Headlight restoration

ronnie3585

My headlights are badly pitted (I assume stonechips?), see below:


I assume a wet sand followed by a polish with the DA would tidy them up nicely, and I've a couple of questions.

How course should the sandpaper I use on the first pass be, would 1000 be too harsh? If I stated with 1000 for instance, should I use finer paper after that or go straight to the DA?

Re the DA, should I start with a cutting pad and compound or would a finishing pad and polish be enough?

Thanks.

Curran

Difficult to say how bad the pitting is by looking at a picture.

1000 should be fine to start out with.
Given the small surface area of lights, it's usually easier to go with 2000 and then 3000.
A medium cut pad and polish combo will bring the lights up nicely and then a finishing pad and polish to give them maximum clarity.

ronnie3585

The softest sandpaper the local hardware shop had was 1200. Would it be okay to go from this straight to a cutting pad, or is it too coarse?

Curran

ronnie3585 wrote: »

The softest sandpaper the local hardware shop had was 1200. Would it be okay to go from this straight to a cutting pad, or is it too coarse?

Try your local motor factors, they should have at least 2000. If you can only settle for 1200, then you'll just have to do a few compounding stages.

ronnie3585

I made a bit of a balls of it:(

I started with 1000 sandpaper and tried to remove the pitting. When I gave it a good once over, it was clear that it wasn't doing much to the pitting at all. It appears that they're micro cracks in the lens. I knew I wasn't going to get rid of the pitting so I just cracked on and finished the job.

The only sandpaper I could get was 1000, 1200 and 2500. I used each and then got the DA out. First I used a CarPro orange pad with Fixer as a cutting compound and then a finishing pad with the Essence. Unfortunately, the lenses were still a little opaque when I finished.

Before:


After:


Where did I go wrong

Was the step from 1200 to 2500 sandpaper too much? Should I have stepped it down more gently i.e. 1500 - 2000 - 2500?

Should I have used a heaver cutting pad? I did two good passes with the orange pad and Fixer, I was conscious of building up too much heat and distorting the lens so I didn't go any harder.

What's the best way to fix it, should I go at it for much longer with the 2500 and sand out all the marks you can still see from the 1000, and then hit it with the DA again?

Thanks:)

Curran

I reckon it's because Essence hasn't a huge amount of cut to it. ....it's a very fine polish.
You'll get more clarity with something that has more cut....but before that you might have to go at it with Fixer again....does look like the sanding marks have been removed fully.

ronnie3585

Cheers Curran!

So, is the Fixer too abrasive to give more clarity?

Could you recommend a polish that would help with this?

Curran

Clarity will come with removing those light scratches, and Fixer would do a reasonable job on a finishing pad.
Maybe two or three more attempts with Fixer will bring them up!