Polishing tail lights, rear license plate light.

Tuesday I spent at work, and resting.
I was pretty sore from moving the car seats in and out of the cars.

I don't have a picture of the black seats in the car yet.


One thing I did, I used a plastic polishing compound to shine up the center part of the tail lights on the cars.

I used a few cotton balls, not a machine.

I did a section of the tail light on the red car.

The two tail light pieces to either side are not hard to get shiny. They were OK.
The center black area that is the part I was having trouble with.
It must be a different kind of plastic.


I looked it up online and some people use toothpaste!
Also to polish aluminum rims.

This proprietary stuff seemed to work fine.


I just left the tail light that way, maybe I will do more after I wash the cars again.




Also, it bothered me that the light over the rear license plate was dangling.

Not only does it look silly with the light wiggling around at night, but I could slam on the brakes and the little light bulb could break.


I took the lens/bulb holder off the red car to see how it was made.

It attaches inside the bumper, this is it hanging down after I unscrewed it:

I couldn't get the screws back in it no matter how I tried, so I had to put it back with different screws.
:(



I made a crude tracing of the part to see where the holes would go.

Hey, I actually drew something!

It looks obscene...

I thought of using a piece of metal.

I had this aluminum butterfly that used to be a hair barrette. It was about the right size

It was a strange idea and it didn't work.


In the end  I cut a piece of this plastic jug.

I didn't take a picture of the result, but the plastic piece curls up in the gap under the bumper and holds the light bulb up out of the way.

I was afraid the plastic jug would melt, but the light bulb is small enough that it didn't get too hot.