While we're spoiled these days with an aftermarket that reproduces parts unimaginable only a few years ago, not everything is available, especially if you're dealing with an "off-brand" project. When it comes to exterior trim or rear light lenses, often the only solution is to spend weeks or longer searching swap meets, trawling eBay, scouring the Internet, or giving up altogether and losing the trim or swapping the lights for something easier to source.
Mother's headlight restoration...
Mother's headlight restoration kit is designed to restore dull plastic headlights, but does a pretty fine job on old plastic taillights too! Comprising a PowerBall, plastic polish, sanding pads, and a microfiber towel, all you need is in this box-except the electric drill.
Plastic taillight lenses in particular are not only susceptible to getting broken, but fade with age. However, when Mothers sent us products to bring the paint and trim back to life on the '56 Buick we tackled a few months back they included a product that we had no use for at the time, their PowerBall 4Lights headlight restoration kit. Having used it on our Art Director Aaron Kahan's late-model daily driver and seeing how well it brought the dull foggy plastic lenses back to life, we figured it may just work on old red plastic taillight lenses too.
First we tried a pair of very faded '59 Cadillac lenses. These repro made-in-Taiwan lenses had dulled to the point of being unusable, and while they didn't return to their original condition, the Mothers' kit certainly brought them back to being acceptable again. Next we went to work on the original lenses from the Purple Pig project '49 Chevy. Stripping the lights to their component parts so we could clean and restore them inside and out, we were pleased with the results. Though once they'd lost their dull appearance it was obvious there was nothing we could do to improve the few cracks that 60-plus years of exposure to Mother Nature's elements had caused.
Using a dull, faded, Taiwanese-made...
Using a dull, faded, Taiwanese-made '59 Cadillac light as an example, we hit it with the PowerBall. You can see from the lines on the lens where the chrome bezel sits just how faded it was.
They were, however, vastly improved and acceptable for another few years of service. So much so that we sandblasted and painted the housing, polished the blue dots, and did what we could to bring the chrome back to life on the bezel. If we'd planned ahead these bezels would have made perfect subjects for our "Chrome Sweet Chrome" article on page 70 of this issue, but of course our usual lack of planning meant we didn't think of this until it was too late. It should be pretty obvious from the accompanying pictures though that with fresh chrome, these taillights could be bolted right back on and reused. Guess we'd better restore the second light and place them on the parts shelf for a future project then, huh?
Though there may be any number...
Though there may be any number of products on the shelves of your local auto parts store, good old super glue still does a fine job in such instances. Those surfaces to be glued had better be clean though.
The difference between "before"...
The difference between "before" and "after" is obvious, though the cheap and lousy quality of the plastic used for these lenses prevented any further improvements. Not bad though, huh?
Having already used Mothers'...
Having already used Mothers' PowerCone on other projects, I figured it'd be perfect to polish the inside of the Caddy lights.
Seeing as we're talking of...
Seeing as we're talking of restoring old lenses, though ours weren't cracked, many will be. Easing the crack apart on these old Buick lenses allowed us to clean the edges of the split with an old toothbrush and soapy water.
Here's what the headlight...
Here's what the headlight restoration kit is really designed for and it'd be remiss of us not to show you how well it works. It took longer to mask around the headlights to prevent polish getting on the paint than it did to restore the clarity of the plastic lenses on this late model.
The Mothers' kit includes...
The Mothers' kit includes a couple of sanding pads of different grits, which were ideal for sanding between the ridges on the outside of the lens.
After polishing with the PowerBall,...
After polishing with the PowerBall, a little elbow grease using the microfiber towel included in the kit brought the headlamps back to as-new condition.
Encouraged by our attempts...
Encouraged by our attempts so far, we tackled the old taillights from our project '49 Chevy. The lenses and reflectors are plastic and had suffered over the past 60 years.
Hitting the lens with the...
Hitting the lens with the PowerBall and polish, they soon took on a whole new appearance. You can see here the small cracks that appear in the plastic over time. Unfortunately there's nothing that can be done about those.
Removing the lens and blue...
Removing the lens and blue dot, we cleaned the grime from the inside using an old toothbrush and soapy water.
With the lens cleaned and...
With the lens cleaned and polished, we re-installed the blue dot, after cleaning it and its retaining ring. These four tabs are twisted to hold everything in place.
No wonder these lights appeared...
No wonder these lights appeared dim when in use. This is supposed to be the reflector, but had turned into a rust-flector over time.
Here's a before and after....
Here's a before and after. The lens is brighter, clearer, and respectable once again. The reflector admittedly could do with replacement, while the bezels would certainly benefit from a trip through the Spectra Chrome process. All in all a vast improvement for a couple of hours of work though. Although, what are the chances of me doing the other light to match?
We used the plastic polish...
We used the plastic polish on the reflector, and applied Mothers' chrome polish to the bezels in an attempt to bring them back from the dead.
A trip through the sandblasting...
A trip through the sandblasting cabinet saw the housing as good as new, before it was painted using an aerosol of alloy wheel silver paint. Time to bolt it all back together.