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Another Screen Washer Question

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JohnnyMead

JohnnyMead

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Has anyone found a way to clean up the plastic Tudor washer fluid bottle? I like having the original, but it is discolored and rather nasty looking.
I guess I should be happy that a 50 year old plastic thing has survived under the hood at all.
John
TR3A
 
Tudor? I must have been thinking about Fords. Of course its a Trafalger. Anyhow its 50's vintage plastic.
 
Don Elliot has an interesting comment on that. I just went looking for it but couldn't find it. Hopefully he will send it along.

Tinkerman
 
My original Trafalgar plasic bottle turned yellow with age. It became yellow long before I restored my 1958 TR3A in 1987 to 1990. I bought a new white bottle and lost a point at TRA because the new white bottle did not have the name "Trafalgar" in raised letters molded on the outside. The same bottle is used for the overflow for the rad in the TR4.

So I put my old yellow bottle back in place and I haven't lost any points. I have never put any fluid in it since 1990 (102,000 miles) and one TRA judge told me he wanted to dock a point because it was empty. I told him that my 1958 TR3A was built in February and was on board ship during the winter and when I went to the dealer to get the car brand new, the bottle was empty. So he accepted that an empty bottle was "as it was when originally delivered".

BTW, I rarely drive in the rain and if I did, I don't need fluid in the bottle while the rain is falling.
 

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JohnnyMead said:
Has anyone found a way to clean up the plastic Tudor washer fluid bottle? I like having the original, but it is discolored and rather nasty looking.
I guess I should be happy that a 50 year old plastic thing has survived under the hood at all.
John
TR3A
Click to expand...

John: The screen washers were dealer installed, even though they may have been listed on the factory build record. During the production of the side screen cars screen washers were manufactured by Tudor, Trafalger, Lucas and others. Most of these were hand accuated with a small pump/spring-loaded knob mounted on the facia. I have seen a few that operated by manifold vacuum, but not on a Triumph. The Lucas 'Screen-Jet', had a small electric motor driven pump. Again, I haven't seen the electric screen washers on TR2 - 3A, but it is conceivable that customers would have fitted them to TR3B's and certainly TR-4's. From an originality standpoint any of these would be correct if they were 'period' accessories. So a Lucas screen-jet wouldn't be proper on a TR2, and so forth.

Now, to your point concerning yellowing of these white plastics, this is a common problem with all 'white plastics' used at that time. Much of these accessories were made using ABS plastic. This was quite new in the late 1940's. It was relatively cheap to use but it had certain weaknessess. In order to make this material fire-resistant, the chemists brominated the plastic. This worked well until the ABS was exposed to an oxidizing agent. Sunlight, for example, would cause the bromine, a dark brown chemical, to become free of the polymer resulting in the discoloration. Time, sunlight, hydrocarbons, etc causes the discoloration.

Here is something you may consider trying. There is a formulation called 'Retr0Bright', designed by some vintage computer enthusiasts. They needed something to reverse the yellowing of the plastics in the computers they collect. The process assumes ABS plastic, but I have read the background and believe it should work for different polymers, also. The magic compound is not expensive to make, using common ingredients like hydrogen peroxide, glycerine, oxy-type laundry additive and sun light or a UV lamp. Go here for the details.

Retr0Bright

Good luck
 
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