Best Headlight restorer????!!!!

[thedallashilton]

What is the best headlight restorer? Diamondite seems to be what ever body is talking about, but is there something else you guys use with a PC to bring back perfect clarity?

[Beemerboy]

What is the best headlight restorer? Diamondite seems to be what ever body is talking about, but is there something else you guys use with a PC to bring back perfect clarity?

The D system is very good but for the cost, you can wet sand and use some chemical polish to accomplish the same thing with your PC....one thing that I would like to understand is how bad are your headlights?

If they are real foggy then it might require a some wet sanding with a rotary buffer

[JaredPointer]

Wet sanding with a fine grit and the polishing it out works best for me.

[C_Rock77]

I`ve had really good results with just polishing my headlights...I used Poorboy`s SSRs.

The only drawback is that once they clear up, it really isn`t that long before they get somewhat fogged, again.

WOOHOO!!! :yay 100 posts!!!! :excited:

[TrueDetailer]

Wet sanding with a fine grit and the polishing it out works best for me.


Yeah wetsanding IMO is the best way to restore them. I start at 500 or 1000 depending on how bad they are and finish at 2000. Then polish and seal.

I don`t think there is a 1 step fix all product out there that can cut thru all that yellow/cloudy build up, and have them looking like they could if they were wetsanded.

[rayoto]

Wet sanding with a fine grit and the polishing it out works best for me.


Yeah wetsanding IMO is the best way to restore them. I start at 500 or 1000 depending on how bad they are and finish at 2000. Then polish and seal.

I don`t think there is a 1 step fix all product out there that can cut thru all that yellow/cloudy build up, and have them looking like they could if they were wetsanded.

Hmmm.. good to know. I`ve been using Megs Plasticx and have had "ok" results, but nothing like what your talking about.

[Don]

I`ve had really good results with just polishing my headlights...I used Poorboy`s SSRs.

The only drawback is that once they clear up, it really isn`t that long before they get somewhat fogged, again.



I polish/wax my headlights and taillights everytime I do the paint. I figure if the routine maintenance keeps the paint from going south...

[glen22]

I bought the WG headlight restorer kit and it worked sweet but for the $$ I would try wet sanding or just some of your polishes .

[blkSRT]

here is a quick job I did to my truck.Wetsanded with 800 then 1200.Then polished with a orange light cut pad with PB SSR 2.5

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/njoecen/7151535d.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/njoecen/a2762f27.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/njoecen/58d49d85.jpg

[C_Rock77]

I bought the WG headlight restorer kit and it worked sweet but for the $$ I would try wet sanding or just some of your polishes .

I looked at the WG Headlight restorer kit, too. Like I said before, I got fairly good results from just using my PB`s SSRs on my lights. But like I said, the problem I have is with them fogging, again.

The WG kit kincludes a sealant. How does this sealant differ from their paint sealant? Would it be worth it to me to buy the sealant by itself? Or should I just use any of the sealants I already own for my paint?

[dr_detail]

For over 15 years I`ve been using a pedestal mounted bench grinder fitted with a 10" cloth (polishing) wheel and either white or brown Jewelers rouge (depending upon how yellow and/or faded they are). Of course they have to be removed first; and care must be taken not to over heat the smooth clear ones (like on the newer BMW`s) which will distort. Only drawback is removing them seems to take longer than the actual polishing -- however, the end results are far better than any kit I`ve tried.

Also, in the case of plastic polishing, I find that the light grey 3M pads (available at most body shop supply places, and starting to appear at Homer-Depot in place of steel wool) work a whole lot easier than wet-sanding when using the above method.

[TiredNGrouchy]

The most useful thing in the Wolfgang kit IMHO were the 4" pads and backing plate that I could use in my cordless drill (didn`t have a rotary at the time).

Once I wet sanded my headlight lenses, I found that some Menzerna IP got rid of the sanding marks and polished them to a high gloss much quicker than anything included in the Wolfgang kit. I followed this with FP II, though I really didn`t need to.

Headlight lenses usually have some clearcoat on them. Since wetsanding with 600 until the yellowing is gone removes all of it, you either need to shoot some clear on them once you`ve polished them, or resign yourself to polishing them a couple times a year at least. I believe there was a headlight restoring kit from Napa that included some brush-on clearcoat. I`ve yet to shoot some clear on my headlight lenses, though next time I have to polish the headlights on my Jeep, I`ll take them out of the car when I`m done and paint them with a can of spray-on clearcoat I got from paintscratch.com.

[Don]

A friend of mine, who is a K9 officer asked me to clean the colored covers on his lightbar. They had faded and were more opaque than clear, which really cut down on how well they could be seen.

The bug etching on the covers was horrendous and I wasn`t able to get it all out. I probably could have if I`d have had more time.

All I had in the way of abrasives was some 2000 grit paper (which the defects laughed at) some 100 grit drywall paper (didn`t even consider it) and some 00 steel wool. I had Megs #1 Medium cut as my `heavy` corrective polish and some DACP as the final polish.

I used the steel wool with a bucket of soapy water and went over the covers...man, if he thought they were opaque before!!! I would scuff the lenses for a few minutes, then rinse them off to see where I was until I thought I had gotten all or at least most of the scratches and bug etchings removed, then used some Medium cut on a Lake Country cutting pad on my rotary (1400 - 1800 rpms). Within seconds, the lenses turned clear again and I only used the Med Cut long enough to clean up what the steel wool did, then I switched to the DACP on a polishing pad. I dropped the speed a hair so the polish wouldn`t flash off too quickly and I would have more working time. I spent much more time on this step than the others.

Once that was done, the covers were removed so I could wash the them and remove all the compound splash. I also washed the insides of the covers and hand waxed them with Klasse AIO topped w/Collinite 476s. The outsides of the covers were hand-waxed the same way.

They came out great, except for where the bug juice had really ate into the plastic covers...like I said, if I`d have had more time... Other than that, they looked brand new. He was really happy about the results.

A word of warning though...if you think burning through paint is easy, you should see how quickly a mark can be put INSIDE a plasic lens, where it can`t be polished out...don`t ask how I know :notme:

[blkyukon]

I don`t think there is a 1 step fix all product out there that can cut thru all that yellow/cloudy build up, and have them looking like they could if they were wetsanded.

Actually Diamondite`s kit is pretty good and it did cut through those clouding headlights in the video very well.

But I do agree with you for extreme cases, no kit or polish will do it alone. Here is an example of some bad lights-

01 VW Passat lights

Before outer coating flaking, yellowing and scratched:
http://melncal.com/detailing/pictures/vw_hl_before.jpg

During:
These needed 500 grit paper, but I only had 1000 grit so I had to do a few passes with 1000 grit and finish with 2000 grit:

http://melncal.com/detailing/pictures/vw_hl_during.jpg

After Rotary 1500rpm, SSR2.5/4" orange pad - this brought them back but still a bit hazy and needed to be finished more:

http://melncal.com/detailing/pictures/vw_hl_during_2.jpg

After Rotary 1200-1500rpm, Menzerna 106FF, 4" white polishing pad:

http://melncal.com/detailing/pictures/vw_hl_after.jpg


Whichever method you use be sure to watch the heat on the plastic and let them cool between polishing. Heat + plastic = BAD


This was done with a rotary but you can get just as good results with a PC too...What has worked for me is - speed 5 (6 if needed) & 4" pads. 4" pads cut better and are easier to work with on lenses. You might have to do more passes with the PC to get the same results, but it can be done.