Headlight Restoration-new UV sealant idea

today, I discovered a mix of Optimum Power Clean at 3 parts water, 1 part cleaner will remove the spar urethane from headlamps.

The mix I used was a 50/50 of the correct ingredients and this was applied in November, before temps were below frost or freezing.

The front of the car was sprayed as a whole by my wife, and washed with water from my pressure washer.

The end result was the sealant pouring off the lamps like a brown water.

just FYI
chris<pixelmonkey>:D
 
pixelmonkey said:
today, I discovered a mix of Optimum Power Clean at 3 parts water, 1 part cleaner will remove the spar urethane from headlamps.

The mix I used was a 50/50 of the correct ingredients and this was applied in November, before temps were below frost or freezing.

The front of the car was sprayed as a whole by my wife, and washed with water from my pressure washer.

The end result was the sealant pouring off the lamps like a brown water.

just FYI
chris<pixelmonkey>:D
Click to expand...


Good info. I have used 90% rubbing alcohol. It takes a little wiping, but you have complete control. I learned this when I accidentally picked up the shot towel with 50/50 on it and wiped my side view mirror. I thought it was the one that was wet with cleaner. For a few days I thought, what will I do? I gave it a shot and like 3 minutes later my mirror was not only clean, but cleaner than ever. Now I use the alc to clean the mirror and put my Megs synthetic sealant on it.
 
pixelmonkey said:
today, I discovered a mix of Optimum Power Clean at 3 parts water, 1 part cleaner will remove the spar urethane from headlamps.

The mix I used was a 50/50 of the correct ingredients and this was applied in November, before temps were below frost or freezing.

The front of the car was sprayed as a whole by my wife, and washed with water from my pressure washer.

The end result was the sealant pouring off the lamps like a brown water.

just FYI
chris<pixelmonkey>:D
Click to expand...


I wish that would work to remove the old OEM coating on Chevy's for example. I don't have any issues removing the spar, its the 1/2 of OEM coating that isn't deteriorated thats hard to remove for me. The top half is usually worn off and comes off easy with very little sanding. The bottom half ya gotta sand like crazy on some vehicles to get it all off.
 
For those interested. This is what my headlight looks like now. I applied the spar mix Id guess, 4-6 months ago? It is pretty messed up. Not sure what happened with my application. Gonna sand it again and try OC 2.0 later in the week.

P1050652.jpg

P1050651.jpg

P1050650.jpg
 
It's wearing off. As it does, the underlying surface texture starts to appear through the ever-thinning layer of urethane.

I'm lazy on my own cars. I've seen them getting like that, and then when I have some spare 50/50 spar urethane left over, I wipe it right over the old stuff. Do it quickly enough, and it works! Too slow and it softens the old layer and leaves streaks. Wouldn't do it to anybody else's but if I screw up my own, I can do it over again.
 
That looks like a Nissan ......those headlamp lenses seem to go bad quickly from the factory,(along with others like Sonata's) and they also seem to have the spar mixture go bad quickly too. I don't know why, just that it does. Maybe the shape? Angle? Who knows? Try a 60/40 mixture.
 
timaishu said:
For those interested. This is what my headlight looks like now. I applied the spar mix Id guess, 4-6 months ago? It is pretty messed up. Not sure what happened with my application. Gonna sand it again and try OC 2.0 later in the week.

P1050652.jpg
Click to expand...

It may be the angle, i have seen headlights pretty faded in horizontal surfaces, and in flawless status in vertical surfaces. But i think that, in this case, maybe after sanding and/or buffing, the surface wasn't prepped with Minireal Spirits to eliminate any compound/sanding oils/residues, before applying spar/ms mix.

I even think that the Grand Marquis that HotRod used for his Longevity Test, could stand for 1.5 years with no problems because the headlights of that car are a vertical surface.
 
timaishu said:
60spar or 60spirits?
Click to expand...


60 spar.....40 spirits.............that way you have a little thicker coat of spar. I find if its a large headlight lens, or if its windy outside, you gotta be careful and real fast with application or it'll leave streaks and not self-level very well. Ya gotta experiment.
 
I did this today with a 50/50 mix. Mine weren't too bad so I wet sanded with 1500 and then 2000. Compounded them and polished them real quick. Alcoholed them and applied the stuff.

What I found out is only wipe over a given area once! If you go over it again, it will appear like you went over it with a brush. It lays down absolutely perfect the first time. I believe I overlapped the strokes which sounds contrary to what I just said, but a few seconds is okay. If you go back even 30 seconds afterwards to touch something up, it won't blend smoothly. If you mess up, wipe the light down with mineral spirits and start over.
 
HotWhipT/A said:
What I found out is only wipe over a given area once! If you go over it again, it will appear like you went over it with a brush. It lays down absolutely perfect the first time. I believe I overlapped the strokes which sounds contrary to what I just said, but a few seconds is okay. If you go back even 30 seconds afterwards to touch something up, it won't blend smoothly. If you mess up, wipe the light down with mineral spirits and start over.
Click to expand...

In all the headlights i've restored, i always used only 1 coat of spar/ms. My restored ones have passed over 5 months test pretty good, and they are still holding up. And for me it seems that even if you try to touch up a missed spot before 10 seconds, it streaks. So yeah, the best way is to wipe light down with ms and start over.

A TIP i want to share with you guys. Never found on this thread anyone giving advice on this one: To mix the spar/ms I do a 60/40 mix, using a 3.5" diameter x 2.5" height plastic disposable cup (originally used as a jelly mold, i think). I use a syringe to measure 20 milimeters of water, pour it into the mold, and use a permanent marker to mark the 20ml. Then, measure 24ml of water, pour it in the same mold, and mark the other 24mls. Dispose water (recycle it :P), and dry the mold. Then, with a disposable spoon i take OMS and pour it into the first 20mls. In the other 24mls, i pour the spar with another spoon. I then mix them using 2 toothpicks pretty well. Apply the mix on headlights using the folded blue towels trick. Blue towels is the best thing to apply it IMO. BTW i make many (about 10) marked molds, so when i am working (i am mobile), i just take one marked mold, and mix spar/ms :D

And something that has been told before but i want to emphazise is to prepare the freshly sanded or buffed headlights thoroughly, using rubbing alcohol or mineral spirits. MS works better IMO. It happened me that on the first set of lights i did, i didn't prep the left one, and 2 months later while i was washing the car, i was cleaning the light, and after drying i found a 1" x 3" slot on the middle of the light showing the sanded surface, and another one smaller on a corner.


:dblthumb2:
 
GalKonz said:

In all the headlights i've restored, i always used only 1 coat of spar/ms. My restored ones have passed over 5 months test pretty good, and they are still holding up. And for me it seems that even if you try to touch up a missed spot before 10 seconds, it streaks. So yeah, the best way is to wipe light down with ms and start over.

A TIP i want to share with you guys. Never found on this thread anyone giving advice on this one: To mix the spar/ms I do a 60/40 mix, using a 3.5" diameter x 2.5" height plastic disposable cup (originally used as a jelly mold, i think). I use a syringe to measure 20 milimeters of water, pour it into the mold, and use a permanent marker to mark the 20ml. Then, measure 24ml of water, pour it in the same mold, and mark the other 24mls. Dispose water (recycle it :P), and dry the mold. Then, with a disposable spoon i take OMS and pour it into the first 20mls. In the other 24mls, i pour the spar with another spoon. I then mix them using 2 toothpicks pretty well. Apply the mix on headlights using the folded blue towels trick. Blue towels is the best thing to apply it IMO. BTW i make many (about 10) marked molds, so when i am working (i am mobile), i just take one marked mold, and mix spar/ms :D

And something that has been told before but i want to emphazise is to prepare the freshly sanded or buffed headlights thoroughly, using rubbing alcohol or mineral spirits. MS works better IMO. It happened me that on the first set of lights i did, i didn't prep the left one, and 2 months later while i was washing the car, i was cleaning the light, and after drying i found a 1" x 3" slot on the middle of the light showing the sanded surface, and another one smaller on a corner.


:dblthumb2:
Click to expand...


All great info. The only thing that I might say is, in my experience, rubbing alcohol seems to remove the spar quicker if you mess up. You absolutely clean and start over. Nothing else you do will repair that.

I have had to do this a couple times but when I tried to clean with MS is seemed like it was barely thinning and smearing it around more than the rubbing alc.
 
HotWhipT/A said:
I did this today with a 50/50 mix. Mine weren't too bad so I wet sanded with 1500 and then 2000. Compounded them and polished them real quick. Alcoholed them and applied the stuff.

What I found out is only wipe over a given area once! If you go over it again, it will appear like you went over it with a brush. It lays down absolutely perfect the first time. I believe I overlapped the strokes which sounds contrary to what I just said, but a few seconds is okay. If you go back even 30 seconds afterwards to touch something up, it won't blend smoothly. If you mess up, wipe the light down with mineral spirits and start over.
Click to expand...


I agree.........You have to wipe on the spar mixture very quickly. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I work mostly outside and wind is my biggest threat. If its windy out, the spar I just applied will dry too quickly...not allowing the proper time for it to self-level and it leaves streaks. I usually start with 60/40 mix. If it's windy and leaves streaks...I wipe it off and add a smidge more mineral spirits and try again. Wind sucks! I normally dip one side of the blue scotts into the mixture and let it soak in for a few seconds. Then I run it all around the outside edge of the lens, to make sure I don't miss anything. Then I will swirl around the middle section. Lastly (and extremely quickly) I start at the top and make 1 horizontal swipe from end to end the width of the scotts and drop down and keep doing that until I've covered the whole lens...1 time. As someone else said....one swipe works best, if you make several swipes or wait and try to fix something...it doesn't work.
 
Re: Headlight Restoration-neyw UV sealant idea

First off, thanks to everyone for contributing to this great thread!

Can you give me some hints on taking great before / after pictures as well as critique this recent job I did? (This was probably the toughest set I've done due to the curves and on the first lens I didn't start coarse enough and upon inspection later realized I needed to redo.

Do you inspect the lenses with the lights on before completion? It's just that sometimes the lenses look different with the lights on? Is this normal?

I have more similar photos of the other side but this should give a good idea. (I put all the photo's in my Gallery or I could upload them here if you want)

Cheers!Feed back please
 
Re: Headlight Restoration-neyw UV sealant idea

Always Learning said:
First off, thanks to everyone for contributing to this great thread!

Can you give me some hints on taking great before / after pictures as well as critique this recent job I did? (This was probably the toughest set I've done due to the curves and on the first lens I didn't start coarse enough and upon inspection later realized I needed to redo.

Do you inspect the lenses with the lights on before completion? It's just that sometimes the lenses look different with the lights on? Is this normal?

I have more similar photos of the other side but this should give a good idea. (I put all the photo's in my Gallery or I could upload them here if you want)

Cheers!Feed back please
Click to expand...


They def look clearer, but not crystal. Maybe it's the indoor lighting. I always try to get natural lighting. (outside) I never take pics with the lights on, and don't use a flash. Let surrounding light work for you.

Let me ask, what was your process... ie 600,800,1000,1500,3000,compound (or) what?
Did you also use the spar 50/50? I had a Mercedes ML320 that didn't seem to clear up as much as I thought it would but once the 50/50 was on, it looked a lot better, and the lens was a refracted one.
 
The

Unfortunately natural light wasn't an option on this one as I started late and it turned out to be a long job - my fault for not being aggressive enough from the beginning. (It was nice to be working inside on a cold night though.)

I'm just using a small point and shoot camera not a DSLR. Is that sufficient for this kind of shot? Lighting messes me up all the time, with the sun shifting in the sky or going down and I don't take the time to consider that for my after shots.

The front right took a long time, the process was something like 600, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000 realize spots were missed and repeat 800, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, then compounded. I wiped down twice with IPA then twice with Spirits before applying Spar at 50/50.

The left went better, I started with 400 and worked up the same ladder. Starting with 400 REALLY made things easier.

Would dropping the compounding and going to 3000 give me that crystal clear look?


Thanks for the tips
 
This might sound dumb but when you guys say 50/50 or 60/40 do you guys mean mixing spar/mineral spirits together then applying?

Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk 2
 
Always Learning said:
The

Unfortunately natural light wasn't an option on this one as I started late and it turned out to be a long job - my fault for not being aggressive enough from the beginning. (It was nice to be working inside on a cold night though.)

I'm just using a small point and shoot camera not a DSLR. Is that sufficient for this kind of shot? Lighting messes me up all the time, with the sun shifting in the sky or going down and I don't take the time to consider that for my after shots.

The front right took a long time, the process was something like 600, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000 realize spots were missed and repeat 800, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, then compounded. I wiped down twice with IPA then twice with Spirits before applying Spar at 50/50.

The left went better, I started with 400 and worked up the same ladder. Starting with 400 REALLY made things easier.

Would dropping the compounding and going to 3000 give me that crystal clear look?


Thanks for the tips
Click to expand...

I always go to 3000 and compound. I find that it gives a great look. I have seen a lot of people on here going 2500 then compound, but I have not tried stopping there.

david11g35 said:
This might sound dumb but when you guys say 50/50 or 60/40 do you guys mean mixing spar/mineral spirits together then applying?

Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...

Yes. That is what we are talking about. I have always done 50/50. Until I have an issue or feel the need to change things, I will stick with it.
 
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