Ok, I'll give this an obvious shot. Maybe wetsanding with progressivly less abrasive grades of paper then doing a final polish with a cloth wheel on a drill with compounds would be good. ???
I'll let someone else give it a shot; I'd like to know what works best too.
Your best bet is to get new lenses and get StonGuard to cover them. You can get StonGuard at Umnitza.com. Good stuff, and if you tell Matt that Ben from Bimmerforums.com sent you you might get a better price than what's listed on the website.
StonGuard is a clear, 1/8" thick flexible plastic shield that covers the lenses. It's guaranteed to protect the glass from pitting or chipping or cracking from rocks or other impacts. And it's not very expensive. I had my brother put it on the headlights of his 2003 Mustang GT Coupe just 2 days after he bought it, because they're plastic lenses and are very easy to mar.
By the way, be glad your foglight lenses are only $60. Mine are $128 apiece plus shipping and handling from the online suppliers, or $149 apiece plus tax if I buy them at the $tealership. That's for the whole foglight housing, as you can't replace just the foglight lens. Ouch.
I also thought this might be a solution but I'd really like to know if anyone has had any success before I try it. Hopefully someone will chime if they have.
Ben,
I am definitely lucky that the lenses can be purchased seperately as the whole assembly would cost $129ea. I also have a good contact at Hoehn in Carlsbad and I should be able to get those lenses even cheaper but I'd prefer to restore them if I could.
Either way I will definitely buy the clear bra for the lenses and a few of the painted areas, CA highways destroy the fronts of cars in short order.
Your best bet is to get new lenses and get StonGuard to cover them. You can get StonGuard at Umnitza.com. Good stuff, and if you tell Matt that Ben from Bimmerforums.com sent you you might get a better price than what's listed on the website.
StonGuard is a clear, 1/8" thick flexible plastic shield that covers the lenses. It's guaranteed to protect the glass from pitting or chipping or cracking from rocks or other impacts. And it's not very expensive. I had my brother put it on the headlights of his 2003 Mustang GT Coupe just 2 days after he bought it, because they're plastic lenses and are very easy to mar.
By the way, be glad your foglight lenses are only $60. Mine are $128 apiece plus shipping and handling from the online suppliers, or $149 apiece plus tax if I buy them at the $tealership. That's for the whole foglight housing, as you can't replace just the foglight lens. Ouch.
I feel your pain on that subject. I have a cracked foglight lens on the Maxima and the $tealership won't sell them for less than $200 and I have to buy the whole thing as well.
However, I found someone on the forums selling one that matched and I am in the process of replacing it.
I am definitely lucky that the lenses can be purchased seperately as the whole assembly would cost $129ea. I also have a good contact at Hoehn in Carlsbad and I should be able to get those lenses even cheaper but I'd prefer to restore them if I could.
Either way I will definitely buy the clear bra for the lenses and a few of the painted areas, CA highways destroy the fronts of cars in short order.
Oh, wow, I didn't even realize you were local. In that case I think you can get an even better deal on the StonGuard. Want me to get you a price, just in case?
BTW, I'm interested in glass repair techniques as well. I would like to do something about my heavily pitted headlights to hold me over until I replace them with European spec ellipsoids for better light output...but the Euro spec lights are $400/pair. Then HID's are $600. That's a grand on lights...can you say back burner?
) and they are pitted and yellow.
, if anyone has any tricks up their sleeves I would love to hear it.