Headlight Restoration New Dealer Wants a Demo Need some Advice

Louie_Blu

Louie_Blu

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Hello AG friends,

I stop by a dealer today trying to pick up some more work for My Headlight Restoration Biz looks like he deals with almost all PT Cruisers I have never really done a PT Cruiser before but he said to me if I can make those Headlights look good again he would give me constant work, I said great I walked up to the Car and noticed that the original UV Sealant on the Headlights was like pealing away even chipping away and you can see on some parts of it the regular plastic.
I never really came across this yet so he wants me to do one Headlight on that Cruiser if I do it well I get the dealership.
Plus he has a Chevy impala that some other guy tried to do before me but couldn't get the lights to look good he did mention the guy bought some junk from the auto store and tried to redo the lights.
My Question for the Pro's out there is should I attack this Pt Cruiser they same way I have been doing other headlights,
This is what I use:
Griot's 3 Inch Orbital:
3M kit I did By extra boxes of the 3 inch discs:
so it would be 500 grit to 800 grit then the 3000 Trizact disc wet-sand with the 3000 of course,
Not using compound going straight to Spar Sealant right after
This is the way I have been doing cars for the last few months
But like I Mentioned before I have never seen the UV sealant chipping and pealing away like that before so I Just need some pro opinions on how should I tackle this PT Cruiser Tomorrow and would love to have this dealer locked in
Thank you for any advice you guys can give me I really do appreciate it and I love being a part of the AG community
Feed back please

Louie

P.S. someone mentioned using a razor blade what is that all about lol, thanks again
 
Stay away from the razor blade. Sounds like a good (a.k.a. fast) idea but it's easy to severely gouge or scratch plastic if you don't have a good scraper handle and some practice.

Not sure how much a 500 grit disc will take off since I do all of my work by hand. I know it's a little late since you're doing the job tomorrow but in the future, make sure have some really aggressive stuff so you can fine tune what you need for some of those "diamonds in the rough". Although you could pick up some sheets locally and experiment with that if the 500 doesn't cut it. 220 is my choice (by hand) and it gets EVERYTHING out except for rock chips. And BTW, stay away from the razor blade.
 
g35_coupe said:
Stay away from the razor blade. Sounds like a good (a.k.a. fast) idea but it's easy to severely gouge or scratch plastic if you don't have a good scraper handle and some practice.

Not sure how much a 500 grit disc will take off since I do all of my work by hand. I know it's a little late since you're doing the job tomorrow but in the future, make sure have some really aggressive stuff so you can fine tune what you need for some of those "diamonds in the rough". Although you could pick up some sheets locally and experiment with that if the 500 doesn't cut it. 220 is my choice (by hand) and it gets EVERYTHING out except for rock chips. And BTW, stay away from the razor blade.
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Thanks g35 I will not use the razor blade, and I will definitely pick up some lower grit 3 inch sandpaper for my Griot's Orbital, but for tomorrow I will go by home depot and pick up some 220 grit, appreciate the advice:xyxthumbs:

Louie
 
You're gonna have to sand all the old acrylic off entirely. It's more of a pain, but the end results will be really good. I typically start with 500 grit to dry sand on a drill. Expect to go through a couple discs for each light.

Once the old acrylic is off, move to dry sanding with 800. Then wet sand with 1000, and 3000.

Then, the next step is up to you...you can either go for looks, and just compound and polish. Or, you can go for both looks and protection and use a urethane. Personally I would just compound and polish in this particular case. He's just gonna sell the vehicle...so he won't care about the urethane as long as those lights look good.
 
Once you get the old sealant off its smooth sailing.. the roughest I've ever had to go in the last 75 sets was 400 grit. I also hit the disk and light with compressed air periodically to keep the paper from getting clogged up to quick. Really helps. Good luck with those lights tomorrow. PT cruisers a less difficult shape so that'll help.
 
catfish07 said:
Once you get the old sealant off its smooth sailing.. the roughest I've ever had to go in the last 75 sets was 400 grit. I also hit the disk and light with compressed air periodically to keep the paper from getting clogged up to quick. Really helps. Good luck with those lights tomorrow. PT cruisers a less difficult shape so that'll help.
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Good pointer...I do the same thing. Although, those discs don't last too long either way, ha.
 
Kristopher1129 said:
You're gonna have to sand all the old acrylic off entirely. It's more of a pain, but the end results will be really good. I typically start with 500 grit to dry sand on a drill. Expect to go through a couple discs for each light.

Once the old acrylic is off, move to dry sanding with 800. Then wet sand with 1000, and 3000.

Then, the next step is up to you...you can either go for looks, and just compound and polish. Or, you can go for both looks and protection and use a urethane. Personally I would just compound and polish in this particular case. He's just gonna sell the vehicle...so he won't care about the urethane as long as those lights look good.
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Thanks for your Advice I can do wetsand with some meguiars unigrit I picked up by hand, dont have a 1000 grit in a 3 inch for my orbital but I do have in the Unigrit for hand sanding.

Also I really like the look the Spar Urethane gives the headlights, yes I could compound and polish but I will see what kinda pay I can work out with them before I will make that call
Thanks again Kristopher

Louie
 
Y'all have some guts fella! I've never gone more aggressive than 1000!!! Doesn't 220-500 leave deep sanding tracers?
 
catfish07 said:
Once you get the old sealant off its smooth sailing.. the roughest I've ever had to go in the last 75 sets was 400 grit. I also hit the disk and light with compressed air periodically to keep the paper from getting clogged up to quick. Really helps. Good luck with those lights tomorrow. PT cruisers a less difficult shape so that'll help.
Click to expand...
Like your Idea about the Compressed air will pick that up tomorrow as well, and Kristopher is right the 3M Disc don't last very long, would be nice to find some that last a bit longer, I wonder if the Meguiars Unigrit 3 Inch Sanding Discs are better the the 3M Discs I know one thing they are definitely cheaper then the 3M lol.
Thanks Catfish

Louie
 
fredcandetail said:
Y'all have some guts fella! I've never gone more aggressive than 1000!!! Doesn't 220-500 leave deep sanding tracers?
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I guess tomorrow I will find out how much time I will spend on that PT Cruiser, although I have been using the 500 grit to start I really haven't had a problem with it, but I do understand what you mean Fred, not wanting damage the headlight more then it already is or cause more harm then good.
 
fredcandetail said:
Y'all have some guts fella! I've never gone more aggressive than 1000!!! Doesn't 220-500 leave deep sanding tracers?
Click to expand...

It will if you do a poor job with the subsequent grades or if you jump/skip some grades to do less sanding.
 
g35_coupe said:
It will if you do a poor job with the subsequent grades or if you jump/skip some grades to do less sanding.
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Sent you a PM was interested in knowing about your sealant process, I was checking your website Nice Work g35_coupe
 
fredcandetail said:
Y'all have some guts fella! I've never gone more aggressive than 1000!!! Doesn't 220-500 leave deep sanding tracers?
Click to expand...

220 I think would leave some pretty deep scratches. I wouldn't go less than 500. I've thought about maybe going 400...but that's it.

I've done TONS of headlights at this point, and never needed to go more than 500. On bad headlights, I typically go through two 500 discs for each light. This is why I'll be buying my 500 discs from Megs cause they're much cheaper. The 1000 and 3000 discs are the same price as 3M unfortunately.

But the thing about the 1000 and 3000 is that you can use them quite a few times before you toss them. It works out.
 
Don't show the dude how your doing it or he'll either start doing it himself, or get the shop flunky to do it

Keep all your products in unmarked bottles and tell him they are very expensive ;)
 
Starting with 500 grit should be fine, that is what I always start with. I use a PC for the initial sanding step to remove all the failed coating. The following steps to refine the surface are done by hand. I just don't find a machine sands as well for this. Be sure to remove all of the failed coating, the headlight needs to have that even, frosted look everywhere. When your sanding disc isn't cutting anymore, change it and keep going.

Get some quality sandpaper, 3M or Meguiar's, don't buy any cheap brands.
 
Flash Gordon said:
Don't show the dude how your doing it or he'll either start doing it himself, or get the shop flunky to do it

Keep all your products in unmarked bottles and tell him they are very expensive ;)
Click to expand...

Flash Gordon said:
Don't go below 400 grit
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96Lude said:
Starting with 500 grit should be fine, that is what I always start with. I use a PC for the initial sanding step to remove all the failed coating. The following steps to refine the surface are done by hand. I just don't find a machine sands as well for this. Be sure to remove all of the failed coating, the headlight needs to have that even, frosted look everywhere. When your sanding disc isn't cutting anymore, change it and keep going.

Get some quality sandpaper, 3M or Meguiar's, don't buy any cheap brands.
Click to expand...

Flash Gordon said:
Remind him of how expensive tape is frequently too :)
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Flash Gordon said:
Tell him your polish is specialy formulated in Europe :)
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Thank you guys for all your help, I do keep mostly all my stuff in un-marked bottles they already asked me what was in the UV Sealant I told him ancient Chinese secret they started to laugh.
I will say this I did a car where I had to use 120 grit sandpaper because nothing else would work i will post it on show and shine never thought i would have to use 120 grit insane
:wow:
 
Tell him everything that you are using is home made, and you'll NEVER reveal your recipe!
 
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