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Giving New Life To A Old Lens

MaukaRunner

Oakley Expert
544
658
Oahu, Hawaii
Hope this hasn't been discussed before. I did a search but didn't find anything.

I kinda learned this the hard way. I bought a used Gascan and it looked like the lenses were smudged so I hit them with the Oakley Lens Cleaner and the thing start flake. Not sure if the guy oiled up the lenses since they were flaking already. Anyways I got stupid and tried to use some auto polish on the lens. Bad move. Polish has some abrasives in it and it scratched the lens. Read where alcohol messes up the coating and since the lenses were already messed up I'd figure what the heck. Soaked the lenses in alcohol and the coating came right off.

Today I had a old M-Frame lens which I use while cutting my grass and working outside. It started to flake where the lens touches my cheeks. I was thinking of tossing it since overall it looked really bad. There were little nicks from rocks and stuff getting thrown onto the lens and the coating just didn't look as clear Got a ziplock and put just enough alcohol into the bag to coat the lens. I folded the bag and got as much air out of it and let it soak. I kinda forgot about it and when I came back it didn't look like anything happened but when I pulled out the lens it looked like what happens when you put paint remover on a painted part. It was all wrinkly and lifted off the surface. I rubbed it to loosen the coating and then rinsed it under water with some soap.

I was pleasantly surprised. All of the coating came off and it looked pretty good.

Note: This was done on a grey lens so I don't know what would happen to a Iridium one but at least I can get more use out of the lens. Especially since it will get more damaged from the stuff being kicked up from my lawn mower.
 
interesting. i believe that coating is an anti-reflective coating, and doesnt diminish the UV protection by removing it. I have an emerald lens that are thrashed, i intend on using plastic polish (much finer than auto polish) to clear it, and use it as grey lenses too. i may use your method of stripping the coating, to help speed up the process.
 
interesting. i believe that coating is an anti-reflective coating, and doesnt diminish the UV protection by removing it. I have an emerald lens that are thrashed, i intend on using plastic polish (much finer than auto polish) to clear it, and use it as grey lenses too. i may use your method of stripping the coating, to help speed up the process.

The process didn't remove the iridium, only the clear anti-reflective coating. Give it a try and let us know. My two sets were already flaking though. Not sure if your lens is starting to flake and is already weak but if the lens is shot then give it a try.
 
The process didn't remove the iridium, only the clear anti-reflective coating. Give it a try and let us know. My two sets were already flaking though. Not sure if your lens is starting to flake and is already weak but if the lens is shot then give it a try.

yup, if anything the plastic polish will clear the iridium coating. ive used it to clear scratches off watch faces before with fantastic results.
 
yup, if anything the plastic polish will clear the iridium coating. ive used it to clear scratches off watch faces before with fantastic results.

You might want to try a second application of the alcohol. It might do the trick. I was looking at the first lens I did which had a black iridium coating and it looks like a small section of it came off too. My thinking is even though the polish has little or no abrasive unless you can apply totally uniform pressure at a right angle to the surface you will distort the lens. Just remember when you polish something, the media is removing material to make the thing shiny. If you don't remove the iridium in even passes you will be cutting off some of the plastic while you are trying to remove the rest of the coating. Think about it.

When I did the grey lens, I was surprised how shiny the lens looked. Don't know how bad your lens is though.

Try stripping the coating first, then re-soak to see if you can get the iridium off then decide if you want to try to polish.

Also, let us know how it works out.
 
How long are you soaking the lenses? I have a pair of flak xlj polarized ice lenses that came on a pair i found washed up on the beach. pretty scratched up. i soaked them over night but they dont appear to be any different (also didnt see anything in the alcohol). Do i need to soak longer or is tthat how it is? They still look blue but i was under the impression it would take that off down to the gray base. My hopes were that the scratches were in the top coating only but im not sure. Also is there anything you can use to remove scratches (like the plastic polish mentioned above)?
 
How long are you soaking the lenses? I have a pair of flak xlj polarized ice lenses that came on a pair i found washed up on the beach. pretty scratched up. i soaked them over night but they dont appear to be any different (also didnt see anything in the alcohol). Do i need to soak longer or is tthat how it is? They still look blue but i was under the impression it would take that off down to the gray base. My hopes were that the scratches were in the top coating only but im not sure. Also is there anything you can use to remove scratches (like the plastic polish mentioned above)?

I read somewhere salt water also messes up the coating so the clear coat might already be gone.

I left mine in about eight hours. When I pulled mine out of the zip lock bag the coating was all wrinkled and was visibly lifted off the lens. I rinsed them under water with some soap to get the rest off.

For me, the coating was already flaking so it was obvious that the coating was partially gone and already weakened.

Look at the back side of the lens. Is there a rainbow like sheen/effect? I noticed at a certain angle the coating gives that rainbow effect. If you don't see that then the coating is probably gone.
 
I dont see any rainbow effects so the coating may be gone. I was just under the impression that when the coating came off the blue tint color and all would be gone leaving just the gray lense. Now i did not put them in a zip lock just in a bowl submerged in alcohol. Also any tips on polishing away the scratches? I dont really need theses lenses as i already replaced them but if they can be refurbed its always nice to have an extra pair. Thanks
 
I did a some searching online and found some different ways. One was PlastX from Meguiars. It's a plastic polish. Let me try it. I have a lens which I can try it on and I use PlastX for my car. I'm at work so I'll let you know after I do it when I get home.
 
I did a some searching online and found some different ways. One was PlastX from Meguiars. It's a plastic polish. Let me try it. I have a lens which I can try it on and I use PlastX for my car. I'm at work so I'll let you know after I do it when I get home.

yeah im probably gonna pick up some plastic polish too. mine has been soaking for 3 days and no difference.. i think the coating has to be weakened befor eit'll soak off in alcohol.
 

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