Headlights restoration/glass polish

bmstuff

My headlighs glass (plastic really) were badly worn as you can see.

These below are stone chips, the headlights were actually cleaned up, so what you see here is not dirt, this is surfare damage done by stone chips over the years.

Before ...





And after ...





Sand paper was used, 3 grades then machine polish at the end with a polishing product.

Day and night now, I highly recommend to anyone in the same boat, it really refreshes the front of your car.
It probably helps a bit during night driving too...

2 Espressi

Cool, what grades did you use? Wet and dry?

voxpop

Did you leave the lights on the car while doing this ?


Saw it on another forum - made a huge difference

langdang

I'm interested in more info too, the father has headlight lenses that look like they went through a volcanic ash cloud....

Gumbo

looks great OP.
did you get the rest of the car detailed or just the headlights?

langdang wrote: »

I'm interested in more info too, the father has headlight lenses that look like they went through a volcanic ash cloud....

if you think you can do it yourself, all the info is here in Brians thread - http://www.bmw-driver.net/forum/showthread.php?t=18201

I sanded them down with 1500, 2000 and 4000 grit paper and abralon discs before finishing them off with cutting and finishing pads.

The reason it should all be done with the rotary polisher is that it generates too much heat and cause even more damage.

bmstuff

2 Espressi wrote: »

Cool, what grades did you use? Wet and dry?

I got it done by a specialist (Unlike me ). I did not want to mess them up.
Top of my head he started with 1500, then 2500 and finished with 4000. Then he polished them with the rotary machine with the pad.
It was yet sanding yes.

bmstuff

voxpop wrote: »

Did you leave the lights on the car while doing this ?


Saw it on another forum - made a huge difference

Yep headlights stayed in, there was no need to remove them, he just wrapped the plastic and rubber around to avoid damage and polishing product contamination.

bmstuff

kceire wrote: »

looks great OP.
did you get the rest of the car detailed or just the headlights?

Just headlights atm, the car went through some respray the day before this actually...

voxpop

This is the guide I came across - the guy here takes out his headlights - does a great job

http://bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=301916&highlight=headlight+polishing

Alun

4000 grit :eek: I think my hands are rougher than that! I've never come across anything finer than 2000/2500 grit myself.

bmstuff

voxpop wrote: »

This is the guide I came across - the guy here takes out his headlights - does a great job

http://bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=301916&highlight=headlight+polishing

Nice yeah, you need some tools though.
I paid 50 euro in my case, for both, it was not worth buying all those things and do it myself. Especially with no experience at all in this area. But yeah if you have the tools already, it is worth doing it.

Gumbo

Alun wrote: »

4000 grit :eek: I think my hands are rougher than that! I've never come across anything finer than 2000/2500 grit myself.

its a delicate job, and the results speak for themselves.

CarMuppet

I found this stuff brilliant on my older cars:

http://www.meguiars.com/estore/product_list.cfm?sectionname=Consumer%20%28Meguiar%27s%20Brand%29%3EClear%20Plastic%20Care&sectionID=15101

Seperate

There is absolutely no point in sanding those lights. Unless there are some deep scratches that weren't evident in the first picture. For normal yellowing/stone chips a simple polish with a medium compound will do the job.

I did a set there a couple of weeks ago for a bug-eye subaru. They were worse than the OP's going by the pictures. Just a medium compound, followed by a fine one to restore clarity.











Took me 20mins to do two of them, and cost nowhere near €50.

It's one of the easier tasks to do with a machine!

PaulKK

Seperate wrote: »

There is absolutely no point in sanding those lights. Unless there are some deep scratches that weren't evident in the first picture. For normal yellowing/stone chips a simple polish with a medium compound will do the job.

I did a set there a couple of weeks ago for a bug-eye subaru. They were worse than the OP's going by the pictures. Just a medium compound, followed by a fine one to restore clarity.

Looks like a great job! Would you say something like 3m compound followed by meguiars scratch x would do the trick?

I'd be thinking of spending an hour doing it by hand too, not sure if I could be bothered taking the lights out fully, if you spent a bit of time at it would you get reasonable results by hand?

Cheers