My Camry was in a fender, hood, bumper, and headlight bender

[Piotrsko]

Even in Arizona sun, the temperature doesn't get to the melting point of the plastic, perhaps 350 degrees. We used a torch back in the seventies to polish plastic, but too much heat and it deforms back to flat, bad mojo. NOT sure what steel wool is doing except abrading the surface uniformly.

Brillo I believe was the inventor of the pad, S.O.S. was a competitor based in the UK.

[Xist]

You cannot compare sandpaper and steel wool, but the steel wool left scratches.

I had gotten rid of all of those!

It may have smeared around the clear coat.

I don't know what the acetone may have done. It got it wet, hiding all of the imperfections, and making my headlight look marvelous, but then it dried, and I couldn't tell the difference from before--except the smell!

Time to bolt my headlight to a 2x4 and use more PlasticX and my drill attachment!

[freebeard]

How much do those headlight go for at the wrecking yard?

[JSH]

Originally Posted by freebeard

How much do those headlight go for at the wrecking yard?

He is trying to polish a wrecking yard replacement. (See post #59)

New they are $65

https://www.carparts.com/details/Toy...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

[Piotrsko]

Seems to me that it's more cost effective for him to buy new especially if you factor in lost time going to Phoenix or town.

2nd thought: maybe not, the old ones were sure to fit where they came out.

[Xist]

Here is the Sylvania restoration kit that Project Farm restored to new condition, 6-day delivery for $20.

Here is the 3M kit that Project Farm said had the best sandpaper and I think JRGo and his friend really liked. Project Farm said it should restore to new condition once you clear-coat it. $24 with 13-15-day shipping.

Dorman headlight, $66 with 5-day shipping.

I am sure the Dorman is the best aftermarket replacement. I couldn't find them for much cheaper, but for some reason the driver's side is $60, which is the best price I found.

Hopefully all of these fit.

I would need to ensure that a junkyard headlight is OEM.

[redpoint5]

Speaking about the 3m kit, you buy it once and then restore a dozen headlights with it (again, clear coating is not optional as they will yellow in a matter of weeks).

Not only did it work on headlights, but I couldn't read the digital display on the 4-wheeler because it had hazed so severely. Restored to new condition, and the clear coat has protected it for like 5 years now.

[Xist]

...then 2 steps back...

Napa had their cheaper 3M kits 40% off, but of course the largest kit, with this applicator, which was in-stock, was $28:



I wasn't going to pay 125% more for it, so I bought this awesome thing for $3:


I posted the picture because the manager and I couldn't find it on the shelf based on the on-line picture.

The 3m sandpaper is awesome. Why can't I buy that separately?!

I just tried the get the parts with bad clear coat and then feather it out, but the battery in my cordless screwdriver, which I just charged last week, quickly died, so I found my drill and tried to exercise trigger discipline.

I also tried to keep the drill and the hose as far apart as I could.

Unfortunately, one spot between the headlight and the turn signal was still dull. I finished wet-sanding and was using Plasticx, but I didn't move the drill back and forth enough and\or squeezed the trigger too hard, so I melted a few spots on the lens and shredded part of the foam pad, so I needed to sand it over again.

After all of that, for the second time today, it looked about like it did before I tried to clear-coat it, but now I need to preserve.... uh... 9 days of work?

Paint-protecting film is sounding pretty good!

[Xist]

We tried to do this a couple of weeks ago, but once again not having a local bank haunted me, so I transferred money from my Navy Federal savings account to checking, and then sent it to Mom with Zelle.

Four days later we received a notification that it was processing my payment, so we went to her bank to withdraw half of it, except it kept telling me that I was being too greedy with my own money--and it kept making me start over.

In the end only I was only able to get $1,000.

I read on-line her limit was twice that, but all that Chase said was "We told you your limit when you opened your account!"

It took far too long for Mom and my brother to get ready. Once we got out to the car he insisted on walking around and then brought in the garbage cans.

Then his provider pulled up.

Oh right! His provider comes every Wednesday!

We returned to get the rest of my money, but it kept giving me errors, and made me enter her PIN multiple times.

I was only able to get another $1,000 and Mom told me to just start driving, but then 10 minutes later she mentioned getting cash back from Safeway, so we went the long way, and we ended up buying soup from different lines, getting the maximum cash back, and then I bought my brother soda from a third line, so a $10 convenience fee?

The Odyssey seemed to run and drive perfectly, but the side door motor was broken, and that somehow prevented it from closing, so all six dome lights were on at all time, which killed the battery. They replaced it (with a Civic battery!), but they needed to jump it before each time it was driven.

I guess that is easier than disconnecting the negative battery cable...

I am pretty sure that eventually the clamp would stretch.

Battery disconnect switch?

Well, how hard can it be to replace the motor?

South Main released a 67-minute video about it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw0VyEzBVdU

However, Eric the Car Guy released a 17.5-minute video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwgL5Oo8rXw

Draw your own conclusions.

I noticed several other problems and if I removed the dome light bulbs or otherwise jury-rigged the vehicle hopefully I could drive the vehicle without further maintenance until I have another car road-ready, but I didn't want to buy another project.

Hopefully nobody figures out where I buried the money in Mom's backyard!

[redpoint5]

How hard is it to bypass the switch, or better yet, fix the underlying issue. If someone doesn't care about the car, I don't care to offer much.

I got a notice that my parent's google password changed and the account was "recovered". Asked mom why she changed the password, and she said she didn't. Later I get a story that she changed her Craigslist password. I asked why, and she said "I wanted to see what would happen". That's not a human response to the question. Nobody wakes up one day and thinks "I wonder what would happen if I changed my Craigslist password". Too irritated to participate in insanity at the moment. It's difficult enough to manage one's own affairs to any degree resembling acceptable.