Swirls from mf cloth on polished headlights

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mcwilly

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I've restored a lot of headlights, but this one has me stumped.
Wet sanded to 2500 grit. Finished it up with DA and compound. Everything looks great until I go to buff it off with a mf cloth I tried several different nap count cloths in a circular motion and side to side. So I do another light polish, and again, everything looks great until I wipe off the polish. I've tried wiping off with panel prep, water/soap solution, dry cloth, wet cloth, distilled water and I even tried wd40 after seeing that from a search. I've wiped it off immediately after polishing and after letting sit for a few minutes. It also has a light haze to it afterwards. I've used foam pads, mf pads and eurofiber pads with different compounds. No matter what I use, it actually gets worse the more I wipe it. I'm at my wits end and running out of ideas. It's hard to capture it with the camera.
 

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mcwilly said:
I've restored a lot of headlights, but this one has me stumped.
Wet sanded to 2500 grit. Finished it up with DA and compound. Everything looks great until I go to buff it off with a mf cloth I tried several different nap count cloths in a circular motion and side to side. So I do another light polish, and again, everything looks great until I wipe off the polish. I've tried wiping off with panel prep, water/soap solution, dry cloth, wet cloth, distilled water and I even tried wd40 after seeing that from a search. I've wiped it off immediately after polishing and after letting sit for a few minutes. It also has a light haze to it afterwards. I've used foam pads, mf pads and eurofiber pads with different compounds. No matter what I use, it actually gets worse the more I wipe it. I'm at my wits end and running out of ideas. It's hard to capture it with the camera.
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Have you done both sides yet?

If so are they both hazy after the wipe down?


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Try it by hand using Meguiars PlastX.
Attack it the same way you’d do it if you were hand polishing your instrument cluster if you were trying to remove some light scratches that the previous owner somehow instilled… Just enough to finesse those scratches away and leave a perfect finish without causing a fuss.

I don’t think it requires anything fancy, it’s mostly your technique that will make the difference if it works out. If it were me I’d use a clean like new Costco Kirkland. Little drop on the corner of the towel and flip to wipe clean using the same towel. It’s a 1 beer job. Good luck.

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Last resort if it doesn’t work by hand: If you’re absolutely sure it machine polishes perfectly but scratches with the wipe off [I doubt that’s the real reason] then machine polish to that good result, but use the PlastX in place of compound.
 
No, I haven't tried the other side yet. Hopefully it cooperates better than this one.
I thought I had some plastix, but I dont. I saw a video of somebody doing a final wipe down with shaving gel after he polished it with toothpaste. After a hand polish with 3D One on an orange pad, I put some gel on a towel and applied it in a circular motion until it was barley visible. And it looked clear until I wiped it off. It actually gets worse if I keep wiping it with a mf towel...even a plush towel.
I've got some Koch Chemie micro cut and they're foam pads. Gonna try that later today. So far it's been a 3-4 beer job lol
 
mcwilly said:
No, I haven't tried the other side yet. Hopefully it cooperates better than this one.
I thought I had some plastix, but I dont. I saw a video of somebody doing a final wipe down with shaving gel after he polished it with toothpaste. After a hand polish with 3D One on an orange pad, I put some gel on a towel and applied it in a circular motion until it was barley visible. And it looked clear until I wiped it off. It actually gets worse if I keep wiping it with a mf towel...even a plush towel.
I've got some Koch Chemie micro cut and they're foam pads. Gonna try that later today. So far it's been a 3-4 beer job lol
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What year is the car and are you in a sunny climate?

Is it garaged?

I was thinking back to my 2002 Audi TT and when I started polishing my headlights probably 8-10 years ago I ran into a similar problem

The outer factory "UV Coating" had degraded to the point it was soft and almost gummy

I had to keep going coarser and coarser with my sandpaper all the way down to 600 and basically just plow off all that coating and get down to the bare plastic of the lens before I had something hard enough to even polish

Once I got to that point I went up 500 grit at a time to 2000 and then jumped to a coarse pad and compound and then to a light polishing pad and finish polish

I ran into a similar situation a couple weeks ago on my daughter's 2009 Outback that has lived it's entire life outdoors

In this case one headlight polished up beautifully with just 2 steps and the other one remained hazy despite the same process

I was thinking the haze was on the inside somehow but your post made me think back and it could be a similar situation

Maybe they came from 2 different batches of plastic, or even different vendors or something

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It's a 2018 and garage kept...but they live in Texas heat lol They're aftermarket headlights. They best way I could describe what they started off looking like is particle board. You could feel the deep defects. I started at 400 grit to get all of that off and worked my way up. Once I can get back to working on it, I think I'm gonna start over again.
 

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mcwilly said:
It's a 2018 and garage kept...but they live in Texas heat lol They're aftermarket headlights. They best way I could describe what they started off looking like is particle board. You could feel the deep defects. I started at 400 grit to get all of that off and worked my way up. Once I can get back to working on it, I think I'm gonna start over again.
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I don’t see the point in starting over if all you are getting is some micro marring after you clean up the last round of polish

I have zero experience with aftermarket lights and I guess they could just be super soft plastic but still, if they are really polished after your final step, and you aren’t going at wiping off the final polish like a gorilla, and your microfiber isn’t horribly contaminated, I’m not sure what to tell you

If you have any rinseless wash concentrate try mixing up a quart at 32:1 and use that to spray onto the lens before you wipe off the final polish, and mist the towel as well for good measure

I would skip all the shaving gel, WD40, etc hacks, because: well, just because

I forgot to ask you what compounds and polishes you had tried, just in case any are notorious for hard wipe off

I would love to see you somehow duplicate your pads, liquids, and process on some actual auto paint and see what the results are

Generally most pros will agree that you treat auto lens plastic like auto paint and if you use the same products and process on both you will get the same results, or damn close
 
mcwilly said:
It's a 2018 and garage kept...but they live in Texas heat lol They're aftermarket headlights. They best way I could describe what they started off looking like is particle board. You could feel the deep defects. I started at 400 grit to get all of that off and worked my way up. Once I can get back to working on it, I think I'm gonna start over again.
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OK, I just looked at your last pic on my computer and unless I am completely mistaken that is NOT scratches from any polishing or wiping steps

That sure looks like either crazing of the plastic, generally caused by some harsh solvent like acetone or something, that actually attacks the plastic

OR

It is the remnants of a UV coating that is partially removed and partially still there

Can you flake off bits of that stuff by catching your fingernail on the edges of the weird patterns?

Edited to add, I blew the picture up and I can see some crows feet in the black plastic of the grill or trim to the left of the headlight, was that re-sprayed with a rattle can or something?
 
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Sorry for the confusion...the last pic I uploaded is the "before" picture. That's not what it looks like now. My initial post is how they look now.
The black plastic is just an experiment with a spray on "wrap" and will be removed.
There was no coating applied to the headlights prior. However, I will be coating them once this is done.....I just hope the suede applicator doesn't scratch it lol
Once the wet sanding was done, I used Megs ultimate compound with a white pad followed by 3D One and eruofiber pad. As mentioned earlier, I plan on hitting it with Koch Chemie fine cut and their foam pads. Hopefully that'll wipe off clean.
 
mcwilly said:
Sorry for the confusion...the last pic I uploaded is the "before" picture. That's not what it looks like now. My initial post is how they look now.
The black plastic is just an experiment with a spray on "wrap" and will be removed.
There was no coating applied to the headlights prior. However, I will be coating them once this is done.....I just hope the suede applicator doesn't scratch it lol
Once the wet sanding was done, I used Megs ultimate compound with a white pad followed by 3D One and eruofiber pad. As mentioned earlier, I plan on hitting it with Koch Chemie fine cut and their foam pads. Hopefully that'll wipe off clean.
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So this is getting really baffling

Neither of those compounds are notorious for hard removal so wipeoff should be easy and marring free unless those aftermarket lenses are just super soft

I still think you should try your exact same process on auto paint and eliminate any possible pad and liquid and technique issues

If you can do that and go through your same process, minus the sanding part, and the paint looks good then it just about has to be the plastic on the lenses

I would try the PlastX as well, I have cleaned up really bad gauge cover plastic with it by hand in the past and that is some pretty soft plastic compared to normal OEM headlight lenses
 
I actually just polished/coated the vehicle with the same products. 90% was corrected with 3D One and eurofiber pad. A few spots needed an orange pad. 2 scratches needed Megs complete compound. When I get back to it, I think I may try to remove the residue with Dawn and a mf wash mit since panel prep (Eraser) didn't work.
 
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mcwilly said:
I actually just polished/coated the vehicle with the same products. 90% was corrected with 3D One and eurofiber pad. A few spots needed an orange pad. 2 scratches needed Megs ultra cut. When I get back to it, I think I may try to remove the residue with Dawn and a mf wash mit since panel prep (Eraser) didn't work.
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If that or any other super gentle method of removing the polish works then you better consider getting PPF on them immediately because if the plastic truly is that soft they aren't going to last any time at all
 
Which there was an option for glass lenses. Problem solved.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Is that the reason? I thought it was for weight and it's easier to mold swoopy headlight shapes with plastic rather than glass.
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I think weight had something to do with it too. I heard it was because they wanted to eliminate the glass during collisions.
 
Been a while, but thought I'd post an update. Haven't had time to work on it, but finally got around to it yesterday. I found out that my M105 and M205 had gone bad. Found that out this past weekend while trying to use it on a black Acura. It was like smearing toothpaste. So I figured that had to be what was causing the issue(s) since I used them both at one point.
I couldn't find any M105/205 nearby so I grabbed some CG V4 polish to use on the Acura (paint was horrible). C4 and white correcting pad cleared the Acura pretty good so I thought I could use it for my headlight.
Applied it to my headlight and you could see the difference immediately. Wiped it off (as soft as possible) and it looked great. Then went to clean it with Carpro Eraser and the swirls showed up again. And they were circular swirls. Back when I first did the wet sanding, it was done at ~45 degree angles. And I wiped off the polish left/right.
I tried different combinations again with the same result. So I gave up. It'll just have to do lol If the passenger side does the same thing, I'm just gonna light the truck on fire lol
First pic is side by side with C4 and white pad. 2nd pic is after wiping off polish left/right. 3rd pic is after wiping with Eraser. Same result with IPA, QD spray, soapy water and distilled water.
 

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