Can someone please help me how to clean the inside of the headlight. I've cleaned the outside of the headlight using various grades of sandpaper and then plasticx. It looks a lot better but now you can really see how dirty inside is. on one headlight there is some sort of fractal growing from the top of the headlight. very strange...

Thanks.

 

There is no way you can clean the inside of the headlight unless you crack the housing open...

 

you can clean the inside and poslish it to look new again but you will need to split it open.
A guy in HK recons the headlight on any car and he dose a very good job but change quite alot $100usd for each light

 

Careful with sanding because, most headlights as far as I know have an anti-oxidation coating on the outside of the lens that over time builds up a thin film over it. Similar to how bronze or copper builds a petina that is a barrier to further oxidation which can be removed to show the beautiful metal beneath. With headlamp lenses the anti oxidation coating builds a film that can be chemically removed to reveal the beautiful lens beneath. At least this is how its been explained to me. At most autoparts stores I've seen oxidation removers that do NOT contain micro-abrasives (like 3M scratch remover) that chemically removes film without stripping the anti-oxidation coating.

My dad used 2000-grit sandpaper on his e39 lenses which looked great for 2 months but then it got worse than before because he sanded off the anti-oxidation coating.

 

That's because he didn't follow up with an acrylic sealant. When I refinish headlights I go 600, 800, 1000, 3000, then buffing pad, then finishing bad...buffing bad and finishing pad are used in conjunction with Meguiars PlastX...plenty of water with the sand paper. Follow up with a sealant and then leave a layer of wax on the headlights after every detail and they will look good for a looong time.

 

sanding outer and inner is OK
https://5series.net/forums/topic/578...hl__headlights
https://5series.net/forums/index.php...r&f=14&t=57863
https://5series.net/forums/index.php...r&f=14&t=57221

 

thanks for the info guys. i still can see the scratches from the sandpaper on my headlight. how long do you need to sand the headlight at each grade of paper? i was only doing it for a couple of minutes. maybe this is why the scratches are still there. i only used plasticx, what sealent would you recommend.

it sounds like i should just get a projector replacement