Some headlight restoration

[crash93ssei]

We bought my wife's car with 125,000 miles on it two years ago and the headlight were pretty bad. Fast forward to now, it has 165,000 on it and the headlights of course aren't any better. The previous owner must have done a lot of highway tailgating as the entire front end is sandblasted like crazy. The headlights made me sick, so I figured I would get some wet sand paper and go to work on them. This is what I ended up with.

Before

The lights were horrible. Pitted, oxidized, hazed, you name it, so I started with 400 grit, then 1000, 1500, and 2000 grit paper.

After wet sanding

UDM, LC CCS 5.5" orange and white pads, Menzerna Power Gloss Compound, SIP and Micro Polish

After compounding twice, SIP then Micro

Before

After

Before

After

Now I need to get a repaint on the front clip. It is so bad that polishing doesn't help it.

 

[Emile]

Wow, very nice job and fantastic results. You need to fill in that hole on the front of the hood, and get the front bumper re-painted.

 

[crash93ssei]

The paint peeling on the hood is a very common problem with the 2000+ Bonnevilles, something to do with the aluminum hood and the wrong primer I think. It needs to be blasted then repainted. That and the rest of the front clip will be repainted some day LOL

 

[LuxuryMobile]

Looks great. Now you will find that the frustrating part will be to keep them looking like that. Ever consider getting them shot with clear. It would help protect your work.

 

[crash93ssei]

I have considered that and may just do that, but who knows. For now I will just continue to keep them good and clean and make sure to keep a good coat of sealer on them and see how it goes. I want to see if proper care will help to prevent this issue so bad in the future.

 

[23jam]

The headlights look great. Nice work.