iCharles

When I bought my car there were unsightly, small, yet plentiful nicks in my headlight lenses. I know this might have been covered before, but I had a very successful adventure in restoring my headlights so I thought I would share.

I did a bunch of research before starting this project. I had previously tried using plastic polish from Pep Boys to no avail. I was going about it all wrong.

What I ended up needing was waterproof sandpaper, multiple grits and several sheets of each.

I got 600 grit, 1000, 1500 and 2000 grit.

I got Mothers metal and chrome polish

I already had a bottle of plastic polish.

I bought an empty generic water spray bottle.

I started off by masking off the area with painters tape. Then I used windex and a terry cloth to clean the lens of any contaminants like bugs or dust. Then I sprayed the lens down whit water and began to sand back and forth, up and down and all around the lens, making sure to keep the flow of water consistent so that sandpaper could maintain its consistency. I knew I was done with the 600 grit when the entire lens was translucent, and I was thing, "Dear God, I hope I know what I'm doing."

At this point use a cloth to dry the lens so you can find any spots you will have inevitably missed. I actually used an LED flashlight to get in close and look at every nuance of the lens to ensure consistent sanding.

Next I moved to the 1000 grit sandpaper, again making sure to keep the lens wet while sanding, and drying it off completely to evaluate my progress. I kept going all the way up to the 2000 grit, which was very easy to move across the lens and brought the plastic to a clearer, but still foggy look.

The polish portion of this procedure was done in two parts by me, but it should be noted that this was all an experiment that just happened to work for me. I used a terry cloth and the Mothers metal polish and rubbed vigorously in circles throughout the lens. I did this two times, and the clarity of the lens came back even more, but not as brilliant as it needed to be. Then the final step, I used a microfiber cloth and the plastic polish, several times to bring back the brilliance of the lens and finally show that I had gotten rid off easily 95% of the imperfections, where as before the lenses always looked like I had just got back from a road trip, now people say they look new.

Some pieces of advice, do this in the shade and when your car is cool to the touch. Take your time, I spent a little over an hour on each lens making sure to be as meticulous as possible. DO NOT use regular off-white painters tape like I did. The water makes it super gooey and it was a real hassle to get off the car. Use the blue tape, I believe the guy in Home Depot said it is more resistant.

In the pictures I show what the headlight looked like after the 600 grit sandpaper. this is probably the most important step, so make sure you go over, and go over again any areas that still have imperfections. Some of the imperfections will not go away in this step, but will reduce dramatically as you increase the grit number of sand paper.

The pictures with the headlights on show the driver side after I was done with the restoration, and the passenger was as I bought the vehicle. I am sure that although the mobile phone quality of the picture leave much to be desired, the difference is very apparent.

Rizbel

Good job . Now upgrade your angel eyes!

Gene

nice write up, I believe this is the third one...the other 2 are here:


Member keith84_UK:

http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=57863&hl=


Member elite_motorsports:

http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=57221&hl=

Krozi

Nice write up!

iCharles

I already got an angel eye upgrade from Trinity installed, I love it.

Speaking of love...the middle pic on your sig makes me very...umm enthusiastic?

Howitzer

I tried this tonite and my results weren't nearly as good. I didn't get rid of a lot of the little pits and I still have some scratches visible. I used a 3M Lens kit from Auto Zone it was 18 bucks but had everything in it. 500 / 800 / 3000 / and lens polish as well as sponges etc that attached to a power drill. So I did all the steps but I'm not sure if maybe I did it wrong or what. Did you use a power tool, or just by hand? Should I start all over? I didn't ruin the lights, i was paranoid as hell at first and then towards the end it cleared up a lot after polishing. But again, didn't turn out really great at all. I have a little foggy spot also. Your photos look so good, like perfect clear glass. Mine still is blah!

iCharles

I actually looked into getting the 3M kit as well. They have an 'awesome' demo video on youtube about it, but they use a POS Taurus -

The funny part about my experience with this is that I did not notice much clearing of the lights until I moved away from the sandpaper and used the Mothers metal and chrome polish, then finally the plastic polish. I did this all by hand (just finished healing, USE GLOVES, haha). If you got most of the dings and pits out with the 3M kit, go buy the two polishes I mentioned and use a microfiber rag. Go over the entire lens stringently at least 3 times with each polish and you will get your shine back. If I was closer I would come help you out, but if you have any more questions feel free to PM me.

A few other members have gotten great results with their renditions of headlight restoration - see if perhaps their tactics work for you, but I am super happy with my results.