Headlamp Restoration W/ GG?

AustrianOak82

AustrianOak82

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I have the GG 6". I have a yellow, pink, green, white, blue, and red Lake Country pads (couple of each). When I was putting Ultimate Compound on my sister's car the other weekend, I hit the headlamps real quick with the compound and the yellow pad just to test the pad. The oxidation came right off and I was able to polish it up back to new with my finishing wax and a red pad.

Do I have all I need to do most headlamp restoration projects? I have Meguiar's UC, UP, M205 and 105 & PlastX among some other light stuff. I was going to try and avoid getting an entire kit if I didn't have to. Obviously the pads are too large since I have the stock size pad on there, but I am thinking I could make it work for the time being. Think this will work?
 
A lot of people use a compound to restore headlight's. I don't think all the headlights will get restored this way however I did use megs m105 with good results as well and have seen many use m015 or fg400 for headlight restoration. I would invest in the griots garage 3" which will become handy for multiple use's. Look into microfiber cutting disc's as well from meguiar's and you will be set!
 
AustrianOak82 said:
I have the GG 6". I have a yellow, pink, green, white, blue, and red Lake Country pads (couple of each). When I was putting Ultimate Compound on my sister's car the other weekend, I hit the headlamps real quick with the compound and the yellow pad just to test the pad. The oxidation came right off and I was able to polish it up back to new with my finishing wax and a red pad.

Do I have all I need to do most headlamp restoration projects? I have Meguiar's UC, UP, M205 and 105 & PlastX among some other light stuff. I was going to try and avoid getting an entire kit if I didn't have to. Obviously the pads are too large since I have the stock size pad on there, but I am thinking I could make it work for the time being. Think this will work?
Click to expand...

A high percentage of vehicles are going to require sanding.
 
I use my GG DA to do headlights but most are not as easy as compounding out. Some yes but most need sanding. I use the Megs 3" discs on my DA going 500 then 800 grit, then go to 1000 finishing, 3000 finishing, M105 with wool pad, M205 foam finishing pad.

The better looking lights you could just use the wool pad and m105.

I've actually started thinking about using Megs 3" MF cutting pads instead of wool to see how it works
 
Using a WOWA coating after the 3000 saves at least a couple of steps, looks just as good and lasts a heck of a lot longer.
 
There are a couple of threads somewhere on the forum that make suggestions. :)
 
I either wet sand with about 1500 on up or, most often, I use the Griots 3 inch with the pad interface and Meguiar's unigrit sanding discs. I have 500, 800, and 1500. then will quickly wet sand with higher grit, then compound, polish... rarely can you get the very best results without any sanding. The GG3 machine is worth its weight in gold for headlights. Couldn't live without it.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using AG Online
 
to do it right you have to sand off the damage

you can use compound but it probably won't be perfect, it will be better, but not perfect
 
The original DS headlamp on a well-worn 2002 Accord. Not terrible, but not nice. Meg's Unigrit 320 and 500 dry, 800 and 1500 wet, WoA 2000 wet and Meg's 3000 Unigrit foam wet. I could have started at 500 and stopped at 2000 with the same results but I was showing my friend how to sand with the GG 3. Wiped on the coating in about 15 seconds, it flashed in 90 and cured in less than ten minutes.

Before:

image.jpg


image.jpg



45 minutes later, including extra sanding steps, curing and cleanup:

image.jpg


image.jpg
 
Nice work on the Accord Lights. I probably would have started with 800 wet or even 1000. They look decent before - but still solid work. I'm not a fan of the GG3" (sorry Richard) just not enough power for me. I use a Hitachi 18v Drill and a 3" Megs MF cutting pad followed by a 3" GG Red finishing foam pad for the final buff out.
 
Yeah, I wanted to get as much if the OE coating off as I could. I do have a 3" BP for the PC. Maybe some day when I go Big Foot I'll dedicate the PC to 3" work but for now the GG seems to work well enough for sanding and tight-space correcting and polishing.
 
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