cleaning out spot lamp bowls

[callum]

...particularly those of hella rallye 3000's.

i picked up a pair of these second hand. granted i did not pay much for them, but i'd like to get the best out of them.

They are fitted, it appears as standard, with 100w bulbs, however the output is so-so and i think its due to the lenses. looking inside, the reflectors seem clean, but the lenses are kind of stained white and a bit streaky. i tried washing them out with water and soap, but it was not so successful. the lenses are sealed to the bowls, so there's only a gap of maybe 8 x 20mm to work though and i therefore cannot get in to polish them.

any suggestions as to how to clean them inside? ideally i'd like to separate the lenses from the bowls, but prying at them, just breaks off bits of the lenses. I'm worried if i use a more abrasive cleaner i'll damage the plating on the bowls.

[Simon119]

Might sound strange but try bicarbonate of soda mixed with warm water in them. SWMBO uses it to clean some vases she's got that have a narrow neck, couple of teaspoons of Bicarb and some warm water swirl it around and they look good as new.

Don't know how it works but it does, weather the bicarb acts like a very fine abrasive or not i don't know but it has never scratched any of the vases but gets them shiny every time.

[JeffR]

I use dried rice on a pair of Hella Chromes. Combine with bicarb ans plenty water then swirl away till you get bored. Bugger of a job getting the rice out, but very effective.

[callum]

well to round this one off, i tried:

bicarbonate of soda and water, which didn't seem to do anything

i then added rice to the mix, which made a slight difference, but not too much

then i tried bleach, which did a bit more, but they were still a bit hazy, although the one i'd had a go at with the bicarbonate of soda and rice was a bit better than the bleach only one.

the final winning combination this evening was rice and wonder wheels. reflector and lense are both nice and shiny now and i didn't have to split them apart, although a few grains of rice remain in one bowl.

thanks for the suggestions folks, job now done.

[Mo Murphy]

What are these miraculous wonder wheels, we need to know

Mo

[hobson]

Have a go with some denture cleaner, used for cleaning nicotene stains off old peoples false gnashers.

don't know what they put in it, but it cleans things really well!