General: Headlight masking for driving abroad

[gareth71]

Taking the new V70 over to France next month - the dealer has yet to send me the owners' manual in the post, but having searched the forum archives I'm led to believe that when it arrives I should find that it contains a template for masking off the beam for driving on the 'wrong' side.

What I'd like to know, though, is this - if I use tape of some sort (PVC, aluminium, etc.) to mask the beam, is the heat from the beam likely to cause me problems with removing the adhesive when I get back? I'm going to put on a pair of headlight protectors fairly soon, so presumably if I stick the masks onto the protectors the extra little air gap between headlight lens and protector will reduce the likelihood of there being a problem with heat affecting the adhesive?

[Viper_7]

I would get the proper deflectors rather than just masking the lights out with Tape, yes the tape can fuse to the light and cause damage when removing.
This is most likely with black tape. You can get black tape that is silver backed to help prevent this.

Vipes

[gareth71]

That's kind of what I was afraid of. Do you think it would make a difference that I'll be putting the tape onto the protectors rather than directly onto the light? I'm also thinking that aluminium tape would probably be a better bet than PVC tape - less likely to drop off if it rains.

[Viper_7]

ah right, if you have headlight protectors then you should be fine with the sticky tape.
you should be fine in the rain with either tape if you ensure all the edges are well pressed down.

vipes

[GMcL]

Hi Gareth,

This was covered at the end of March at:
http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=34756

For what it costs I would just buy the headlight protectors and use tape as suggested by Vipes.
If you treat the plastic with Rain-X or such like you may find taking the tape off and cleaning up afterwards a little easier.
The cut out is in the manual but the above link has a photo attached to show what you should end up with. These are protectors with the deflectors painted on by Volvo.

[gareth71]

Cheers, GMc - that's what I'll do, I think. I did see that topic when I was trawling the forum earlier on for a bit of info on this subject - the pre-masked protectors seemed like a fairly neat idea, but as someone who very rarely drives outside of the UK I didn't think I could really justify the expense of another set of protectors over the cost of a couple of pence-worth of insulating tape!

Rain-X - never heard of that. Google, here I come!

[GMcL]

Rain X is a water repellent which is excellent on windscreens and lights.
Hardly need to use the wipers when it's raining as the airflow removes the water from the screen.
It also makes removing dead flies in the summer easier.

[Bhowani 2]

FWIW, in my travels with a sucession of LRs and latterly Volvos in Scandinavia, I used black masking tape, as this seemed the logical solution.
In any case the costly Lucas ones that you "made up" from a black sheet of vinyl are effectively the same thing.

Overheating never a problem but bear in mind the venue!

Nowadays I drop the dipped beam as low as poss, and have yet to be pulled, and our Viking cousins apply the same when they land at Newcastle. If it ain't broke... etc



Bhowani

[GMcL]

I had the Lucas one's on my Pug206 and despite them being correctly fitted was constantly getting flashed when in Europe.
Never had any problems with the Volvo. Even with new brighter bulbs, yes I've been through my first round of knuckles scrapped, dipped headlight bulb, replacements. PITA !
Oh well!, five months ownership of a two year old car, I knew "bulb failure" was coming...

[richnsueb]

I have headlamp protectors and used some masking kit bought on the Ferry. Big mistake! The glue residue was really difficult to remove and I ended-up having to replace the headlamp protectors as the glue residue was causing a dark light obscuring patch to form!

Think I might try driving on dipped beam with the angle set to low.