MAKING YELLOWED HEADLIGHT COVERS LIKE NEW AGAIN.

Last summer, when gas prices were very high, we bought a used motor home. The price was right, the interior was like new, it had low mileage and needed very little mechanical work. MPG wasn’t a problem since I planned to install my Mileageman1 system. On the test drive, I found it to have some excessive slack in the steering. A quick check before purchasing it revealed the problem as worn bushings in the idler arm bracket, also known as a bell crank. Knowing what the problem was saved us a few hundred dollars when negotiating the final price. A link to an article covering the idler arm bracket diagnosis and remedy is on the "Larry's Latest Articles" page. The accompanying picture is before. An after picture is at the end of the article.

NOT ENOUGH TIME TO DO EVERYTHING.
	We had other commitments for the fall and winter and left the motor home in Oregon at our son and daughter-in-law’s. Before leaving, we cleaned and fixed everything we had time for but weren’t able to do everything that needed our attention, including the plastic headlight covers that had clouded over and turned a light yellow.

NO REASON TO BUY EXPENSIVE KITS.

In the spring, we returned to finish making the motor home into exactly what we wanted, since small things can make big differences. After installing the Mileageman1 and doing the idler arm bracket replacement, I decided to take a look at what would be required to clean the clouded plastic headlight covers. Our son had purchased a kit at the dealer, where he bought his new car, to clean the headlight covers on his work car. He said it worked quite well and he also told me it cost $17.00. The kit consisted of a small bottle of white, creamy liquid and some various grades of sand paper. I told him I’d used tooth paste to remove oxidized paint and buff out the clear coat on our old pickup truck, and that I’d try it on the headlight covers before I used any of his kit.

GOT PUMICE SOAP AND TOOTHPASTE?

The toothpaste made them shine, but didn’t remove the cloudy yellow from the plastic. I had a dispenser of pumice type waterless soap on board and decided to give it a try. I used a bug sponge, the woven net type, and a couple squirts of waterless soap from the dispenser. With the help of a little water and very little elbow grease, the headlight covers looked like new. I buffed them out with toothpaste and now they’re shiny as well as clear. Before finishing with the pumice hand cleaner, I did a small spot using what my son had purchased. The finished product using pumice type waterless soap and toothpaste is superior. Since I had toothpaste left over from the oxidized/clear coat paint project and waterless soap handy for cleaning up after other undertakings, I estimate that making the headlight covers like new cost about fifty cents and required approximately five minutes labor on each one. If you remember the old ad line. "You'll wonder where the yellow went," you'll know what toothpaste I used for both this and the "Buff Out Your Car For 84 Cents."

QUICK AND EASY DOES IT.
	Some later cars use glass headlight covers, and waterless soap containing pumice wouldn’t be recommended.