Neanderpundit

Criminal, dumbass, nutbag, and of course, batschit crazy.

God have mercy on the fine residents of Chitown

To Ms X that she switch to the higher color temperature lights, and possibly use a 3m kit to shine up her frosted headlamps.

Mine have been getting pretty bad, lately, predominantly due to the sandblasting effect of 395,000 miles of driving the old girl. So I picked up one of the kits I reccomended to her- they’re on sale at Hardly Freight, for $19- and went to work.

In about five minutes per lens, I managed to get the sandblasted, old lenses clear as new again. Well, as clear as they’re ever going to be again. You can’t get to close to the alignment nubs, of course, and you’ll wear out the sandpaper if you try to sand off the lettering.

The kit consists of three grades of sandpaper and a foam buffing pad. The first grit of paper is super fine, and is made to remove deep scratches and sandblastiness. The second grit is MUCH finer, and brings the surface down to smoothness, though it’s still frosty looking when you get done. The third grit is mondo fine, and has to be used wet, and it just about leaves the lens perfect. The last step is to buff the lenses with a dab of buffing compound, which makes the lenses clean and sparkly. Like I said, five minutes or less per headlamp, and i still have enough materials to do another pair of lenses.

best $19 I ever spent, and there’s plenty left to do it again, or do the wife’s when it needs it.

And now I can reveal.

My friend Ken is now making leather grips for selected firearms. Here is a sample. Mind the Franken1911, it’s old and tired, and the print of it’s usual ivories shows around the leathers.

You can click to embiggenate.

The black grips have a texture a bit like pigskin. The snakeskin ones are- I think maybe embossed leather, but there are actual snakeskin ones. They are smaller than regular 1911 grips in that they do not cover the plunger tube. They are not suitable unmodified for amidextrous grip safeties. I’m giving this pair to a couple friends to torture test them

The original idea was for these to be merely decorative, and that may be where they end. There has been some testing, though, and some of the people testing them have enjoyed the feel of the grips, and there is some indication they may be more durable than originally thought. So it’s testing time.