Claying headlights before polishing?

Eldorado2k

Eldorado2k

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Does anyone bother claying headlights before polishing them?

Also, does anyone have any experience with trying to restore the headlights on a Corvette like this?

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How beast are those headlights to restore? Do you think sanding will be a must? Or are they cooperative by any chance?
 
When I restored the headlights on my 04 Ram, I bought the Meguiars medium kit

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I see no reason why the kit wouldn't work for you. Even comes with a sealant. I used the kit with my GG3


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Buster906 said:
I see no reason why the kit wouldn't work for you. Even comes with a sealant

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Not all headlights are created equal. You can restore some headlights, such as these on a Volkswagen Jetta in about a minutes time with AIO Headlight Polish...

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But then you can run into headlights like these on a BMW 7 Series.

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Polish as aggressive as you can and even after an hour they simply will not allow you to get them completely done.

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There's certain vehicles that have headlights that are notoriously difficult to restore unless you sand them... I'm wondering about these Corvette lights before I dive in.
 
Maybe find a wrecked Corvette at a junkyard and buy a headlight to test

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Buster906 said:
Maybe find a wrecked Corvette at a junkyard and buy a headlight to test

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Lol. No. I already told my neighbor I'll be by in a couple hours...
 
What do you have on hand

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I bought my kit at store beginning with W if that helps

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I always sand so clay is unnecessary. 1000-2000-3000-M205-M105-AIO is my current process. I'm continuously refining.

The wet sanding needs to yield pure white milky residue with no hint of yellow in it.

The major step is the M105 which transforms the cloudy appearance to clear. The M205 further clarifies. The AIO even further clarifies.

Note: I'm not doing this for pay so I can have extra steps without paying attention to profit.


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Buster906 said:
I bought my kit at store beginning with W if that helps

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I have the kit you're talking about. It has its limitations.

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IME if the headlights are beast, it simply cannot correct them. I tried both Mckee's AIO Headlight Polish and the Meguiars Kit on that BMW and they both failed to even get 75% correction on them.

1st gen Cadillac CTS headlights are another notoriously hard if not impossible to restore without sanding.
 
The kit I bought is the heavy duty kit. Not medium.

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I know. I corrected myself in the above post

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Route246 said:
I always sand so clay is unnecessary. 1000-2000-3000-M205-M105-AIO is my current process. I'm continuously refining.

The wet sanding needs to yield pure white milky residue with no hint of yellow in it.

The major step is the M105 which transforms the cloudy appearance to clear. The M205 further clarifies. The AIO even further clarifies.

Note: I'm not doing this for pay so I can have extra steps without paying attention to profit.


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How long do they typically last before they start hazing up yellow again? I can't imagine a AIO protecting them too long?
 
Eldorado2k said:
How long do they typically last before they start hazing up yellow again? I can't imagine a AIO protecting them too long?
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Mine are going on a year. The most I do is run a pad on one of my buffers over the lights when I am using a buffer and whatever is on the pad
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Those Dodge Ram headlights are somewhat hard to polish out.

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You can see I didn't fully polish off the original coating.

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Eldorado2k said:
Those Dodge Ram headlights are somewhat hard to polish out.

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You can see I didn't fully polish off the original coating.

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Click to expand...
You should have no issues removing the cataracts from the Corvette lights

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