Bright(ened) Eyes

Three day weekends at home generally mean projects around the house. In the past, many rooms have received fresh coats of paint. Running short of compelling home improvement ideas lately, I have found myself taking care of little projects with the cars that are not crucial, but scratch certain itches that are peculiar to me.

On Memorial Day, I polished the exhaust tips on my car:


Yeah, they will be dirty again in a day. What's your point?
Over Labor Day, I finally tackled the plastic headlight covers on the family car, which had begun to develop the cataracts common to so many cars these days (now that glass headlights are rare):


Before. Click to enlarge to see how bad they were.
I had previously tried a fix that used only a polish and a drill-mounted soft buffer, which did absolutely nothing. Stay away from that snakeoil. This time I went with the big guns, a wet-sanding process that I hoped would clear the lenses and not ruin them under my inexperienced hand. The technique involves using the drill to sand with 500 grit paper, then 800 grit paper, then a wet foam pad, and finally a sponge with a rubbing compound.


After sanding. I sure hope this is going to work.
It is counterintuitive to induce clarity by adding scratches, but for the most part, it works as advertised:


After. Sparkly.
The lenses are not as good as new and never will be, but they are far better than they were before. Mission accomplished.