As usual i was bored at home so I decided to restore my dad's DD's headlights. I had restored them like 4-5 months ago and back then it looked like $--T before restoration. Now it had started to look yellowish again, so i decided to give it a go.

I wetsanded 800-1000-2000 grit, was too lazy to mask the sides , didnt damage the paint though.

After 2000 grit, instead of buffing it I decided to put a fresh coat of clear on it since the last times job didnt last very long. This last minute decision amazed me and my dad.

Pics

Before

By alighanizad at 2010-08-10
Sanding with 800

By alighanizad at 2010-08-10

By alighanizad at 2010-08-10

By alighanizad at 2010-08-10

1000 Grit

By alighanizad at 2010-08-10

By alighanizad at 2010-08-10
2000Grit

By alighanizad at 2010-08-10
Sorry no after pic of 2000grit,

But here is the amazing part after the clear

By alighanizad at 2010-08-10

By alighanizad at 2010-08-10

Once again, Before

By alighanizad at 2010-08-10
After

By alighanizad at 2010-08-10


But there is a lot of orange peel because of using the spray can UV Clear Coat, i will wetsand it again and then buff it to get rid of the orange peel. But thats after 2-3 days once its all cured.

It sucks that the lens is cracked from the inside because of rock chips which doesnt let look brand new, other than that its sexxxxxxyyyyyy now.

Thank You for viewing, and please let me know any ideas to make my work better. I am a newbie.

 

I thought this was gonna be about using toothpaste as an experiment .
Seems like a lot of extra work?...

 

Never tried the toothpaste, but did try wetsanding and buffing my teeth with rubbing compound once, hahaha lmao and I am not kidding. I didnt wetsand though

Well as far as work is concerned, ummm no its not that much work if you know what you are doing. I did work a lot coz i was trying different things. But if u wetsand like 800-1000-1500-2000 - Clear-Clear-Clear- 1000-1500-2000-and polish. Then it might take like 1.5 hours but its well worth it. Looks brand new.

 

I'm going to sound like an idiot when I ask this but, what do you mean by "clear". My passenger headlight needs serious attention and I'm very interested in doing something like this soon. Thanks.

 

I don't believe the clear coat part is necessary. But the 800, 1000, 1500 process is about right.

I usually just get to polishing and buffing right after.

 

rioyellows2k, I agree with you, if you have a buffer go till 2000 and buff it out with a good polish and it is better than anything else.

 

Question,

I used a turtle headlight restore product and it came out pretty nice. I drove back home and I got couple bugs on my headlight now. What should I do? Should I wash again? Or leave it untill it gets dry first?
Product came with one small wipe sealing, if I have to use it again what product should I go look for?

Thanks

 

next time, please tape off the painted body panels, and make sure to use a sanding block of some type (the cheap meguiar's flexible ones would be perfect for something like this).

 

probably a noober question...but, what are you spraying on the headlight while sanding?

 

water