Thought I would share my experiences in the hope that someone will benefit.....
Just had my 360 Modena paintwork corrected by Paul Every who has done a fantastic detail on the car, but it was let down by the usual debris in the headlights and water marks on the inside of the headlight lens.
We tried to vacuum out the crud using a small tube connected to a vacuum cleaner but just succeeded in moving it around.
I spoke to Tim Walker who was very helpful and offered to part exchange my lights for a set that he had. However his were Grigio metallic and my car is Rosso Corsa, so he arranged to have his set split, cleaned and repainted. I booked my car in at Rardley to have the light units swopped over.
Unfortunately, Tim was beset by the usual problem and one of the lights cracked on splitting, so we were back to square one. Mike at Rardley suggested that even if we remove my lights and try to clean them out of the car, the likelihood is that we will do more damage than good and we agreed that I would leave them in place and ponder on a solution.
So. today I implemented plan D and set to it myself, with surprisingly good results in only 90 minutes.
So here goes with the instructions...
Firstly, you will need a pack of lint free, open weave dish cloths, a 15 inch (8mm diameter dowel - the length is critical) and a retrieval tool to pull the cloths back out (This is a flexible tube with and actuating rod down the middle and a retractable claw grip on the end).
You don't need to remove the wheels or even jack the car up, but it will help if it is parked on a level surface.
The procedure is the same for both sides.
1) Turn the steering to full lock with the wheel pointing inwards on the side that you are working on.
2) Remove the access panel inside the wheel arch - two small bolts
3) Remove the full beam light bulb as described in the manual and let it hang out of the way
4) Using the dowel, carefully introduce one of the cloths into the light housing through the bulb hole
5) Once the cloth is inside, use the dowel to sweep it around from side to side - the open weave will pick up the debris beautifully
6) Once the cloth has picked up some dirt, remover the dowel and gently retrieve the cloth with the retrieval tool and bin the cloth
7) repeat steps 4-6 with a new cloth each time to remove as much as you can, or until the cloths come out as clean as they went in
Check for remaining debris as you go and once it is all gone you can replace the bulb, refit the access panel and move on to the next side
This method has removed all of the debris from the lights and some of the smears and watermarks from the inside of my lenses.
They are not 100% perfect, but they are more than acceptable and probably better that a split and re-assembled pair.
I elected not to wet the cloths as I felt that this would only result in smears and watermarks so did the whole thing dry and happily it has worked a treat.
Hope this helps and good luck!
Just had my 360 Modena paintwork corrected by Paul Every who has done a fantastic detail on the car, but it was let down by the usual debris in the headlights and water marks on the inside of the headlight lens.
We tried to vacuum out the crud using a small tube connected to a vacuum cleaner but just succeeded in moving it around.
I spoke to Tim Walker who was very helpful and offered to part exchange my lights for a set that he had. However his were Grigio metallic and my car is Rosso Corsa, so he arranged to have his set split, cleaned and repainted. I booked my car in at Rardley to have the light units swopped over.
Unfortunately, Tim was beset by the usual problem and one of the lights cracked on splitting, so we were back to square one. Mike at Rardley suggested that even if we remove my lights and try to clean them out of the car, the likelihood is that we will do more damage than good and we agreed that I would leave them in place and ponder on a solution.
So. today I implemented plan D and set to it myself, with surprisingly good results in only 90 minutes.
So here goes with the instructions...
Firstly, you will need a pack of lint free, open weave dish cloths, a 15 inch (8mm diameter dowel - the length is critical) and a retrieval tool to pull the cloths back out (This is a flexible tube with and actuating rod down the middle and a retractable claw grip on the end).
You don't need to remove the wheels or even jack the car up, but it will help if it is parked on a level surface.
The procedure is the same for both sides.
1) Turn the steering to full lock with the wheel pointing inwards on the side that you are working on.
2) Remove the access panel inside the wheel arch - two small bolts
3) Remove the full beam light bulb as described in the manual and let it hang out of the way
4) Using the dowel, carefully introduce one of the cloths into the light housing through the bulb hole
5) Once the cloth is inside, use the dowel to sweep it around from side to side - the open weave will pick up the debris beautifully
6) Once the cloth has picked up some dirt, remover the dowel and gently retrieve the cloth with the retrieval tool and bin the cloth
7) repeat steps 4-6 with a new cloth each time to remove as much as you can, or until the cloths come out as clean as they went in
Check for remaining debris as you go and once it is all gone you can replace the bulb, refit the access panel and move on to the next side
This method has removed all of the debris from the lights and some of the smears and watermarks from the inside of my lenses.
They are not 100% perfect, but they are more than acceptable and probably better that a split and re-assembled pair.
I elected not to wet the cloths as I felt that this would only result in smears and watermarks so did the whole thing dry and happily it has worked a treat.
Hope this helps and good luck!
