DYI: Polishing your headlights / tailights

[LornesBored]

I'm back with a new DYI / How-to.

I've seen a few how-to's floating around online, and when searching online you obviously find a whole bunch of ones with different techniques, tools, grits, polishes.... etc. I work in a bodyshop, as a bodyman tech, and my brother is a painter, we work in the same shop. This is advice from [b]real[b] techs with real world experience, so take our advice

Please understand that this is not limited to headlights, feel free to use these techniques on headlights, tailights, side markers, fog lights, reflectors.

And also understand that you can also polish glass with the same techniques, just with different polishes / cleaners.

Things you will need:
- a brain (most important)
- masking tape (1.5 inch OR 3 inch) won't need much
- sandpaper (600 and 800 grit) or a GRAY scuffing pad and scuffing paste (optional)
- some form of air or power polisher
- did I mention a brain? haha okay
- polish, pick your poison, but make sure its for plastics
- plastic parts cleaner, or something that wont leave **** behind (dishwashing soap, cleaners with wax in them)

example of what I would use if I wasn't using shop materials:


now, down to the procedure:

1. tape off your headlights, this is pretty self-explanatory. Pretty much you want to tape off your headlights a few inches past where the headlight is, mainly because if you are new to doing it and using a power tool, you will slip off. Since I work in a shop, I just remove the headlights and do it on a bench or in my lap just for the ease and comfort.

pic:



2. Simple enough, clean the lense(s) to be polished. Since I am doing all mine in a shop, I would grab some cleaner we have laying around and do it. Be sure to pick up some plastics cleaner, first wet it down and remove any loose dirt / dust / debris, then use your plastics cleaner and use some elbow grease with lint free cloths and clean it better, don't get the plastic cleaner on other parts

** An example of a hazed headlight versus a bradn new OEM headlight **


3. after using plastic parts cleaner, wipe it down again with another dry lint free cloth, and grab a bucket filled with water and soak the sandpaper in there. It is DEFINATELY a good idea to have a spray bottle of NON soapy water handy so you can keep misting the headlight while sanding it to remove any extra debris / surface stains and keep it wet and for the sandpaper to not be clogged.


- I however used a grey scuff pad, so I just kept dipping it in water:



4. My personal advice is to just use only 800 grit sandpaper on the headlights, but others suggest going all the way up to 2000 grit sandpaper. I feel that this is a big waste of time unless you want to spend 45 minutes+ on each headlight, when the results we produce in the shop are the same when just using 800. I would hazard a guess that people want to do it up to 2000 just to make sure they have every spec of dirt off of the headlight, but since finishing a car in 800 is more than enough to paint a high metallic paint job on top of it, my personal opinion remains that 800 is just fine. But for the benefit of the doubt, I will say sand with 600 grit, then 800 grit.

5. Now, the proper way to sand... ugh... haha, people say sand side to side, thats cool, but wrong. You MUST sand WITH the shape of the headlight and/or panel, to make sure you don't wear grooves into the headlight and make it wavy. But since we are only using 800 grit, I don't think this will be too much of a problem, however, I would still sand on a 35 degree angle following the curvature of the headlight in question. Keep spraying water every 10 - 15 seconds. If you spend more than 15 minutes on one headlight, you are overdoing it.

when you have it sanded, it should look like this:


6. dry it off, to make sure you have uniform haziness, and its supposed to look this way, so don't worry. wipe it down again to make sure you get all the dirt and water off of it, don't use plastic cleaner, stay strictly with water right now, and not the dirty water you were dipping your sandpaper in, clean water.

7. DO NOT remove the tape. as I stated above, leave the tape on. And get a power tool, unless you want to spend an hour and lots of elbow grease instead of taking 5 minutes with a tool does.

something like this :


8. POLISH IT. use your plastic polish and spread it onto the headlight with your polishing tool, and start going to work, polishes like circular motions, so if your doing it by hand, use circular motions sucka. polishes also like water too while polishing, so mist the headlight as well with water.

9. MAKE SURE that when you are polishing, that you are not overdoing it in one section, because you can dry out the polish you are using and start burning the headlight you are working on, not hard, you can tell when its dry.

- omg a picture of me doing it:


10. make sure you have the entire thing done. spray it off with water, wipe it off. If you have a compressed air blower, use it to dry off all the excess water, and see if it is uniform and you don't see any haziness. If there still is haziness, repeat the polishing process.

it's a VERY easy thing to do, so if you fail, don't blame me! haha.

and finished product:





all nice and tidy!


sorry its not on a focus. I have a lack of a digital camera and have been asked this question on a couple forums the last few days. Plus I just finished doing this to a MK4 jetta in my shop with awesome results, so here you are [fj]

*edit*
added new pics of another car I did it on!

[norcaljess]

thats kools pretty good and new. i think im gonna give it a try on my mother in laws escort. lol.. by the way your supra is hella clean. i love supras and focuses. great job on the lites maine.

[stilix]

nice write up and mmmm supra.

[SVT3658]

Nice write up!

A great product that goes along the same lines of your process it this, which is what I used to make my NASTY MACHs look brand spankin new again (buy two kits though, just to be safe)

Best before/after shot I have:

[LornesBored]

^^ hey thats pretty cool. That would be a good alternative to someone who doesn't have acces to shop materials.

[Tobyboom]

Is it true or false that a protective film/coating should be applied to a headlight lens after this kind of treatment? I've heard that the hazing will only return if something such as lamin-x is not used afterward.

[LornesBored]

You know I wouldn't be able to tell you yet. I haven't been running them for a while so I could not clarify for you.

Polish and waxes wear out over time, this could be a reason why people want to go up to 2000 grit then polish it, I still see that as silly though. I would see why and how it could fade, and the multiple reasons why, doing it by hand will look good initally but you haven't ground it into the scratches as well as you could with the air tool or bit-on-screwdriver technique. However, if someone has done it the way I said and has it re yellowed quickly, lemme know and I will modify my post!

[SVT3658]

I've heard that once you sand the headlight down you remove the UV protectant layer, and unless you put a new one on (whether it be lamin-x, clear coat, or whatever....) the actual lens will turn yellow over time and can be ruined, rather than the layer you sanded off.

I applied lamin-x after I sanded and polished my lights to avoid any problems down the road