Headlight Restoration- Give me the Basics!

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fivestar_dc

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Would love to add this to my existing business. What do I need? Are there any threads that I could look through?

I see a lot of "kits" online, but I want a professional detailer's expert opinion on which way to go. What's the most effective, cost-efficient manner in which to restore headlights?

Thanks!
 
I would say check through the forums there is a lot of info. I just started out detailing so I used the DP kit. Which basically fell apart on me. Now ive been using 105 and a 3in cyan pad. It works well. But if you want true professional results with crystal clear lenses then I say learn to use sanding pads.

That will be my next step as the results ive gotten have been 85% perfect, but would like to achieve 100%
 
I usually just wet sand with 800-2000 grit sand paper then polish with 105 and 3" pads.

Before:

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After:

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Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics.

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Honestly, the kits do a good job, unless your lights are completely trashed, but there's been some reviews with good results on some bad headlights. The DP kit comes to mind
 
On another Forum, here is the conclusion of one poster:
"So you feel the Solaray os better than the Opti-Lens and more effective than a good 2k clear?
Those are the three choices I have it down to."
 
I am by no means an expert or veteran (only restored 3 headlights so far), but I think sanding is the way to go. I bought a Wolfgang kit that was pretty high dollar that just included polishes to remove the oxidation and no sand paper/discs. It didn't work at all for me. Possibly the polish would have worked on very LIGHT oxidation or I could have even been using it wrong, but I fully read and followed the directions. I found that wet sanding with 1000-2500 grit sand paper works great at removing the oxidation. Only go as aggressive as you NEED to to save you time. I then buff out the sanding scratches with Meguiars 105 followed by a few passes with Meguiars 205 using my Flex 3401 polisher (any DA polisher would work). They are excellent polishes to have on hand for paint anyway.

Sand paper isn't really expensive, but I would love to try the 3m Trizact sanding discs sometime which can be used with a drill attachment. You can get them in a 3" size to get the tight areas of a headlight and in 3000-5000 grit to really help remove all the fine scratches created when wet sanding.
 
cleanmycorolla said:
Honestly, the kits do a good job, unless your lights are completely trashed, but there's been some reviews with good results on some bad headlights. The DP kit comes to mind
Click to expand...

I've had great results with the DP kit - except I coat with Black Label Surface Coating after polishing.

<TED>
 
I use the miguires kit with great results for the sanding and buffing. I buff with 105 followed by 205. End the end you have to find the tools and techniques that bests soots you, your skills, and buget but this kit is a pretty good starting point for doing the job quickly and easy. I hope it helps.

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I also have the Megs spot sanding/headlight kit. I think it's a great kit. My buddy has a 2000 Camaro and the headlights were complete crap. Totally yellowed and the clear coat or whatever that was on it was pitted. We went all the way down to 350 grit and worked our way up. Turned out as good as new.

That kit could be useful for a lot of other things like paint chip repair or wet sanding deeper RIDS/water spots.

IW
 
I personally started by wet sanding with 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, then 2000. I'm sure you could skip some of the grits, but I bought a sample back of sandpaper from harbor freight which included all of these at a good price.

From there: I used a drill with an applicator pad attachment, but just about anything will work for this...
2 coats of turtle rubbing compound
2 coats of turtle polishing compound
2 coats of meguiars plastX

Total cost of around 10-15 bucks and I have enough supplies left over to do 10+ more headlights!
 
This was the result of the 3m kit that you do by hand (no drill required). I was very happy with the results.

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You should have products for sanding and grits to match the condition you are attempting to repair which could be down as low as 400 grit. Do a test spot and use the least aggressive paper you need to get the job done. Compounding may be plenty if it's just a little cloudy or slightly yellowed. I've found sanding is usually in order to get the entire lense to look the same. A good compound will remove 2000 grit scratches easily even 1000 grit if you have the right combination of compound and pad. DP makes a compound specifically for headlights. Trizact discs are nice because the scratches they leave are the same depth so when you compound the scratches are all removed at the same time instead of having a few deeper scratches hanging around. Ultimately it's important to remember you need to put a lasting UV protection on your freshly polished lenses and that's where you separate the good work from the ordinary.

-Tape
-Sandpaper
-Compound
-Polish
-Long term UV protection
 
if you wanna do this professionally in your business i recommendand i to get the right equipment i use 2 mini DA sanders from mac tools one for cutting the second one for finishing and i do it in this order 500,800.1000,3000 and final ultra cut and last ultra finishing polish from meguiars
 
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