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Horns, Headlights, Lenses

To: tigers@autox.team.net
Subject: Horns, Headlights, Lenses
From: NamasteRH@aol.com
Date: Sun, 12 May 1996 23:57:42 -0400
Hi All:

I've been on vacation this past week and have spent most of my time trying to
work through the electricals of my Tiger...what a nightmare.  I hope there's
a Hell set aside for DPOs.  Progress has been very slow (cleaning contacts,
replacing bad wires and connectors...the typical stuff).

Anyway, I have a few questions for the group.

1) My hooters have hooted their last hoot.  Anyone know where to get
replacements (there's stuff that sounds like sand inside and I get 12V up at
the horn mechanism - which I now have assembled, thanks to Chris Richards and
Frank Marrone - where I thought I was supposed to see ground);

2) Even if the horns were pristine, I don't think I quite understand the
circuit.  Pressing the horn ring should complete the circuit to ground for
the horns, but the plate that my horn mechanism makes contact with doesn't
connect to ground.  It is a puzzlement.  How is that plate supposed to
connect to ground (i.e., aside from running another stray wire myself at the
risk of becoming a DPO too)?

3) Amid my seemingly endless electrical problems, one stands out as truly
pesky.  The low beam on my driver side headlight is only getting 5V.  The
passenger side is normal.
Both high beams are normal.  (*#%*#*!!!)  Anyone have a clue?

That's it for questions.

I'd like to now pass along my experiences with cleaning and polishing the
plastic lenses of my car.

Awhile back someone suggested using an ultrasonic cleaner to clean up lenses.
 This sounded good to me, since my wife, Annemarie, is a jeweller and we have
such a device at home.  So in they went (using a Fantastic and water
solution, and the heater was on).  The result was lenses that looked kind of
like they had been painted white.  My wife recognized this phenomenon as
being caused by wax that has separated from the lenses (thus, we deemed this
a good thing - note that the hot cleaning solution was necessary for this to
happen).  The trouble was in finding the best way to remove this film (some
of it could actually be peeled off, but most of it was solidly afixed to the
lenses).  Jewellers use acetone for removing wax from metal, so we tried it
on the plastic, dunking a piece for about ten seconds then taking it out and
wiping it off (I was worried about melting the plastic, but that did not
happen).  The wax came off, but without that embedded wax the lenses looked
cloudy.  Off she went to the polishing wheel.

My wife used a compound called White Diamond, on a SOFT wheel, at SLOW speed
on a polishing wheel (similar to a grinder - slow means no more than 1750
rpm).  The result is lenses that are basically new in appearance.  White
Diamond compound is 600 grit - with plastics, the higher the grit the better
the finish and you don't have to worry about removing too much material if
you use a higher grit.

Caveats: Ultrasonic cleaning can be very rough on old lenses because of their
brittleness. 
              Careful with the acetone.  Nobody can say that any piece of
plastic will not
               respond badly to acetone without actually trying it (assuming
we are talking
               about lay-people here, not organic chemists).

Well, that's the story.  Sorry it took so many words to tell it.  If anyone
would like their lenses treated this way, Annemarie would be willing to do
the job for a nominal fee to cover the costs of the wheel, compounds,
shipping and the like.  Contact me directly if you feel like giving it a
shot.

Thanks in advance for any help with my electrical troubles.

Rick Hoefle (1964 Tiger B9470508 - Rick's)
                  (1969 MGC - Annemarie's)

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