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If the micro cracks are no larger than 1500 grit sandpaper, a good final protective coating should fill them in. ray5

Worse set was a 1999 Jeep Cheroke that had been restored badly 2 years ago. Filmed it and will post by Wednesday. ray6

If you're referring to headlight restoration, I would question using any pad unless you are using polish/wax instead of a true headlight coating. If you're using a true headlight coating, I wouldn't use any compound or polish and risk contaminating the new protective coating. ray6

We cut open headlights when doing tests, and they are very thick, at about .100" or more. Don't think you could sand through if you tried, at least not easily. However, some alignment tips (those 2 or 3 protrusions on the headlight surface) are hollow and you could sand through them. ray6

Nice job on the Volvo. I would caution you on applying masking tape onto rubber bumpers. We stopped doing it when with some older cars, the paint came off with the tape. Now we just lay a rag under the headlight. ray6

Those tiny micro-cracks can be in the factory coating or the polycarbonate itself, usually due to water freezing in the crack. A good coating (thick coating, like 1 mil. or more) will fill in those cracks,sort of like windshield repair, as long as they are clean and dry before applying the new...

If you spray a headlight with alcohol, for a few seconds you can get an idea of what the headlight will look like when restored. Yellowing and cloudiness is a result of the factory coating deteriorating. What's critical is the condition of the polycarbonate underneath. I wouldn't be afraid of...

I wonder if it's a chemical reaction between the factory coating and what you're applying? I did learn long ago that partially restoring a headlight by removing only the damaged portion and re-coating that same area doesn't always work. It may be that some solutions will react with the factory...

As was explained to me by a chemist, acrylic can develop a scum on the surface (milky) due to solvents evaporating from the acrylic, but he couldn't explain for sure if they're coated or not. In practice, the same coatings that work for headlights work for acrylic as well, even though the UV...

I believe the Coat2Protect is a poly, so shelf life would be dependent on a number of factors, the most important being storage container, temperature and amount of oxygen in a partially filled bottle. We used to sell a similar product (I think it was similar) with a stamped shelf life of 1...

Don't know for sure how long Coat2Protect will last, but because it's a poly, I would think you'll use 5 to 10 ml. per headlight to coat with 1 coat. (1 oz.=30 ml.) depending on the size. This coating is a 2K , so it's 8 oz. of coating and 8 oz. of activator, so it's 16 oz. total. So, worse...

Nice job on the headlights. What did you use for your clearcoat? ray6

Forgot to add: Use a polycarbonate such as Brite Lites UVHC or Premium, Delta Kits Coat2Protect, Dvelup, Medallion, or even Spar/MS would work in this situation. Avoid water based for this because of the coating thinness. For polyurethane, cure can be shortened by using mild heat from a hair...

We don't normally sand acrylic, just strip and coat. Same process as headlights. Acrylic tends to fill up sandpaper and usually stripping alone does the job, but a quick wipe with 1500-2000 grit will help protective coating stick. Basically, any process or coating designed for polycarbonate...

We're not quite ready to offer product, so my recommendation would be to use Delta Kits Infinity 4.1 coating (2 coats) for now. It cures in about 4-5 minutes so total dry time is under 10 min. for 2 coats. General consensus is that it should last 2 years, but the product has only been available...

Headlight Restoration 2.0 I see lots of questions on headlight restoration on this forum relating to which system is best or what's the best product. I'd like to share some information about headlight restoration. Although I work for a headlight restoration supplies manufacturer, the...

We use 1996 Ford Taurus as our standard test headlight because they are really bad, being 16 years old. In reality you can restore just about any headlight to like new regardless of condition if the following conditions are met: 1. No water or moisture in the headlight 2. No holes or...

That is correct. But even in these cases, sanding is less because you have already removed most or some of the old coating. ray6

You might also want to check out Delta Kits windshield repair. They also deal in headlight restoration. They offer great advice on their forum. ray6