IMO if you are an AUTOMOTIVE press professional, but then you have no insight into what you are writing about, and to you, writing about roses or engines is just as different and the poor googling you've done before writing anything is research, then you are just another reporter! Better stick with TESLA reviews as no real petrol head will read'em anyway.
But what you never ever do, is write an article advising people to 'fix' your car in a way that will make things worse.
I've recently came across an article about a easy fix for yellowed headlights.
It's in Portuguese, but don't try to read or translate as it's mostly a bad advice.
What makes your headlight acrylic or plastics turn from transparent to yellowish is : the sun... ot better: UV light. Yes street dust act as sand blasting and acid rain accelerates the process, but the main guilty part is U.V.
As new, your plastic or acrylic headlights are protected by a U.V. resistant varnish layer that, as time goes by, scratches and peels away (from projection on the road, to scrubbing to clean, to you're new polish that you don't need but buy anyway).
Without this protection, the U.V. light hurts the plastics and create tiny fissures that will start to make things fuzzy, and also provide habitat for micro organisms and... dust.
As time goes by, it will be encrusted into the headlight and you'll end up with diffused beam projection and insufficient lighting from both beam refraction and dust particle obstruction.
The article tells you to 'clean' with baking soda and lemon juice.... ok STOP the clock!
This is NOT cleaning... it's abrasive thinning! You don't clean your skin with acid and particles... you exfoliate! This is as aggressive (if not more) as sanding.
Toothpaste, baking soda or fine sand are micro particles that, together with acid (lemon juice) will eat away the superficial layer of the plastic and expose an inner layer that has not been hurt enough by sunlight and dust.
In the end you've just made the plastic thinner and more fragile.
It will look fine for a few months and then go back to what it was, only worse this time.
The plastic has lost thickness and the U.V. fissure will crack sooner and deeper.... you can keep this going until your plastic is so thin that you'll crack-it by applying some pressure while cleaning... then you'll be replacing it!
NOW...
If you were to inspect the varnish coating layer and replace it with U.V. resistant clear coat, you would never need to do this in the first place.
If you try to extend this coating lifetime by applying a ceramic clear-coat protection, it would be even better.
And if the worse happens and you have to sand down your headlight, DO remember to pass a clear-coat of UV resistant varnish, the moment you finish it ... and a couple more withing the setting time for that same varnish (instructions should guide you) just to be on the safe side...and then the ceramic coating.
As time goes by, it will be encrusted into the headlight and you'll end up with diffused beam projection and insufficient lighting from both beam refraction and dust particle obstruction.
The article tells you to 'clean' with baking soda and lemon juice.... ok STOP the clock!
This is NOT cleaning... it's abrasive thinning! You don't clean your skin with acid and particles... you exfoliate! This is as aggressive (if not more) as sanding.
Toothpaste, baking soda or fine sand are micro particles that, together with acid (lemon juice) will eat away the superficial layer of the plastic and expose an inner layer that has not been hurt enough by sunlight and dust.
In the end you've just made the plastic thinner and more fragile.
It will look fine for a few months and then go back to what it was, only worse this time.
The plastic has lost thickness and the U.V. fissure will crack sooner and deeper.... you can keep this going until your plastic is so thin that you'll crack-it by applying some pressure while cleaning... then you'll be replacing it!
NOW...
If you were to inspect the varnish coating layer and replace it with U.V. resistant clear coat, you would never need to do this in the first place.
If you try to extend this coating lifetime by applying a ceramic clear-coat protection, it would be even better.
And if the worse happens and you have to sand down your headlight, DO remember to pass a clear-coat of UV resistant varnish, the moment you finish it ... and a couple more withing the setting time for that same varnish (instructions should guide you) just to be on the safe side...and then the ceramic coating.
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