RaysWay
Autopia Specialist
When you work at PBMG, everyone expects a level of gloss and shine on your vehicles. Since I purchased this 97 Honda Civic, friends, coworkers, strangers, and family members were not shy at pointing out the oxidation on my headlights. I had to endure two weeks of daily ridicule before I had the time to restore my headlights.
Enough was enough. It was time to polish them out. Here's a before pic.
Drivers side closeup.
Passenger side closeup.
I decided to completely cut away the oxidation by sanding the headlights. I may have been able to restore the headlights by using a headlight polish, but I wanted to completely cut away all of the oxidation to ensure full clarity for as long as possible. I began by masking off the paint around the headlights. I used 3M Premium Automotive Masking Tape 48mm x 32m.
Then I opted to use a Griot's Garage Professional Random Orbital 3 Inch Polisher. The small 3 inch polisher is a perfect size for sanding headlights. I added a Meguiars Unigrit 3 Inch Foam Interface Pad and started with Meguiars Unigrit 800 3 Inch Sanding Discs. I used a spray bottle filled with water to damp sand and used the 800 grit until I saw all of the yellowing had been removed.
Then I followed up with Meguiars Unigrit 1000 3 Inch Finishing Discs.
Then Meguiars Unigrit 1500 and finally 3M Trizact Hookit 3 Inch Foam Discs P3000 - 02087
To bring them back to full clarity and remove the 3000 grit sanding marks, I used Detailer’s All In One Headlight Restoring Polish on a FLEX PE14-2-150 Rotary Polisher with a 3.5 inch DuroWool 100% Twisted Wool Cutting Pad (coming soon).
For protection, I had an open bottle of GTechniq EXO on hand which is a perfect headlight protectant. I know it has tons of UV inhibitors (actually double the amount of UV inhibitors as GTechniq C1).
Who's laughing now?
Slowly but surely she's coming together. Thanks for reading!
Products used:
3M Premium Automotive Masking Tape 48mm x 32m
Griot's Garage Professional Random Orbital 3 Inch Polisher
Meguiars Unigrit 3 Inch Foam Interface Pad
Meguiars Unigrit 800 3 Inch Sanding Discs
Meguiars Unigrit 1000 3 Inch Finishing Discs
Meguiars Unigrit 1500
3M Trizact Hookit 3 Inch Foam Discs P3000 - 02087
Detailer’s All In One Headlight Restoring Polish
FLEX PE14-2-150 Rotary Polisher
3.5 inch DuroWool 100% Twisted Wool Cutting Pad
GTechniq EXO
Enough was enough. It was time to polish them out. Here's a before pic.
Drivers side closeup.
Passenger side closeup.
I decided to completely cut away the oxidation by sanding the headlights. I may have been able to restore the headlights by using a headlight polish, but I wanted to completely cut away all of the oxidation to ensure full clarity for as long as possible. I began by masking off the paint around the headlights. I used 3M Premium Automotive Masking Tape 48mm x 32m.
Then I opted to use a Griot's Garage Professional Random Orbital 3 Inch Polisher. The small 3 inch polisher is a perfect size for sanding headlights. I added a Meguiars Unigrit 3 Inch Foam Interface Pad and started with Meguiars Unigrit 800 3 Inch Sanding Discs. I used a spray bottle filled with water to damp sand and used the 800 grit until I saw all of the yellowing had been removed.
Then I followed up with Meguiars Unigrit 1000 3 Inch Finishing Discs.
Then Meguiars Unigrit 1500 and finally 3M Trizact Hookit 3 Inch Foam Discs P3000 - 02087
To bring them back to full clarity and remove the 3000 grit sanding marks, I used Detailer’s All In One Headlight Restoring Polish on a FLEX PE14-2-150 Rotary Polisher with a 3.5 inch DuroWool 100% Twisted Wool Cutting Pad (coming soon).
For protection, I had an open bottle of GTechniq EXO on hand which is a perfect headlight protectant. I know it has tons of UV inhibitors (actually double the amount of UV inhibitors as GTechniq C1).
Who's laughing now?
Slowly but surely she's coming together. Thanks for reading!
Products used:
3M Premium Automotive Masking Tape 48mm x 32m
Griot's Garage Professional Random Orbital 3 Inch Polisher
Meguiars Unigrit 3 Inch Foam Interface Pad
Meguiars Unigrit 800 3 Inch Sanding Discs
Meguiars Unigrit 1000 3 Inch Finishing Discs
Meguiars Unigrit 1500
3M Trizact Hookit 3 Inch Foam Discs P3000 - 02087
Detailer’s All In One Headlight Restoring Polish
FLEX PE14-2-150 Rotary Polisher
3.5 inch DuroWool 100% Twisted Wool Cutting Pad
GTechniq EXO
