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knightmare Lude Hero

Joined: 26 May 2007 Posts: 1208 Location: southampton
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Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 7:45 pm Post subject: |
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_________________ '92 2.3i 4ws (june 2000) and still own
'93 bb3 (jan 2008) Now broken and scrapped
'96 bb1 (march 2008) Sold
'95 bb1 (June 2009) Sebring Silver |
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Shiny Lude Expert

Joined: 24 Jun 2008 Posts: 784 Location: Swindon
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Pink Lady Lude Obsessive

Joined: 26 Sep 2008 Posts: 289 Location: not where I should be...
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Shiny Lude Expert

Joined: 24 Jun 2008 Posts: 784 Location: Swindon
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Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 5:05 pm Post subject: |
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_________________
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MaDMaXX Moderator


Joined: 09 Nov 2007 Posts: 11959 Location: Lancashire
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Shiny Lude Expert

Joined: 24 Jun 2008 Posts: 784 Location: Swindon
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Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 5:15 pm Post subject: |
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Lol, yeah, hacked off they have faded so soon. Got some OEM ones coming off ebay (£5! get in there!) which i will have a go at detangoing when they arrive. _________________
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MaDMaXX Moderator


Joined: 09 Nov 2007 Posts: 11959 Location: Lancashire
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Shiny Lude Expert

Joined: 24 Jun 2008 Posts: 784 Location: Swindon
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Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 5:45 pm Post subject: |
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It's a spray polish, great to use as a QD. Gives a good shine and will tide me over until i can layer some wax on her. _________________
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MaDMaXX Moderator


Joined: 09 Nov 2007 Posts: 11959 Location: Lancashire
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Shiny Lude Expert

Joined: 24 Jun 2008 Posts: 784 Location: Swindon
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Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 6:59 pm Post subject: |
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I've got a gallon of Megs LT and 6 litres of T2Q, so won't be trying else for a while yet mate. _________________
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knightmare Lude Hero

Joined: 26 May 2007 Posts: 1208 Location: southampton
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Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 9:14 pm Post subject: |
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She is so nice shiny, glad your happy with spoiler.
paul _________________ '92 2.3i 4ws (june 2000) and still own
'93 bb3 (jan 2008) Now broken and scrapped
'96 bb1 (march 2008) Sold
'95 bb1 (June 2009) Sebring Silver |
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Shiny Lude Expert

Joined: 24 Jun 2008 Posts: 784 Location: Swindon
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Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 9:42 pm Post subject: |
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The tinting on the Lexus lights has already started fading and going an orangey colour, so i decided to do something about it. I don't fancy retinting them every few months, so i've had a go at detangoing a set of OEM lights.
A £5 "best offer" in the closing minutes of a non selling pair of lights on ebay was accepted to my joy and got me a pair of lights to play with.
Separating them is a horrendous job, the joining mastic is rock hard and when heated goes a nasty sticky gooey still very strong putty type glue. I settled on the heatgun method, heating the seam as hot as i could without melting the lights and gradually prying the lights apart with a screwdriver.
Once open, i popped out the tango'd reflector from the housing and traced an outline on a ceiling tile "light diffuser" (£3 a sheet from TLC Electrical!). Scored the line with a Stanley Knife and metal rule
Used a circular saw attachment on a dremmel to cut out the outline and then filed off the edges
A bit more filing to get a good fit
Then did the other lens. Don't forget the Bow, power tools are more fun this way and it eases the pain when things go wrong.
I used some clear RV sealant to make a bead around the housing and then used whatever i could lay my hands on to help the lens curve to the shape of the housing, and let it set.
When set, i put a bead round the edge of the lens with the RTV sealant which hid any imperfections in the cutting. I made this job five times more difficult as i managed to put a cut in the tube of sealant with the stanley knife and duck tape only stopped so much of it squirting out of the wrong place!
Then the painful process of putting them back together. I used the heatgun to heat up all the grey mastic and scraped as much out as i could with a screwdriver, smoothing out what i couldn't remove, both on the lens and the housing. I then heated it up again, put a good bead of RTV clear sealant all way round the housing and put the two bits together. I had to continue heating as i pushed them together to melt any left behind mastic. Hacked off at this point, as i managed to small crack in the bottom of one of lights trying to click the base back in, despite managing not to crack anything when i opened them!
Clamped the base in the workmate and G clamps across the top (you can just see the crack in the bottom left of the left light!).
At this point the cat came over the fence with a frog in her mouth, so i did the usual frog rescue and took the frog to our neighbours over the road with a pond. Got chatting, had quite a few more ciders, then some more and then come and it was dark, so bunged everything in garage to finish off in the morning.
Still reckon that cars look cooler without lights though
So in the morning i polished up with Menz polish on a medium pad followed by a finishing polish on a finishing pad.
Job done.
 _________________
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MaDMaXX Moderator


Joined: 09 Nov 2007 Posts: 11959 Location: Lancashire
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Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 10:22 pm Post subject: |
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Much better  Shame about the crack  Shame there's no sunshine to show off the great looks of the car, but still
Still fairly convinced i don't want to attempt this unless i had free/next to free lights to test it on as you did.
I'd love to borrow your rotary to do my headlights and rear lights though, so much easier than hand. _________________
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Shiny Lude Expert

Joined: 24 Jun 2008 Posts: 784 Location: Swindon
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Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 10:48 pm Post subject: |
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That reminds me, i forgot to put my first handy tip to make sure you do this with a spare set! lol!
Polishing out the scratches was so easy with the polisher. When i first got the Lude i did the Lexus lights by hand and it was hard work.
Can't wait until i can set some time aside and get the polisher over the whole car though. I put it off knowing eventually i was going to get the body work done, and now it is done i want to get on it with it. Got to find the time though. _________________
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Nafeman Lude-aholic

Joined: 02 Dec 2008 Posts: 516 Location: Yeovil, Somerset
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