303 stained my headlamps?
- Thread starter IceQube
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Klasse Act
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- Feb 21, 2012
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This thread....
Waterless wash didn't cause the same issue, well, glad to hear this because I've only been doing WW's for 7 years now and I too haven't had an issue with hazing. Anyone else wanna add to this
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Waterless wash didn't cause the same issue, well, glad to hear this because I've only been doing WW's for 7 years now and I too haven't had an issue with hazing. Anyone else wanna add to this
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PaulMys
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- Jan 14, 2014
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Can you elaborate on "regular sunscreen"?
PaulMys
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- Jan 14, 2014
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The scratches were from me disassembling the lamp. I needed to borrow some parts for the replacement lamp I purchased.
The lamp on the other side of the vehicle has no such scratches but was still stained by 303, albiet not as bad as needing replacement.
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VISITOR
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- May 10, 2007
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if you go to AG store page and type in " headlight kit " in the search, there are many different options to choose from that might help remedy your situation. hope you get it all taken care of...
also, if you type in " headlight restoration " in the search here on AGO, there are many threads to check out that might give you an idea on what you can/need to do...
FUNX650
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- Dec 1, 2010
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Can you tell us who this alleged someone is;
their job title; their place of employment? TIA
Until then:
Based on this one anecdotal tale, I suppose that
I must now scream from the rafters, at the top
of my voice, the following conclusion:
-‘Shame, shame on mean ol’ 303;
They’ve been lying thru their ears:
(‘Bout providing protection from UV)
To their Customers for ~39 years’!
Bob
What have you used before on the headlights?
Could it be that the old protection was down on it's last legg and when the application of the 303 did bring out the oxidation more noticeble? But on the other hand it's used to revive the plastic trim with a lot of oxidation on them and cover it up. So next thing I can think of is if the oem uv protection paint on the headlights is gone on the spots that the 303 did haze them. And it's something with the 303 and the polycarbonate plastic. Or if it's just to much product applyied and the residue of the 303 gets hazed like. Or if it desolved the protection that was applyied before. Can be many things but it's strange.
Could it be that the old protection was down on it's last legg and when the application of the 303 did bring out the oxidation more noticeble? But on the other hand it's used to revive the plastic trim with a lot of oxidation on them and cover it up. So next thing I can think of is if the oem uv protection paint on the headlights is gone on the spots that the 303 did haze them. And it's something with the 303 and the polycarbonate plastic. Or if it's just to much product applyied and the residue of the 303 gets hazed like. Or if it desolved the protection that was applyied before. Can be many things but it's strange.
Desertnate
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- Aug 5, 2013
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My thoughts too. The lenses look like they've simply started to oxidize from the sun, not the type of hazing I'd associate with a product being applied to the surface.
I also find it interesting the 303 site would talk about applying it to lenses and lights. From my experience, 303 worked pretty well on interiors, but was sub par on the exterior. It would run off of trim in hot weather and would not stand up to any moisture at all, whether that was overnight dew or rain.
Belo
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- Jul 10, 2014
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does anyone know if they changed how they make headlights? I've had issues with headlights on my pre 2000's cars but all my newer cars have never had more than regular megs gold class soap and they all still look new. I see guys spending hours and hundreds of dollars on their headlights and I just don't get it.
Klasse Act
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- Feb 21, 2012
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This is NOT from 303 being applied
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Eldorado2k
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That’s strange because pre 2000’s cars usually came with real glass headlights [at least all Cadillacs did] whereas all vehicles post 2000 were forced to use plastic headlights.
- Thread starter
- #34
No one is forced to use plastic over glass. The transition to plastic is mainly due to styling demands of today's aerodynamic vehicles. It's easier to form plastic into all sorts of complex shapes and slopes.
In addition, cost is a major driver. Today's cheap plastics are required by law to only withstand 3 years of FL/AZ sun exposure. You can imagine why headlamp restoration is so big nowadays--average American car is ~11 years old.
In Detroit a number of years ago, there was an automotive lighting conference. A group of researchers quantified the number of lives lost due to hazy, fogged up, yellowed, and otherwise deteriorated lamps. The number of American lives was in the 1000s each and every year. More interestingly, the cost to double the life of a plastic headlamp is just an additional 1% of total headlamp development costs, and yet very few manufacturers aim for more than the minimum legal standard: 3 years of FL/AZ UV exposure.
What people also fail to realize is that not only does UV degrade the exterior lens, but also there's degradation of the internal reflector. PVD aluminum is attacked by UV from the sun (and HID bulbs), moisture, and heat. Just because an old lamp looks great on the outside doesn't mean there hasn't been any internal degradation. For me, replacing my lamps at a certain age is a must. Restorations only delay the inevitable.
Eldorado2k
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Is that true?
Is there a vehicle made today that’s sold in the USA with glass headlights?
Is there a vehicle made today that’s sold in the USA with glass headlights?
Eldorado2k
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That’s horrible. This is a big letdown... For 1, if plastic are so much cheaper to produce, then why do Corvette headlights cost almost $2,000 dollars to replace? There’s alot more but that alone is worth an outrage.
- Thread starter
- #38
Headlamp development costs are in the millions per vehicle. Just making sure the plastic used can withstand 3 years of UV exposure is literally a 3-year process. FMVSS 108 requires an actual 3-year exposure to the elements in FL/AZ. You can't do any accelerated weathering tests like you can in more advanced civilizations. So instead of paying a lab for 6 weeks of testing time, you instead have to pay for 3 years of testing time.
There's a lot more to headlamps than slap a projector and a lens together. Headlamp development is still mostly a manual process. There's no magical computer program. You can't click a button and voila, you have a federally compliant headlamp CAD diagram. There's no "parts-bin shopping" either. You can't choose a projector, choose an outer lens, and expect the two to play ball right off the bat. There's plenty of factors such as internal lens reflection, which is exacerbated by heavily sloped lenses.
You have to go through a lot of trial-and-error and perform tests with a goniophotometer, and that isn't cheap.
There's a lot more to headlamps than slap a projector and a lens together. Headlamp development is still mostly a manual process. There's no magical computer program. You can't click a button and voila, you have a federally compliant headlamp CAD diagram. There's no "parts-bin shopping" either. You can't choose a projector, choose an outer lens, and expect the two to play ball right off the bat. There's plenty of factors such as internal lens reflection, which is exacerbated by heavily sloped lenses.
You have to go through a lot of trial-and-error and perform tests with a goniophotometer, and that isn't cheap.
- Thread starter
- #40
Automotive HID lighting is dead and gone. The funeral occurred years ago. Today's and yesteryear's LED systems have left even the best HID systems in the dust.
HID and LED lamps will generally have longer useful lifespans than their halogen counterparts. A great example is the 2010 vs 2011 Lexus IS250/350. The 2010 model uses a halogen DRL. The 2011 model uses a LED DRL. The constant on halogen bulb causes the 2010 headlamps to deteriorate much more rapidly than the 2011 lamps--much more than a single model year difference would suggest.
Headlamps are affected by several factors, one of them being heat/IR, as evidenced above. The much hotter running halogens, which are always on, even in the day, destroy the plastic lens.
UV also destroys lamps.
More insidiously, there's is a slow degradation of the internal reflectors and bulbs. Restorations can't do anything about an old internal reflector or deteriorated bulbs. At conception, a headlamp's internal reflectors are about 95-99% reflective. The best showroom chrome that you might see at an autoshow is only about 60% reflective. After a few years of heat, UV, and moisture exposure, the internal reflector won't be close to 95% reflectivity.
Bottom line is that even today's advanced LED lamps won't last indefinitely. Longer than older lamps, yes. The heat generated by LEDs isn't sent out in the same direction as the light. It's sent out in the opposite direction. So the heat generated by LEDs shouldn't reach the lens very well, which will increase lens lifespan, but still, UV rays will degrade the lens.