John,
That's pretty much the same thing I did, although I used several alcohol
rinses instead of soapy water, and I dried them with a hair blow dryer.
Anyway, it's too late:  John Meeks already talked me out of my invasion
plan, and I've already put the new bulbs in and put everything back on
the van.  I noticed that the old bulbs were Sylvanias with "nov00"
printed on the side.  If this means "November 2000", then I'm expecting
a big improvement even if there is a bit of fog on one reflector.
I impatiently await nightfall.
-Jeff

John Graham wrote:
> I have an 88 Vanagon with the square headlights.  My headlights had
> become somewhat hazy and my solution was to remove the bulbs, take the
> buckets out with the headlights still attached and clean the insides
> by just washing with warm water and dish soap.  I rinsed well with
> distilled water.  I then set the buckets on a warmer face down and let
> them dry of 8-10 hours.  To improve air circulation, I used an old
> aquarium air pump to blow some air into the headlights to dry them.
>
> It's been a while since I did this and during the washing part I may
> have inserted a soft cloth in with my 'dish water'  and swished it
> around to help dislodge and dust and so forth, but I did not do an
> other specific scrubbing.
>
> After I finished and reassembled the headlights they both looked brand
> new and seemed to work better as well.
>
> That's my story and I'm stickin to it.
>
> John Graham
> 88 Westy - Hathaway
> Charlotte, NC
>
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