bazz54 Posted July 27, 2011 Report Share Posted July 27, 2011 (edited) The plastic front of one of my Gen7 headlights has a strange opaque area which I initially though might be dried cat piss, but it won't wash off in warm soapy water. Scratching it with a finger nail seems to do some good along a narrow line. It sort of looks like some kind of solvent has been spilled there. Not at all sure what happened by I think is will need some sort of polishing to get it clear. Anyone have any ideas what best to do ? Edited July 28, 2011 by bazz54 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris CW Posted July 28, 2011 Report Share Posted July 28, 2011 (edited) Just try some Meguiars PlastX - its an abrasive plastic polish, or maybe Auto Glymn Tar Remover (great for removing sticker residue etc) Edited July 28, 2011 by Chris CW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gen6GT Posted July 28, 2011 Report Share Posted July 28, 2011 Sounds like adhesive left after a sticker or something like has been removed. Try a rag soaked in a little petrol, that might do the job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazz54 Posted July 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 28, 2011 Sounds like adhesive left after a sticker or something like has been removed. Try a rag soaked in a little petrol, that might do the job. No Gen6; you can see that something was spilled, poured or "sprayed". Need a little caution; don't want to make any worse as bet they cost something silly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lta Posted July 28, 2011 Report Share Posted July 28, 2011 Just try some Meguiars PlastX - its an abrasive plastic polish. This will work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gen6GT Posted July 28, 2011 Report Share Posted July 28, 2011 Petrol will *not* damage your headlight - I've yet to find a automobile headlight which can be damaged by petrol, I've used it many times to remove headlight stickers for driving in Europe. And it won't cost anything to try. If you can scratch it with your fingernail and get a clear line petrol might work. A good way of polishing blemishes/stains out of both glass and plastic is to use a little Brasso or similar on a rag, watchmakers use it to polish out scratches on watch crystals - a watchmaker gave me this tip and I've used it on my watches with great success, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cs2000 Posted July 28, 2011 Report Share Posted July 28, 2011 ^^ will help me aswell. Now just need to find a way to get rid of superglue on headlights and il be sorted lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazz54 Posted July 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 28, 2011 Think I have sorted it. I started by trying a drop of meths. When the stain was wet with meths, it was perfectly clear, but became opaque again as the meths dried, and the stain was not washed off. The only stuff I had in the garage in terms of a light polish was some household metal polish - known from previous jobs to be much milder than T-Cut, so I decided to try that on a tiny area. Worked brilliantly; pretty much sorted I think. Finished off with one of Autoglym's plastic care prods. Gen6GT, wasn't saying petrol was a problem, just that it definitely was not sticker residues. Having watched 1000's of "Crime Scene CSI" episodes, I now have the degree equivalent in splatter patterns. Lets say a small egg hit the cover dead central and then spread out in all directions; you get the picture. Now lets suggest a cat peed on the lens and that splattered out in all directions; I rest my case. Suspect the heat from the headlight caused it to dry rock hard, or chemically react with the plastic. Bad pussy; retribution will follow! First time I'd realised those covers are plastic not glass. Thanks for the suggestions - mild polish did it. As for superglue on a cover; acetone does superglue but suspect it will also do the cover. In your shoes, I'd try a 50/50 mix of water and meths soaked in to something very absorbent (ask wife/girlfriend/mother) and keep it fixed on there overnight, then see what the edge of credit card does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gen6GT Posted July 28, 2011 Report Share Posted July 28, 2011 Glad you got it sorted Metal polish is brilliant stuff for polishing out plastic, acrylic and glass, I treated myself to a Rolex watch back in the eighties when I was working out in Jeddah, wore it while I was scuba diving over a period of 5 years, so the face was really scratched. I took it into a little family-run watch repair shop in Oxford, as the local Rolex agency wanted £180.00 to replace the crystal and would need the watch for 6 weeks. The guy in the watch repair shop advised me to try Brasso, which I did, and which worked perfectly. Which is why I thought it might sort out your problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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