There is a sticker that is displayed on your windscreen that indicates your vehicle is legally compliant and safe to drive on the roads of New Zealand. This is a regular check carried out based on the age of your car, in our case every 6 months.
More details on what is tested can be found here vtnz.co.nz
Taking the wife's car in today resulted in 2 fails
1 windscreen wiper blades need replacing
2 headlamp lens needs cleaning or replacing
Addressing the fails.
1 fair enough even though I thought both blades were fine. The problem here, for Honda's you can only replace the blades manufactured by Honda which of course are substantially more pricey than generic blades.
2 This surprised me, never heard of such a thing. Upon inspection at home it was obvious to see, the lens of both headlights were both discoloured/murky, they were obviously damaged and I needed to do some research.
Revelation
Well it turns out the Lens on this Honda is made of some type of tough plastic, all our previous cars had glass type headlamp lenses. Talking to my brother who is a mechanic said to replace it (which should be good for another 10years) or sand/polish it out (probably needs doing annually) and at some stage would require replacement.
DO NOT USE THE TEMPORARY TOOTHPASTE TRICK ---- WHAT ???
Sand and Polish Method per Lens
- wash headlight lenses (with soapy water)
- using 800 Grit wet/dry sandpaper, start sanding keeping surface wet 5mins
- repeat using 1200 Grit
- repeat using 2000 Grit
- finish with a cream cleanser (why not) and let it dry
- lastly, I lightly completed it with a cloth polishing kit that attaches to a hand drill
Was impressed and quite pleased with the results.
I know I rushed it because I was curious how it would turn out, and in hind-sight it would've been better sanding for at least 10mins per sanding paper type. Or possibly repeat the whole process another 2 times. Maybe next time.
The car passed Re-Inspection
Photos were taken with Samsung Galaxy Phone.
- with every post comes experience, as we all strive to do better.
- curate/up vote, let's encourage/reward and inspire each other.
- as always, thank you for viewing my post.
