Slowly making progress.

Hemispheres

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Not sure if any of you remember me from about 7 months ago, but my Buick Lacrosse is making slow progress. I moved it from my cousin's house after finding scratches on it once again.

The good news is after a rain storm one day I managed to wipe my finger across the black gunk that is all over the car and it came right off so it appears it will just wash right off. But my reason for posting today is to show you the results of my first headlight restoration. I replaced the driver side headlight due to a large chip and all it needs is a good polish to be in tip top shape, but the passenger side was in very poor shape. T

This is before I started on it.

View attachment 74862

This is after 1 pass with 500 grit sandpaper on a drill, and 2 passes with 800 grit sandpaper.

View attachment 74863

This is after 5 passes on the high beam with 3000 grit sandpaper which left all sorts of swirls and holograms, at this point I decided it needed to be polished so I made a run to the store to pick up Plast-X and some Terry Towels.

View attachment 74864

This is the finished high beam after about 1 or 2 minutes of polishing with Plast-X. Turned out great. Sun went down shortly after this so I still need to hit the low beam with 3000 grit and polish it and apply the clear coat to both lenses tomorrow.
View attachment 74865

All in all I'm pleased with how it turned out. Now all she needs is some mechanical work and an inspection aside from a good detail and she'll be back on the road after sitting for 3 years.

EDIT: Turns out I've got the low and high beams mixed up. It's been a long time since I've driven the old girl.
 
Thank you, I nicked the bumper a few times but I plan on getting it repainted someday so I'm not too upset.
 
Nice work!

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Haven’t done headlights myself…. Looks good.


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Haven’t done headlights myself…. Looks good.


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Thank you. It's pretty simple. Just keep in mind if you use a kit for a drill the darn thing is gonna wanna dance all over the place, especially with the tougher grits. That's where my swirl marks and holograms came from.
 
Alright, I've had about 2 or 3 people out of about 50 tell me now that the clearcoat needs the 3000 grit finish to adhere to the headlight, and that I never should have polished it. Keep in mind the clearcoat in this kit is a wipe and not a spray.

How true is this claim?
 
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