I'm ready to set up a Mars Light for my Wabash Atlas GP7 using daylight yellow Surface Mounted LEDs, a Detail Associates casting and MV Products red and clear lenses.
Anyway, I have the right MV lenses but something puzzles me. The "clear" ones have a yellow tint to them. Is this something MV Products did to simulate the yellow light that older units had or did the finish yellow?
This kind of irks me as on the prototype the headlights unlighted are just plain clear. Just like the prototype, most of the time I won't be turning on the Mars light but rather using the regular headlight.
Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com/
Perhaps they were hanging around in the shop for a long time before purchase and yellowed. I have some floating around somewhere for a project and I know when I bought them, they were clear, as clear as any other clear plastic.
OTOH, I HAVE seen many steam loco headlights (prototype) where the glass front DOES have a yellowish tint when the headlight is off. Haven't noticed with early diesels. Modern stuff - definitely clear.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Yep - old stock most likely. They tend to turn yellow when exposed at length to UV light (sun or florescent lighting). Going backwards another step, it could even be a bad batch of resin they are made from and will yellow over time regardless.
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
I wonder if a product ike this would restore them?
http://www.amazon.com/Sylvania-38771-Headlight-Restoration-Kit/dp/B00429NKWK
wabash2800 I wonder if a product ike this would restore them? http://www.amazon.com/Sylvania-38771-Headlight-Restoration-Kit/dp/B00429NKWK Victor A. Baird http://www.erstwhilepublications.com/
You could buy a bunch of new lenses for what that kit costs !
Besides, it wouldn't work. The yellowing is the resin itself, not something on the surface. Once they yellow, there's no reversing it.
Hmm. I'm thinking I should forget the surface mounted LEDs and the MV lenses and go with regular LEDs, even if I have to turn them down in my mototool.
On the other hand, if I can find a clear UV protection that I can paint over a good lense before it has yellowed, perhaps that will solve my problem?
I make my own lenses from 5-minute epoxy right in the casting when they are too deep and have never had them yellow. I deal with a lot of different sized openings, and got tired of never having the correct size lens on hand.
Pick up a small amount of epoxy on the tip of a toothpick and run it around the inside of the opening. Use enough so you can draw it across the opening to cover it. Add one more blob of epoxy on that to form the convex lens. If it doesn't turn out right, poke it out from the inside when cured and try again.
Micro-Scale Krystal Kleer will do the same thing, but takes a lot longer to dry fully clear.
Besides - I never did master how to easily get the foil off the back of those tiny MV Lenses ! I know a few people that can do it with their eyes closed !
For shallower openings, I just turn down some 3mm LEDs and use the tip of the turned down LED as the actual lens. This is my preferred method, but on some engines like Athearn EMD cabs, the opening is just too deep for a turned down LED to reach the outside.
I received my Walthers order today and none of the MV clear lenses had yellowed. I also am awaiting some Krylon clear gloss UV protector and plan to paint that over the lenses in hope that will protect them from yellowing if this is a long-term issue that MV Products has not worked out.
www.erstwhilepublications.com
They are a hybrid polymer (plastic).