Clear and green Dominion Auto 357 flat top

[toon80]

Hi guys,

Last winter, I got a rare clear Dominion 357 dome in rough shape. It was badly scratched and hazed, but lucky for me, not cracked. With the good weather yesterday, I got around to polish the dome. I don't have "before" shots, but I'm quite happy with the result. The restored lens was mounted on a spare NOS amber 357 beacon I had laying around. 

Like many Dominion Auto collectors, I'd like to find the infamous green flat top lens. While the hunt goes on, green PAR 36 mounted on the beacon will replace the clear 4416s.

Enjoy

Toon

 

[motorolamaniac]

Nice job, looks like new!

 

[Mars Light]

Great job, looks really good.

 

[Windycity411]

Very nice! When wet sanding, do you use heavy or light pressure on the dome?

 

[toon80]

WindyCity411, I used this process on this dome:

(First time I tried the wetsanding process on a dome. I only did AeroDynics in the past)

Big scratches were removed with 400 grit 3M sandpaper. Then, I finished it with the 3M headlight restoring kit on a battery hand drill. (P500, P800, Trizact 3000, included polishing coumpound in the kit) then Mother's powerball mini + plast-X, and lastly, Turtle wax platinum inside and out to make it shine. 

As far as pressure goes, I don't push too much, because old domes can get brittle, but I do more than a "caress".  To me , it's not quite that too much pressure will damage the dome while working the sandpaper, as opposed to having too much pressure and breaking the dome, if you know what I mean.

By hand, always keep the paper wet and the dome wet by squeezing a rag on the dome every so often. When I see gunk forming up, I rinse it immediately. 

With the drill, you MUST keep everything wet. Heat can form up quickly with the drill. I heard that this heat could permanently cloud the lens so be careful.

Hope this helps

 

[JennyCop]

Looks great, your hard labor paid off! Very nice job! :thumbsup:

 

[Scoot163]

Beautiful work!  

 

[Windycity411]

I tried wet sanding for the first time on a yellowed RV46 dome. It's a clear dome and now it looks hazy and opaque (worse than when I started). Sanding and Plastx wasn't enough. I guess I'll try the powerball. I'm worried I was applying too much pressure when sanding.

 

[toon80]

You have to get progressive grits in order to remove the finer and finer scratches with each step. If you go with 500 grits, then 2000, no way you will remove the scratches left by the 500 unless you wetsand forever with the 2000. You should go for instance up-down with 500, then left-right with the next grit and so on. Change grit only after you can't see the previous scratches anymore; hence the change-direction-with-each-grit method. Helps to keep track of where you need to work. Tedious, yes, but necessary.

For better results, I use 400/500 to start if it's really scratchy, then 800, 1000,1500, 2000, 2500, 3000 (last 2 grit IF you can find them) Then some trizact pads found in the 3M restore kit, then mother's powerball and plast-x. You need lots of time to do a good job. Keep in mind to completely remove previous grit marks.

What grits have you used, and in what order? I think your problem might be to skip from a coarse grit to a finer one too soon...

Also, thanks for the compliments, everyone

 

[jph2]

Agreed, it looks like new again!

 

[DISCOMC]

Hope to see,one day,the rare Green flat top Lens


Did anyone saw it?

 

[Ben G]

I saw a pallet of them at the Dominion Auto auction in Uxbridge many years ago. THey were being sold with the moulds from that production line.    I tried to get one and no luck

 

[DISCOMC]

Oh god!


Too bad !