Figured this would be the place to post this b/c it was to do with my lights. Anyway, I did some searching and come across a few different ways to clean up headlights. Well I wanted to avoid doing the wet sanding option so I tried the Nevr Dull stuff and the PlastX stuff from Advance Auto Parts and it just seemed like I was getting nowhere so I figured I would ask you guys' opinions on what I should try next. This is what my headlights look like


they're really nasty as you can tell, and just looking for what would be the best to try on these. Thanks guys!

 

o.O

i don't think you have many options to choose from... either wetsand and polish

or just buy a new set.

 

yep, gonna have to bust out the sand paper and garden hose.

It's be much easier to sand them with the headlights and lenses bolted to the car. I polished a set of 98-99 headlights off of a car once and it was hard as crap. I had to rig up something to bolt the lights to a piece of wood and put it on my saw horses to hold them and keep them steady while I sanded them.

 

eh thats what I figured, I'll be doing that next week, the reason they're separated is b/c I'm doing am HID retrofit.

 

yea you can wet sand and polish them, but after it rains or you wash your car, it's going to fade on you again cause it's just going to wash the wax right off and you'll need to keep waxing it each time. What you need to do is wet sand and have a new clear coat sprayed on it or you could even buy some lamin-x

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by prelude1897 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">yea you can wet sand and polish them, but after it rains or you wash your car, it's going to fade on you again cause it's just going to wash the wax right off and you'll need to keep waxing it each time. What you need to do is wet sand and have a new clear coat sprayed on it or you could even buy some lamin-x</TD></TR></TABLE>

I can't fully cosign on that...I've done the process to one of my headlights... 1500 grit wetsand with wax on an orbital buffer followed by 2000 grit with wax followed by 2500 wetsand with wax and then finally a polish...that was done a year and a half ago and there's barely any difference...

Might do it again when I hit the 2 year mark though.

But yeah, clearcoat is the only sure way to prevent re-oxidation

 

I know it sounds stupid, but try wet sanding with water and toothpaste yeah...toothpaste, It cleaned up the lenses on my Mustang pretty well.

 

i wet sanded mine ,then used rubbing compound on em,and clear coated them they look alot better than they did before but there still not 100% perfect

 

This may be dumb, but where can I find 1500/2000 grit sandpaper? I can't seem to find it anywhere, Lowes didn't have it, and if they didn't I'm pretty sure Home Depot won't.

 

any auto store, best bet would be autozone, they from 800 to 2000 grit. My headlights looked almost like yours but, not that bad. In your case I would start with 1000 grit, then 1500, then 2000 grit. get a bowl or something so you can dip the sandpaper in the water often. Make sure to clean and dry the lens after each sanding. It takes patients. I used the meguiars plastx.Mine looks brand new. Follow this diy
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1523524

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by prelude1897 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">yea you can wet sand and polish them, but after it rains or you wash your car, it's going to fade on you again cause it's just going to wash the wax right off and you'll need to keep waxing it each time. What you need to do is wet sand and have a new clear coat sprayed on it or you could even buy some lamin-x</TD></TR></TABLE>

hahaha umm no this will not happen. Wet sanding and polishing physically removes the crap that's on the surface of the lenses to make them appear all clear and new again. There's nothing that can be "washed off" after wet sanding and polishing. Even if you applied a car wax, it doesn't wash off just because it gets wet. It'll wear off over time but it won't wash off immediately.

And UV rays from the sun can cause the lenses to start to yellow again, but again it's not an immediate process.

I wet sanded and polished my lenses over 2 1/2 years ago and applied that clear stuff like lamin-x or 3M StonGuard, and it still looks pretty much the same as when I first wet sanded the lenses, other than a little wear on the plastic film from road debris.