean off one of them cuz some tape from the package left residue taht didnt want to come off. IT dulled the thing out. I was wondering if i ruined the finish on it or can i clean this "fog" off. Im pretty sure it just left behind a residue, how do i get it off?

 

[1 FMF]

brake clean isn't supposed to leave a residue behind- on metal brake components that is. That solvent will eat plastic. You may be able to polish it out with heavy plastic polish and a lot of elbow.

note to self: don't use brakleen especially, nor carb cleaner, to clean plastic parts.

 

[VaderSS]

I used brake cleaner to clean a mouse one time. It worked great, but melted the little slots together in the optical sensor wheel. This was before you could get a mouse at Walmart...

Sure do love my optical mice now.

 

[phenomic]

I got em mounted pretty good, I tried wetsanding and it came out ok with 1000,1500,2000, and 3m buffing compound. I was wondering what i could do to make them look good as new? Should i just keep using the rubbing compound or are there any other good tricks? I was thinking about clear coating them possibly. I wish i woulda bought new but these should be able to be worked on.

They don't need to be 100% perfect because whatever i do to one, ill do to the other and they will look identical.

 

[Dave H]

After the 3M rubbing compound, go to successively finer polishes. You can use a car polish on plastic very effectively (a quality polish that is designed to remove swirls).
Here's a write-up I did on a Maxima site (sorry, the pics aren't there anymore, but the write-up is):
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=375480

This was for my plastic headlights. I've used the same techniques (and products) on gauge clusters, tail lights, etc....

To keep them looking good, top them with a synthetic sealant/wax (I use Meg's NXT). This will keep the plastic from oxidizing, not to mention make cleaning bugs off much easier.

Meguiars also makes plastic polishes which work very well. Other manufacturers have them, also. But I think product selection isn't quite as important as proper technique. You're more likely to have paint polish laying around, and it does a very good job, so there's no need to buy specialty polishes just for a couple of pieces. Unless of course you're catching the detailing bug. I hear it's going around....

Hope this helps.

Dave