Removing Clearcoat/paint from tail lights?

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sumair

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Good morning guys,

Figured i'd ask some professionals on this. I have a set of tail lights that were sprayed with clear coat mixed with black paint to tint my tail lights at a body shop. They have been on for 8 years and finally peeling and they look rough. What would be the best way to remove all of the spray without harming my tails. Would be cool to have them buffed up looking like new again. Again this is clear coat w/ some paint, not the VHT stuff.

Thanks in advance Feed back please
 
You'd need to sand the surface to remove the paint, then polish the headlights back to their original glossy finish.
 
Fastest and best way (in my opinion) will be to sand them down. Normally for restoration I start at 1500 and go up to 3000 then buff them out but in your case you may have to start the wet sanding with a lower grit paper. Tape off (or remove them), use a good alternating perpendicular method so you know you have removed all the previous sanding marks and finish as high as you can (up to 5000) to have the best substrate to polish to a jeweled finish!

BTW, any quality paint polish will do a great job at polishing those lens. Follow your work with a top end sealant or better yet, use a coating like Optimum Opti-Lens Permanent Headlight Coating, headlight coatings protectants
 
yikes, i need to sand em? There is no other way? i guess i can try it. hopefully I don't mess them up. Thanks.
 
sumair said:
yikes, i need to sand em? There is no other way? i guess i can try it. hopefully I don't mess them up. Thanks.
Click to expand...

The process is pretty simple and the thickness of the lens makes a project that even a novice can take this project on without much fear of messing up. Just sand, evaluate, sand, evaluate and when you are happy with the results (it will be very opaque, then start sanding to the final grit making sure you remove the previous sanding mark. Then in to the polishing. You can stop earlier but then you will need an aggressive compound then a polish.

When wet sanding, soak your wet sanding paper for a while and use a spray bottle to keep your work surface clean.
 
As Claude said... this process is not nearly as delicate as sanding painted body panels.

Once the paint is removed, you will be left with only the plastic tail light. If you go a little too far, no worries, the plastic is thick enough that it would take quite a bit of sanding to ruin the lights. You would have to remove enough material to put a hole in the plastic... that isn't even a concern unless you are using a high powered machine with a coarse sand paper.

As mentioned, simply sand a bit, then check to see if the paint is gone. If not, sand some more. If it is, then you need to sand with finer grit paper so that you can easily polish out the sanding marks.
 
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