DIY: Scratched / Delaminating Headlighs Fix

[Gholdwayne]

The car and lights are looking great well done.

thanks aza! haha you probably remember what my headlights looked like at xxftoxx's wreck before the sanding.

wished there were foggies though, would have been a complete front.

[mikencath]

I did our lights on the weekend. Used 1200 wet & dry, then some stuff called Astonish (it's a cleaning paste like Gumption) then toothpaste to polish it up at the end (basically just grabbed what was in the cupboard!).Tailights had some kind of varnish painted on them, had to use 600 to get through it. Might go back over with 2000 grit as there are still a few slight scratches, but 100% on what they were! Definitely worth doing.

[I8A4RE]

Work your way up to 2000 eg 1200, 1600, 1800, 2000. Buy skipping steps your actually making more work for yourself as 2000 will take ages to get out the deep scratches of 1200

[Kustom]

[quote="aza013"]The car and lights are looking great well done.[/quote]

+1

[anthxnyz]

how long should i be scrubbing the lights with wet and dry exactly, i scrubbed for 20 minutes and it's still there

[MH999]

What grade sand paper are you using?Start off with 1200 scrub until its super smooth then finish off with 2000 to take out the fine scratches.

[mikencath]

Takes a while. I did both headlights in about an hour or so, that got the film off and they look good, but I'm going to go over them again with a finer grit paper and polish again to get out the light scratching that you can still see if you look closely.

The tailights took longer as they had some sort of varnish on them which took ages with the 600 grit to get off, then I used the finer grades after that and then polish to finish off. Only done one so far...

[anthxnyz]

oh god, scrub each headlight for half an hour ? .. :/

[Bennoz]

HTFU

[dr390]

i wanna clean up my headlights and i dont really wanna buy a electric buffer
whats sand papers do i need and whats the best polishing products?
is there any particular method
like karate kid wax on wax off?
im just really scared im gonna wreck my headlights, i just want'em really nice and clean
so im gonna double check everything

[Kustom]

Yes in circular motion, basically you want to start off just like your sanding anything to be smooth, start at the lower grit and make your way to the highest.

You can buy a headlight restoration kit from autobarn for $40. I recently bought one for my Black FTO. When I get around to doing it i'll let you know how it is, I know it includes some polish and sandpaper and a load of waste of money too I think.

[dr390]

Yes in circular motion, basically you want to start off just like your sanding anything to be smooth, start at the lower grit and make your way to the highest.

You can buy a headlight restoration kit from autobarn for $40. I recently bought one for my Black FTO. When I get around to doing it i'll let you know how it is, I know it includes some polish and sandpaper and a load of waste of money too I think.

ahahah but its 40$ lols could go somewhere else but yeah tell me how it goes
iwhether or not i should but a kit or just the sandpaper and a polish, cause it most like be cheaper
i just wanna make it shiny cause i wanna buy HIDs

[Kustom]

Yeah If I was you Id just buy a bit of sand paper.

[dr390]

how many different grits am i gonna need? and what polish is the best?

[Gholdwayne]

for sand paper, i would get 800, 1000, 1200, 1600, 2000, all wet&dry, then some metal polish, then finish it off with the scratchX stuff, works excellent with a drill with the polishing drillbit or an orbital buffer.

[dr390]

for sand paper, i would get 800, 1000, 1200, 1600, 2000, all wet&dry, then some metal polish, then finish it off with the scratchX stuff, works excellent with a drill with the polishing drillbit or an orbital buffer.

would this work the same way if i did it by hand?

[aza013]

yes but will take a lot longer.

[dr390]

so roughly how long?
slave labour style 8hrs?

[aza013]

yep.
It should take about 2-4 hours by hand.

[dr390]

2-4 each headlight?
oh okay thats not too bad, i saw everyone else's pictures of there headlights
its worth it, i'l just scam my little brother to do it bwahhah

is it like at school il need to get that sanding block right?