Tried head lamp polish, didn't work - Exterior Forum

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Tried head lamp polish, didn't work
Sunday, March 10, 2013 11:58 AM
It really didn't work. Didn't even make a dent so to speak. But it was the "hand" powered polish/protector I bought at Kroger Marketplace.

Should I try one of the "power drill" kits or do you think I'm going to have to buy new lamps?

Here's an after, but the before looked the same.



Re: Tried head lamp polish, didn't work
Sunday, March 10, 2013 12:11 PM
it takes multiple grits of wet/dry sandpaper, ending with 1500 grit or so. Then polishing with plastic polish.
I've used kits for redoing aircraft windows with success, and something I got at Advance Auto parts.
dennis
Re: Tried head lamp polish, didn't work
Sunday, March 10, 2013 2:36 PM
Or use the sand paper, 800 or so to start, wet sanding, ending with 2000 ish wet sanding. Then have them Clear Coated. They will look flawless.




Re: Tried head lamp polish, didn't work
Monday, March 11, 2013 7:48 PM
Sunfiretun3r wrote:Or use the sand paper, 800 or so to start, wet sanding, ending with 2000 ish wet sanding. Then have them Clear Coated. They will look flawless.


any particular type of clear coat used? or just what is used for clear coating car paint.



Re: Tried head lamp polish, didn't work
Monday, March 11, 2013 9:45 PM
^^ just clear coat for automotive paint.




Re: Tried head lamp polish, didn't work
Tuesday, March 12, 2013 8:04 AM
good to know, thanks



Re: Tried head lamp polish, didn't work
Tuesday, March 12, 2013 9:16 AM
I did this to my BMW, made my lights look new.

Start with 600 grit, then 800, then 1000, then 1200, then 1500, finish off with Mequires PlasticX

made sure all sanding is done wet.



Re: Tried head lamp polish, didn't work
Tuesday, March 12, 2013 4:35 PM
^^ I used the plastic x on my truck's headlights and my dad's Subaru. My only issue with it in I have to keep going over it again every 4-6 months. I didn't wet sand either before hand though, so that may have something to do with it. But, my cavi lights were as bad or worse than the op's lights and using the plastic x without sanding did nothing. Using the plastic x with wet sanding did help significantly, but it still wasn't as good as wet sanding and clear coating. The clear was applied a year ago and the lights still look great. Haven't had to touch up at all.




Re: Tried head lamp polish, didn't work
Tuesday, March 12, 2013 7:29 PM
I always just use 1500 and 3M Finesse-It every other time I washed my car. No clearcoat.

But clearcoat is the way to go. They haze back up again if you dont.



Re: Tried head lamp polish, didn't work
Tuesday, March 12, 2013 11:22 PM
To bad your cant clean the inside of the lens itself like mine are fuzzy inside the lens. Also th fog lamps.Can you put xenon light bulbs in a stock headlight kit or you need whole new set up?



Re: Tried head lamp polish, didn't work
Wednesday, March 13, 2013 8:23 AM
I just did mine with a Meguire's kit from walmart. It did wonders but the insides still have a slight haze, not nearly as noticeable since I did the outside of the lens. I\ll eventually clean the inside when I get around to doing a projector retrofit anyway.

Re: Tried head lamp polish, didn't work
Wednesday, March 13, 2013 9:06 AM
The 3M kit is the only way to go, the wax on wax off products dont work at all.
Re: Tried head lamp polish, didn't work
Saturday, March 16, 2013 9:37 AM
The thing with headlights is no matter how well you get them to turn out with whatever method being toothpaste, wax, sanding, baking soda, drill, polisher. Etc.... They are going to go back to looking like crap eventually whether it be a week or 6 months. Problems is the plastics have uv inhibitors that break down after so long causing them to look like that.

This was never a problem with glass headlights but it's a lot cheaper to make plastic ones and auto manufacturers can make more complex curves with plastic lenses than glass
Re: Tried head lamp polish, didn't work
Saturday, March 16, 2013 11:23 AM
This is my handy work. wet sand with a mini DA, I believe I started with 8 or 600 and worked up to 2 or 2500 then used rubbing compound and polish on a mini polisher...viola!





Re: Tried head lamp polish, didn't work
Saturday, March 16, 2013 4:34 PM
looks good man, i had the same results with my sunfire till about 2 months later i was right back to square one. either need to clear coat them or keep up on the polishing



Re: Tried head lamp polish, didn't work
Saturday, March 16, 2013 5:09 PM
Those are holding up just fine. I did that last fall and doing good through the iowa winter



Re: Tried head lamp polish, didn't work
Saturday, March 16, 2013 5:42 PM
I have a pretty nasty fogged up lens. One looks alright but the other is trashed from the inside. I think I am just going to bite the bullet and buy a new pair. It's not like new ones will be a big bank breaker.
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