Did some headlight polishing this weekend

Jngrbrdman

Jngrbrdman

New member
These headlights wouldn't even need to be polished if someone hadn't decided to use a wire brush to remove the tint he had installed on them. Yes... he had tinted the headlights yellow to match the car. And yes, he used a wire brush to remove the tint. I'm not going to try and justify either of his actions. lol

He did the damage two years ago and decided it was finally time to see if they could be cleared up a little. When he told me what he did, I really didn't see how there would be much hope, but in seeing them I could tell that it wouldn't be too terrible. They probably wouldn't come out perfect, but they would be good enough. Considering the car is only used as a track car and rarely even needs to have the headlights on, 'good enough' is probably fine.

So here are the before pictures.

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I hit them with a Chemical Guys level 3 polish. It is really thick stuff. Thick like Diamond Cut is thick. I don't know where it fits on the abrasive level chart, but it is only something I've ever used for things like paint swap and heavy stuff like that. I applied it with an orange Edge 2000 pad on my FLEX 3401. I was actually pretty surprised of the results. I didn't really have to polish that long before the job was done.

There was a little haze that needed to be cleared up.

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That was easily sorted with a level 2 polish and the yellow Edge 2000 pad. Then I used a Blue Edge 2000 pad and XMT 360 to do a final polish and put some protection on. I don't know why I used 360. It was handy I guess. lol

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Not too shabby, eh? Definitely a whole lot better that it was before. I wasn't trying to get them perfect simply because of how abused these things tend to get. The car has over 600 HP at the wheels and it does a couple dozen track days per year and probably less than 1000 miles on the streets outside of that, so having them show car perfect really wasn't the goal. I just wanted to do a favor for a friend and see what kind of difference I could make in a short amount of time. I was pleased with the results.

I'll tell you the really funny part though. Under the hood he has an LOL hose. :P

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That must me the hose attached to the nitrous or something. lol
 
They look nice now. How tough is it to remove the headlight assembly off of the car. I guess what I am asking is how long did it take to remove them. What did you use to hold the assembly still while you polished it? Do your Edge 2000 pads hold up well to the action of the Flex? And my last question is do you use the 8" as well as the 6" Edge 2000 pads with the Flex?
 
With this particular car it was a piece of cake. They are only held in by two rods bracing them from behind. I was actually pretty surprised how easy they came out. On every other car I've owned that I've done headlight polishing on I would have had to at least drop the bumper to get to bolts holding them in. These are way easy to take out, but that isn't typical.

My friend held them while I polished them. That is the only way to do it if you don't have some sort of work bench and clamp to hold them.

I'd have to measure the pad size that I use. I only have one size and I've honestly never thought about the size. This is the size I'm using if that helps any.

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The Edge pads held up fine. There weren't any sharp edges or anything to catch it on, so they survived without a mark. That is another thing I've never really thought about. Headlight polishing isn't especially hazardous to my pads, so I've never considered one pad being damaged versus another. Is that what you were talking about?

I really don't think having a large pad would have helped at all. If anything I feel it probably would have just gotten in the way. I was considering using my PC with my much smaller velcro pads, but I'm addicted to the efficiency of the FLEX gears. I don't believe I would have gotten any better results with a smaller pad or different polisher. These were pretty good results for the half hour's worth of work to bust out the pair.
 
Jngrbrdman said:
With this particular car it was a piece of cake. They are only held in by two rods bracing them from behind. I was actually pretty surprised how easy they came out. On every other car I've owned that I've done headlight polishing on I would have had to at least drop the bumper to get to bolts holding them in. These are way easy to take out, but that isn't typical.

My friend held them while I polished them. That is the only way to do it if you don't have some sort of work bench and clamp to hold them.

I'd have to measure the pad size that I use. I only have one size and I've honestly never thought about the size. This is the size I'm using if that helps any.

polishingdirections.jpg


The Edge pads held up fine. There weren't any sharp edges or anything to catch it on, so they survived without a mark. That is another thing I've never really thought about. Headlight polishing isn't especially hazardous to my pads, so I've never considered one pad being damaged versus another. Is that what you were talking about?

I really don't think having a large pad would have helped at all. If anything I feel it probably would have just gotten in the way. I was considering using my PC with my much smaller velcro pads, but I'm addicted to the efficiency of the FLEX gears. I don't believe I would have gotten any better results with a smaller pad or different polisher. These were pretty good results for the half hour's worth of work to bust out the pair.
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Thanks for answering my questions. They were questions in general as I have a slew of Edge 2000 pads of all sizes and recently purchased a Flex 3401. I am simply gathering information to help make a decision as to whether I will purchase an Edge adaptor for my Flex. My questions weren't intended to be critical in any way. I have done some headlights and would like to have them off of the vehicle to be able to get to the edges and such. I was trying to get a general feel for how long it would take to remove the headlight assemblies.
 
I love the Edge adapter for the Flex. It is awesome. I wasn't a beta tester, but I was definitely one of the first to buy one. In fact, when my original FLEX backing plate got chewed up and they sent me a new one, I had them send it directly to Aaron at The Edge so they could do the conversion on it for me. I would never go back to velcro pads after the years I've been on this system. I love them. :)

Headlights can be tricky depending on the make and model of your car. On my Corolla you have to drop the bumper to get to the bolt holding them in. On the Integra you had to remove the bumper entirely because they were dual lenses and popping through the bumper. Some will come out with a couple bolts on top and others will require more work. I've never seen anything as simple as the Mustang those lights came off of, so I wouldn't expect it to be that easy. You just have to look around for the bolts or consult an owner's forum and see how it is done. Worst case scenario is that you'll need to take out a few screws to remove the bumper in order to get full access to the housings, but I doubt that will be necessary. Not many cars are built that way.
 
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