recommendations to restore these headlights?

zadjali

zadjali

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Hello,

I have these headlights i tried to sand/polish the lenses but they still look cloudy. Do you think the cloudiness and the dots are from the inside? Any tips or solution to restore these headlights?

Steps that were used:

1000,1500, 2000 grit.
Megs 105 and LC orange cutting pad
Megs 205 gray finishing pad.

Before:

beforefy.jpg
after1o.jpg

23021458.jpg
after1o.jpg



After:




afterw.jpg

before1l.jpg

after1o.jpg
 
any suggestions how to remove the dots?
 
thats road rash debris ...(dots) ... have them on my foglamps with less than 11k miles. URG !
 
A4 1.8tqm said:
Are the dots pitted into the plastic? If you are unable to sand/polish them out you could try filling them by spraying a couple coats of clear and sanding like I did in my thread http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/tricks-tips-techniques/22692-glass-fog-light-restore.html or try the spar urethane method here http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...eadlight-restoration-new-uv-sealant-idea.html :cheers:

Let us know if you find a solution and don't forget to take some pics! :D
Click to expand...

They are not pitted and cannot be felt by hand. They do not appear unless the headlights are on.

Thank you for the links i will try one of the methods out.
 
killrwheels@autogeek said:
thats road rash debris ...(dots) ... have them on my foglamps with less than 11k miles. URG !
Click to expand...

Any way to prevent the dots from happening? i have a new car and there are some dots that appear when the lamps are on.
 
They must be pretty deep then... My only rec. is to start with 600 grit and work your way up from there then.... even though that sound a bit too aggressive..
 
Examining the pics, the "look" of the lenses really remind me of the the way my fogs looked after clear coating, sanding and polishing. In the second pic it looks like there is a little orange peel on the lens, also the dots resemble solvent popping, is it possible that they have already been clear-coated and you just don't know it?
 
A4 1.8tqm said:
Examining the pics, the "look" of the lenses really remind me of the the way my fogs looked after clear coating, sanding and polishing. In the second pic it looks like there is a little orange peel on the lens, also the dots resemble solvent popping, is it possible that they have already been clear-coated and you just don't know it?
Click to expand...

It is my friends car headlights, he told me that he took it to a shop and they couldn't do anything so they sprayed some clear coat on them. I though by sanding 1000 might remove the excess clear coat that was sprayed on them. I just did not want to go crazy on them and cause damage.
 
LincolnZephyr2006 said:
They must be pretty deep then... My only rec. is to start with 600 grit and work your way up from there then.... even though that sound a bit too aggressive..
Click to expand...

Actually it is my friends car headlights, it is ok to go crazy on them because if they cannot be fixed hes planning to buy new set of headlights.
I was thinking of sanding them with 600 and 800 grit but i have to find out a local supplier that sells them.
 
Ha! I'll try not to be too proud of my exceptional eye. :p

It would have made this a lot easier if you told us that in the first place. So what I think is going on is that the shop spayed the clear too thick, as the clear dries little air bubbles of evaporating solvent get trapped in the Too-thick layer of clear, this is called solvent popping. When you sand/polish you take off the top edge of the bubble leaving a divot. Make sense?

It is likely that this "shop" only applied one really thick coat and you will not be able too fix it without removing all the clear they applied. You could re-do the clear coat treatment yourself no prob following my fogs restore method, but the shop should be held accountable. I bet if you did that sanding/polishing process before the shop cleared them you would've been fine. Why were they cleared in the first place?

If you sand much further you will likely go through the clear, if you do you can probably peel it all off pretty easy (I doubt the surface was prepped for painting).
 
I missed that point, when u mentioned it i remembered my friend told me about spraying the clear.
i got it so i think the shop sprayed the clear and they polished them which caused the divot. When i saw it first time these dots were there.

I am not sure why the shop sprayed the clear, looks like they did not want the guy to leave the shop without making him pay for anything :p

How can i know when am going through the clear and nothing is left?
 
The picture below shows the dots closer than the previous pictures.

 
zadjali said:
I missed that point, when u mentioned it i remembered my friend told me about spraying the clear.
i got it so i think the shop sprayed the clear and they polished them which caused the divot. When i saw it first time these dots were there.

I am not sure why the shop sprayed the clear, looks like they did not want the guy to leave the shop without making him pay for anything :p

How can i know when am going through the clear and nothing is left?
Click to expand...

Well I think the shop should refund the money and then never be visited again!

When you sand all the way through the clear it will look like the pics in this thread (but clear, obviously) http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...ke-phillips/24050-bra-lines-paint-damage.html.

The solvent popping "dots" were there before you did any work on the lights and you did not cause them. The shop did not sand after applying the clear (you can tell by the look of the orange peel), the bubbles were "whole" inside of the clear, now after sanding they're "half", on the surfaceleaving a divot. This is beside the point because they show either way. Print this thread and show it to the shop owner if you need some argument-leverage, sounds like a shoddy shop.
 
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I dont think my friend going to visit him again. It is a shoddy shop and i am not sure if the shop going to do anything regarding it. The dealer quoted $3600 for the headlight set.

I will try to sand them with 600 or 800 if my friend decided to buy new ones since he wont lose anything for a last try.
 
$3600! :eek: Well hopefully you can get them looking good for him and save him some cash. The last pic you posted shows, what I assume, started all of this. The cracks in the plastic which to my knowledge is unrepairable, If anyone knows otherwise please advise... I think removing the clear and spaying it yourself, in several thin coats, then just do the same sanding/polishing as last time will give the results you expected in the first place. Let us know how it comes out. Good luck! :dblthumb2:
 
I had a problem with my car's headlights that made them look similar. They were slightly yellowed, scratched and pitted to hell, and looked really bad. I took just under two hours per headlight to slowly and methodically wet sand them down flat and clean. 600, 800, 1000, 1500, then 2000. I went through about 48oz of water as I was spraying the headlight through the process.

I think mine were also clear coated because it was a HUGE pain to get down clean.

Once the 2000 was done, wiped, and cleaned, I used some compound with pretty good pressure. This brought them up pretty good. I finished up with one of the over-the-counter headlight polish (I think it was the turtle wax brand because my roomate had it laying around).

They have minimal very fine scratches (that you can only see if you're about 6" from the lense), but they look so much better.

I plan on hitting them with the DA once I order it, but for now the car looks SO much better with nice, clean, clear headlights.
 
zadjali said:
I dont think my friend going to visit him again. It is a shoddy shop and i am not sure if the shop going to do anything regarding it. The dealer quoted $3600 for the headlight set.

I will try to sand them with 600 or 800 if my friend decided to buy new ones since he wont lose anything for a last try.
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soooo hey i ran across this post and was wondering....were you able to clear them up or did he have to drop 3600 bucks (ouch)..what kinda car is it that it costs that much for some lights?
 
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