i just bought the ricks smoked diffusers and turn signals. i took apart the headlights to install the new smoked diffusers and decided to re-condition the headlight plastic covers. i went to auto zone to purchase a headlight restoration kit...that **** sucked and i ended up scratching the **** out of my front clear covers. anybody have experiance on this type of situation that could give me advice on how to fix this problem? thanks for reading.

 

wetsand + re-clear

 

yah man, the kit i bought at auto zone was exactly that...wet sand + some polishing solution. do you have a specific brand i could look up? thanks.

 

real clearcoat.. not just polishing compound.

 

where would that be sold?

 

any jobber that carries ppg dupont HS SW HOK, etc

 

You don't need to clear coat. I am in San Diego and I have polished mine. I can do yours as well if you are interested. What you need to do is wet sand with varying grits of sandpaper then step down to a polishing compound then lastly to a polish. If this is done correctly, your headlights will be crystal clear.

 

u never NEED to clearcoat, but thats the answer to get them to OEM-new quality.

ill be doing mine soon for my s2 and my prelude lights (need to do 3 sets of prelude lights) but ill post pics of the process.. just waiting on the oven to arrive (my oven doesn't work atm lol)

the process is actually pretty simple
-clean it as much as possible
-wetsand w/ 600 grit
-spray the clear to fill in the cracks
-lamin-X or chemical to keep them from yellowing again.

and if it's yellow on the inside too or fogging up cuz its unsealed
-remove bulbs/seals
-bake the headlights at 250-300 degrees for 5-10 minutes
-peel off the lense from the lights
-wetsand inside and outside
-use epoxy, glue, or whatever extra sealing compound on the edges
-re-assemble

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by IIGQ4U &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You don't need to clear coat. I am in San Diego and I have polished mine. I can do yours as well if you are interested. What you need to do is wet sand with varying grits of sandpaper then step down to a polishing compound then lastly to a polish. If this is done correctly, your headlights will be crystal clear.</TD></TR></TABLE>

read me: most new oem plastic will have a coating on it, if you buff that coating out, you will left with a clear cover without uv protection. which it might or might not translate to hazy headlight problem.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dagle &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">u never NEED to clearcoat, but thats the answer to get them to OEM-new quality.

ill be doing mine soon for my s2 and my prelude lights (need to do 3 sets of prelude lights) but ill post pics of the process.. just waiting on the oven to arrive (my oven doesn't work atm lol)

the process is actually pretty simple
-clean it as much as possible
-wetsand w/ 600 grit
-spray the clear to fill in the cracks
-lamin-X or chemical to keep them from yellowing again.

and if it's yellow on the inside too or fogging up cuz its unsealed
-remove bulbs/seals
-bake the headlights at 250-300 degrees for 5-10 minutes
-peel off the lense from the lights
-wetsand inside and outside
-use epoxy, glue, or whatever extra sealing compound on the edges
-re-assemble
</TD></TR></TABLE>

600 way too corse, clear doesn't fill up pits, you need to compound the base plastic
after sanding(even after 2000) you will get a haze to it.

you seem to forgot about the whole cut and buff stage.

 

really? does 2000 grit take off the clearcoat? I used the method i described and got a pretty good finish on my prelude lights. it was enough to take the rest of the clear off but didn't really work its way much past that if any at all..

ill be sure to try that tho. do you think i should do it in stages like 1k and work my way gradually to 2k?

 

i hear about people here using toothpaste to restore thier headlights, judging by the before/after pics it seems to work. do a search