ABY+ my version

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A combination of Peek, Mirenza cutting compound, Meguire's Polish and lots of elbow grease. I think to do it to how I want I'll need to trizac it down to about a 3000 grade and then polish but they have come up better just by hand and have a lot more clarity.

good tip on the ambient bulb... the instruments have to come out again anyway as the new speed sensor made ****** all difference... (at least I now have a good spare lol)

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btw the pic above of the red lights is as they came out of the box from Joe... this is them in the unclean state lol

[John B]

A combination of Peek, Mirenza cutting compound, Meguire's Polish and lots of elbow grease. I think to do it to how I want I'll need to trizac it down to about a 3000 grade and then polish but they have come up better just by hand and have a lot more clarity.

good tip on the ambient bulb... the instruments have to come out again anyway as the new speed sensor made ****** all difference... (at least I now have a good spare lol)

Think i am going to have lessons from the master

No seriously, can you give a bit more detail of the order of events to the old polishing tricks? Much appreciated

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lol, no not a master by any stretch but I read and see what others have done.
I washed them thoroughly, dried them off, gave them a wipe of IPA (no not the beer) and then with a Meguire's polishing pad rubbed them with Peek polishing compound (yes the metal polish), kept even pressure and forward and back strokes until the compound disappeared and did a small bit at a time until the whole light was done.
Buffed it off with a microfiber, then used a paint type cutting compound, again until it disappeared and then polished them with a normal car polish (Meguire's Polish in this case).
There are loads of plastic headlamp type restorations on Detailing world.
I want to get a kit such as this to try

http://3mauto.com/products/headlight-restoration/3m-headlight-lens-restoration-system-39008.html

and Halfords do a Meguire's kit too

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_922499_langId_-1_categoryId_255233

worth a try at that price? the secret is keeping the plastic cool... there are demo vid's available for tips

[John B]

Cool

Thanks.....that really helps.

[newsh]

The speedo and tacho signals run through some long thin pins that connect two circuit boards together, you get a little spot of corrosion on the pin and in the socket where the contact patch is. I cleaned the pins and the sockets with Caig De-Oxit and carefully pinched the socket part a little to increase the pressure. No probs since.

Check for dry joints on them too

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will look at those areas when i get the car back home... Car is in bits at the bodyshop (pics to follow) as i have just spent the morning stripping all the guts from her so i can get the roof and front bumper painted. She looks a little naked.

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and todays pics...

B pillar trims removed and will bead blast them in the week and give them to the bodyshop for painting back into Satin black


rear windows are out


and then the front bumper came off, this didn't need painting until I came back to the car in the week after shopping and found some kind soul had left their mark on the corner... and of course they left their details!!! not...

on the way home I popped into Halfords and picked up a Meguire's headlight restore kit as linked above, so far so good, it is a bit awkward doing the lights off the car in as much that the sanding (with the included pads) is fine and would rather do this off the car but the final buffing it is difficult to do as you need 2 pairs of hands, so the final buff will be much better once assembled onto the car but all the scratches on one light are gone. It is not a quick task, so set aside a good amount of time and have lots of patience.

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Today was a muscle work out for the arms, felt like I have been tossing off a Sperm Whale.
The sanding pads within the Meguire's pack didn't really last the distance, so another trip to Halfords this morning saw me armed with wet and dry in flavours 400, 800, 1500, 2000 and 2500.
So this was from yesterday

the rear of the lights had the old sealing cord and crud
and then the light I started next to the other one to show a bit of the difference, from a little work to how they arrived.

the one on the left is how it arrived and the one on the right was using sanding pads in the Meguire's kit but that was yesterday

so this was it flatted off

all the way down to 2500 grade wet and dry, I soaked each piece of paper for at least 60 seconds in water and constantly rewetted during the sanding process.

and then buffed with Meguire's Plast-Rx o n a small lambswool pad on a drill attachment (speed no more than 1000rpm) and then with the same compound on a foam applicator pad by hand and then sealed with AG High Definition Wax.
good reflection?

and the rear of the lights got cleaned with IPA (again, no not the beer)



Ready for fitting and a final buff...

[UrS4boy]

G22 Vehicle Speed Sensor (VSS) info

..I couldn't find a test procedure for the G22, there must be a resistance check or something for it? Didn't check continuity through the loom so will check that in the week. I suspect the G22 though is at fault but time will tell

Here is a link to some G22 (and G21 Speedo) info that I have put together in case it might help. Note that for C4s, the speedo issue is often corrosion in a connector that is far away from the instrument cluster.

Link: http://forums.quattroworld.com/s4s6/msgs/168463.phtml

[martinjs]

Now is the perfect time to fit electric rear windows if you can find a set.

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would love electric rear windows tbh... and yes now is the time to fit them but not been looking. Unless anyone has a set?

Dave, thanks for the info again, the S2 (now I stand to be corrected) doesn't have this plug? I think the issue lays within my clocks... the annoying thing is, it is a pig to check where my car lives... I will get to the bottom of it eventually

[martinjs]

Put up a wanted thread, you might get lucky.

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well, who knows eh?

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seems the chance of opening rear windows eluded me this time...
today was go get the car back from paint. I assembled it back up this morning but left most of the interior out as once the car was home it was red rear light time.
Very happy with the paint, once it has been flatted back further it will be grand.

this is the roof in it's unwashed state


bumper back all minty fresh, yes the fogs need splitting and respraying, it is on the stuff to do list...


and all red rear lights...
running stock bulbs at the mo, as the green LED items I got are not bright enough and they need a resistor adding to make them flash at the correct rate as OE.

Ran out of time on the stereo today...

but have another pic of the all red rears lol