Correcting Swirled Taillights?

J

JoshLSTV

New member
I just received my Brinkmann, and after washing my car today I was inspecting my paint for swirls. The good news is that I can't seem to find any swirls on my paint, but the bad news is that my taillights are swirl city. They are the glossy black plastic taillights on 2013/2014 Mustangs, and are apparently very soft. Is there any way to correct this, or is this normal? I thought about trying to polish them, but I only have the 6" Griots DA at the moment which I believe is too large to polish these taillights. Though if polishing will help I could invest in the 3" backing plate as it's pretty inexpensive. Below are pictures of my swirl free paint, and swirled taillights.



The Good:





The Bad:

 
Yes you can buff them out. It is normal. Most cars have more swirls in the lights than the paint. 3" BP and your DA will fix them right up.
 
I use the GG DA with a 4" backing plate (the 3" can be tippy and the shroud of the polisher is almost as big as the pad) with HD Speed--works great.
 
I use the Flex 3401 with a LC Orange 6" flat pad. Menzerna SIP works really well,just use the wide blue tape around the lights. Finish up with Menzerna PO85RD and a Green pad for a see through look. Also like HD Speed but haven't tried on lights.
 
I was told by the Honda body shop a few months ago that taillights on late model Honda's are easily correctible. They are plastic. Use the right pad and polish. Nothing too aggressive. I've used P1, Z-AIO and HD Polish with good success.
 
jmsc said:
I was told by the Honda body shop a few months ago that taillights on late model Honda's are easily correctible. They are plastic. Use the right pad and polish. Nothing too aggressive. I've used P1, Z-AIO and HD Polish with good success.
Click to expand...



As apposed to what, metal? There all some form of plastic. Have been since the 80s.
 
The same principles of paint correction apply to buffing lights: start with the least aggressive method, try to polish as little of the UV coating as possible while removing swirls, then maintain properly. Just remember that the lights are most likely a little softer/easier to burn than paint
 
Those should be able to be corrected by hand with a little patience. Those tail lights suck to correct because of the design. Not as tough as correcting the recesses of a 'Vette, but a PITA none-the-less. I used a 4" pad on a rotary. The offset of a DA makes it tougher to get into the corners.
 
They are easier to polish as they cannot (realistically) be burnt through. They can, however, become cloudy if overheated. While overheating with the da is unlikely, the rotary will cloud them up easily. Just watch your heat.



The clouding occurs throughout the plastic, meaning you cannot polish out the cloudiness except by eliminating all of the clouded plastic, ie, sanding down through the cloud.



Compound and polish by hand may be the only way to get into those recesses, like Nth mentioned.
 
I guess I should try polishing them by hand first before spending a bunch of money on a BP and pad if its not necessary. I don't have any hand sized foam polish pads. Do you believe a microfiber pad would do the job?
 
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