DIY: Headlight restoration write-up (LOTS of pics)

[Drsuce]

Its my first real write-up so be kind

Here's the drivers side OEM headlight from 1996. The UV coating is peeling off and making a mess, the lenses are milky white and it looks like it needs replacing... right? :sad5:




Another thing with SN95 headlights is they have those stupid little tits on them! You know, the ones that you always crush a finger on when your washing your car? I will be removing them aswell, heres a pic of what i mean


I used a dremel tool with a cutoff wheel to remove the tits. Heres the first pic of the tits shaved off. WARNING: Be very carefull when your using a dremel tool, use eye protection and DO NOT remove too much of the tit. If you go too deep you will NOT be able to sand it out.


and to the side

One more for good measure


The Lenses were then block sanded with 800 grit. Focus on removing the remainder of the tits before you work on the lens. Remove all the factory UV coating and any defects you want gone. Here are some pics having everything completly sanded down with 800 grit



Tits gone!!!


Repeat the process with 1000 grit and 1500 grit if you see fit. I left it at 1000 grit as i am able to fully remove 1000 grit marks easily!

Lets polish the lens clear again!
I used my Flex 3401VRG using orange and white pads with 3 diffrent polishes.
I started off with an orange pads with menzerna powergloss.Defects were still vizible so i moved on to a gentler menzerna super intensive polish using a fresh orange pad. The defects are now 100% gone, now all i needed to do was add clerity and some pop. i used my white pad with menzerna P085RD. The results speak for themself. The lens is now clearer than factory, titsless and lookin awesome!

Enjoy!





Those dots are just dust!

[eglove]

wow! nice work!

[Drsuce]

those last 3 pics have alot of dust stickin to em. after polishing they had ALOT of static charge!

[black13]

would this work with plastic headlights that have severe yellow'ing?

[Drsuce]

Most times headlights that turn yellow do so because of the UV coating on them. In this process i removed all the UV coating (kinda like clear coat) making mine clear again.

Sand em down and polish em out, whats the worst that can happen? If you need a hand just shoot me a PM

[black13]

Originally posted by Drsuce
Most times headlights that turn yellow do so because of the UV coating on them. In this process i removed all the UV coating (kinda like clear coat) making mine clear again.

Sand em down and polish em out, whats the worst that can happen? If you need a hand just shoot me a PM

yea true it can't be worse than they are now. I'm wondering how long they will last like that though? Maybe spray clear coat lightly on it to replace the old coat and it could last longer?
But nice write up and thanks for the info.

[anhsicun]

i did this on my prelude by hand a few yrs ago. got great result, but u would have to repolish with plastic X after every car wash or so.

[Drsuce]

I did the passenger side last fall and it still looks like the day i polished it. Also did both on GT winter beater, they made it through all winter and still look perfect. Im guessing that you didnt remove all the sanding marks if you had problems with them going dull in 1 wash. Or you wash your car with a scotchbrite pad

If we lived in a climate like cali, florida or texas i could see clearing them for extra protection. Plus, rattle can clear is shit and would not look nearly as clear

[inline6turbo]

Awesome write up!! I was just going to do the same one, good to see someone do it proper and use great products!

[97luder]

very nice looks almost brand new again

[Shlade]

looks good man! Good looking cobra too btw! I think i saw it in the shawnessy Zellers parking lot area! If that was yours i LOVE the mystic color! one of my favorites by far

[Drsuce]

Not me! There is one in town thats got a s/c on it, also heard a rumor that there was a girl @ race city with one last year. Not a comon color, but theres a few around

[Afrodeziak]

For those of us without pads/special compounds.

Can you recommend anything that you can buy off the shelf and use with a cloth to polish the swirls out to re-clear?

I'm good with the sanding stages, just not sure I know what to use for the polishing.

B

[VeilOctane]

did you do all this with dry sanding???

i don't hear of you mentioning any wet sanding

[Drsuce]

Forgot to put that in...

Lights were wet sanded with 3M wet/dry soaked for aprox 10 min before using a soap/water mix. Application was via hard rubber sanding block. You need a good firm block to sand down the tits, had it been a "flush" headlight i would have used a foam block to contour the surface better.

As far as over the counter products i know various "kits" are available at placed like napa and canadian tire. I have not used any of them but would assume that if you sanded down with a high enough grit that you could remove all the marks with a pad on a high speed drill. Generaly speaking meguiars makes top notch products, maybe try their kit? http://www.meguiarsdirect.com/detail/MEG+G1900

[FiveFreshFish]

Good writeup. I'm going to try this on the 3M film that has gotten slightly foggy over the past year. The headlight lenses are glass.

[scat330]

The kit's dont work as well as advertised, that's for sure. I sent you the pics

[Drsuce]

i would not reccomend sanding down 3m film, you will not be able to restore it. Or man up and just re film them, it shouldnt cost more than $100 to refilm headlights.

[FiveFreshFish]

I tried Meguiar's ScratchX on the 3M headlight film. Restored them to almost-new condition with a total time less than one minute.