Ultrasonic cleaning of taillights

[s class]

When I sent my grille in for ultrasonic cleaning, I wondered what else to experiment with. I decided that my taillights were looking sad, so I disassembled one. 

Here are the BEFORE photos - showing lots of the ingrained dirt typical on high mileage cars. 









You can see on the inside of the reflector and lens a bit of green undergrowth - due to a poor seal. 

[s class]

Here's the AFTER photos.  I'm really excited about this.  The lens looks fantastic. 






I don't know how clever it was to send in the reflector as well.  It's certainly super clean now, but it has a galvanised finish.  I thought it was painted silver inside before?  Oh dear.

[s class]

More pics

[s class]

Still more pics - got carried away.  But I am THAT impressed. 

[oscar]

Bloody wow!!!!

How does the process work sclass?

[s class]

Oscar, the principle of ultrasonic cleaning is they immerse the item in a liquid contained in a tank that is vibrated with small amplitude, but high repetition rate - around 30 or 40kHz or so.  They leave it there for hours or even days.  The minute vibrations are too small to feel (or so I understand), but the dirt is gradually vibrated loose.  It gets dirt out of every crevice you could never get to by other means.  The other key is the choice of liquid.  For metal items they cal also use aggressive solvents, but for plastics like this he used what he described as being basically water with industrial strength dishwashing liquid.

The results speak for themselves.

[alabbasi]

I was thinking about buying one of those
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93035

[s class]

Al, thanks for that link.  It is a lot less expensive than I had imagined.  But OK that's pretty small, but I'm sure I could find a lot of uses for it.  I think its the type of device my contact uses for cleaning fuel injectors.  I will see if I can find one locally for that sort of price. 

For big stuff like the lights, it seems the crowd I used for this work is interested in fostering my business.  I can think of a lot of stuff I'd like to give them. 

Ryan

[s class]

Of course now where this gets really expensive is I CANT refit these lights with the old stuffed rubbers.  Off to the dealership I go.  Anywhere else have them cheaper?

Ryan

[WGB]

Great information Sclass.

Bill

[oscar]

I haven't googled yet where in Oz to have this done, but a colleague said his mechanic does injectors and spark plugs this way.  If this guy's got an ultrasonic tub, I figure many would.  But it's only a small outfit that wouldn't be big enough to take larger items.

What else can be done?  I'm thinking back to the "cleaning bundts" thread.  Could this remove the brake disc dust that gets imbedded?  What about painted items?  Will the ultrasonic action cause paint damage?

[gregdeklerk]

Of course now where this gets really expensive is I CANT refit these lights with the old stuffed rubbers.  Off to the dealership I go.  Anywhere else have them cheaper?

Ryan

I hope you know the rubbers for the tail lights are ZAR1200 for 2 and I think that is bloody expensive, when you can get a screen rubber for that price. Ryan, I am really impressed at the lenses. Do you know if this crowd has a branch in Cape Town or of a similar business?

[s class]

Greg I know that's what the rubbers cost, but I'm sure you agree I don't really have a choice. 

As to ultrasonics places, I didn't really search that hard, but I think I was lucky with this crowd I found.  If you like I can phone them and see if they can refer us to someone in Cape Town.  Since they are tied into the Avionics business, there must be similar operations in Cape Town.

Oscar, yes, you can clean wheels that way, but I suspect the paint will come off too.  That can be a good or a bad thing depending what you want to achieve. 

As we discussed before, the reason the cant simply clean the brake dust off the paint in many cases is because it comes off the brake pads red hot and burns its way into the paint, becoming permanent.

Ryan

[500eguy]

that is very impressive, no need to buy new ones now.....i assume you could also use this method to clean old wheels?

[SELfor50]

It uses sound waves to vibrate the particles off - and i'm assuming that paint would definately be affected or completely removed by this cleaning.

If not - i'm gonna find someone who can dip my entire car for a couple days.   

I posted an oz link in the grill cleaning thread - haven't confirmed them yet though.

Cam.