Headlight cracks

Calendyr

Calendyr

New member
Joined
Jun 9, 2013
Messages
3,996
Reaction score
0
Ok, so this is message 2 for problems I ran into this week.

So I had to correct the headlights on a Volvo today.

There is no yellowing and very little hazing.

But the lens are covered in hundreds of tiny cracks.

It's maybe the third time I see headlights with this appearance.

So I am thinking the clear has cracked so it should be fixable.

As I am sanding with 500 grit paper, I realise that the plastic itsef is cracked. As I sand, it gets better but progress is really slow. after spending 4 time my normal 500 grit sanding step, I decide to move on to 800 grit. I have reduced the cracks apperance by maybe 70% but they are still visible. I am thinking this might be all the way through the plastic and I either won't be able to remove them or it would take an insane amount of time the get them all.

So I did the rest of the steps : 800, 1500, 3000 then compound and polish and finished with Opti-Coat 2.0. Showed the owner and asked him if he wanted to do the other one. He decided the improvement was worth doing the other one. Unfortunatelly the other one was even worst and did not came out as good. Maybe 50% improvement on that one. Spent 3 hours doing both, which is 2-3 times what it normally takes me...

So my questions:

1. Ever seen an issue like that?

2. Did you manage to restore it completelly?

3. What method did you use?

I am thinking that doing an even coarser 1st step with 320 or 400 grit might have gotten a better result. But I don't carry sand paper that coarse in my arsenal for detailing.

Any suggestion welcome.
 
You should know before you invest time to fix it.But you got paid and customer happy is all that matters.
 
Maybe 320 would of improved it a little better.Seams club does headlightsvfor 30.00 with a warranty, I can't compete with that.
 
Volvos are the worst....I've never had great results restoring those.
 
Always set expectations with the customer ahead of time. I did a 2007 CRV recently and the inside of the lens was based from heat.
29efd07dd62a0918f93e9364de10db39.jpg
2e26b3c75e2ed5b2604692840ff55be0.jpg
45cd3b96e3602e3f707dd6eec173eb84.jpg


Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 
The tiny cracks are called crazing..it's failed UV coating..

320grit is sure way to remove it(all the coating ) work your way back to 3k(don't compound nor polish) panel prep then apply a UV coating back on..don't bother with a wax/sealant nor ceramic coating at this point
 
Mike@ShineStruck said:
The tiny cracks are called crazing..it's failed UV coating..

320grit is sure way to remove it(all the coating ) work your way back to 3k(don't compound nor polish) panel prep then apply a UV coating back on..don't bother with a wax/sealant nor ceramic coating at this point
Click to expand...

I've always had great luck with Opti-lens, on everything but Toyotas anyway, it sounds like your talking about more of a professional spray on product that will also fill in sanding marks, is that correct??
 
I've seen a few Audis with crazing in the actual lens plastic, not in any clearcoat. Manufacturing defect. You can find a lot of discussions on Audi forums about issues with some factory lenses, and the manufacturer not covering the damage under warranty. In my experience, it isn't fixable.
 
Mike@ShineStruck said:
The tiny cracks are called crazing..it's failed UV coating..

320grit is sure way to remove it(all the coating ) work your way back to 3k(don't compound nor polish) panel prep then apply a UV coating back on..don't bother with a wax/sealant nor ceramic coating at this point
Click to expand...

That was my iniatial thought as well. But after sanding for 30 minutes with 500 grit, I can't imagine any clearcoat remaining. It really felt like the actual plastic was cracked.

I will certainly add 320 grit to my arsenal, I never had to use it before doing these, but if lens are really bad, it would speed up the process, so it's a good thing to have it on hand anyway.
 
PurpleTowel said:
I've seen a few Audis with crazing in the actual lens plastic, not in any clearcoat. Manufacturing defect. You can find a lot of discussions on Audi forums about issues with some factory lenses, and the manufacturer not covering the damage under warranty. In my experience, it isn't fixable.
Click to expand...

Ok, thank you. If I ever come across this again, I will explain to the owner it can be improved but not fixed. I wasn't sure if it was fixable or not. It did make a major improvement, so that will be the owner's decision to proceed or not. In this particular case, I charged him 100$ to do the job. He asked Volvo the price to replace them and it was 700$, so it's still a major saving even if they did not get back to a 100%.
 
Calendyr said:
That was my iniatial thought as well. But after sanding for 30 minutes with 500 grit, I can't imagine any clearcoat remaining. It really felt like the actual plastic was cracked.

I will certainly add 320 grit to my arsenal, I never had to use it before doing these, but if lens are really bad, it would speed up the process, so it's a good thing to have it on hand anyway.
Click to expand...

Some coatings are hard where only 320 will do it..Dave so sometimes has to make 3 passes with 320 and he's the headlight master
 
Calendyr said:
Good to know. Have you done a lot of them?
Click to expand...

Only a handful...I too lost money at first as I wasn't aware how much of a pain in the ass they are, but now I definitely set the customers expectations low when I get hit with a Volvo.
 
Mad Wax said:
Only a handful...I too lost money at first as I wasn't aware how much of a pain in the ass they are, but now I definitely set the customers expectations low when I get hit with a Volvo.
Click to expand...

Well the goal is always to get perfect restoration, but I have seen a few headlights that can't be restored completelly in a reasonable amount of time. I charge for 1.5 hours of work max. In this case I worked 3 hours and still could not get perfection. So next time around, I will have 320 on hand ;) Gotta pay to learn I guess. Out of all the headlights I have done, those were by far the worst.
 
I did a Mustang that had similar problems. It had aftermarket headlight bulbs and I think they created more heat than the normal bulbs and caused it to crack. I am absolutely convinced that the problem was on the inside of the lens and not the outer surface. I have a co-worker that has a BMW X5 that was asking me about headlights and it sounds like he has the same issue, but I haven't checked them yet.
 
I've got my in laws 05 4Runner now and its lights are really cracked up from degradation.

Several of the cracks look like they go all the way through.

I'm not sure if these had a UV Coating from factory, I believe some do not.
 
Mantilgh said:
I've got my in laws 05 4Runner now and its lights are really cracked up from degradation.

Several of the cracks look like they go all the way through.

I'm not sure if these had a UV Coating from factory, I believe some do not.
Click to expand...

Very unlikelly they had not UV protection. If they did, they would immediatelly start to turn opaque.
 
I have these cracks all over my headlights. If I sand them down, what would I apply for UV protection?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top