Cleaning Scratched Headlights

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Morning Everyone,

It would appear that the panel beaters who worked on my car possibly screwed my headlights.. not sure what they were doing, maybe they thought they were glass or something..

Anyways - they now have what appears to be some scratches with paint possibly in them from when they were respraying the front bar or - more likely polishing it..

I've read that alot of people used a "cut and polish" to clean the yellowness off the lights, and i'm wondering if I could use the same idea for the front of mine..

Can I get some ideas on what people think..

Maybe using extrememly fine sand paper - wet and dry maybe.. than use a cut and polish to polish it up..

i've never done this before, so any help would be great.. i'm guessing the cut will thin back any scratches than I have to sit there for a while polishing it up..

Cheers people..

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[tridentt150v]

Try the headlight paste from justjap, it sort of worked for me.

I had scratches, I used heaps of elbow grease and several grades of cutting polish, I finished with the headlight paste, it came up really good.

Be patient with it, do it over several days, its easy to get to your headlights, so any timne you have a spare 10 minutes, use it.

[RBwhatever]

Use some brasso, then finish with meguires plastic-x, meguires is about $15 for a bottle.

[R33S2]

I had thinners wiped over mine, totaly smeared the finnish!!!!

I used Gumption with a coarse plastic scourer, then brasso on a coarse cloth and then Plastex to finnish, you can still see the deeper lines in the right light but it's kinda hard, they look good now, but I would of sanded them if I had to do it again, it would of been the same amount of work and a flatter finnish.

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It's been suggested that I use some wet/dry sandpaper with plenty of water to sand back the scratches, than work up to some coarse polish, than finish with some fine polish..

Would this work..

I've seen the meguires plastic-x or scratch-x - but I think i'll need something to sand back the scratches first..

hmmm brasso eh.. might have to look into it.. i'm guessing as you work your way thinner and thinner it should keep them clear..

Cheers

Sounds like i've got a similar thing to you R33S2

[R33S2]

If you use a buffing wheel, make sure you dont heat the surface too much or you will smear it.

Any quality polishing compound will do the job, I used what I had on hand.

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I guess i'll be doing it by hand.. don't have any polishing gear here.. hence my queries on what to use..

Hmm.. will go hunting this weekend..

Will using wet/dry sandpaper risk leaving a matte finish?..

[R33S2]

Of coarse it will at first, depending on the depth of the scratches and what grade you use, once you get to a flat surface start using a finer grade and then on to finer polishing, the matt finish will slowly fade to a smooth surface. Basically that is what I did but the deeper scratches are smooth too LOL and thats why I would sand them flat first. I'm no expert just telling what worked (and didnt) for me.

[Jolinator]

sorry slightly o/t but i have to get this out,

it sucks how newer cars use plastic headlights, our old 97 a4 had glass headlights, from 00+ plastic, our new liberty gt has shitty plastic headlights, it must be to do with saftey or something, r32 for the win, glass headlights

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Glass is MUCH better for cleaning and maintaining.. and probably easier to polish..

K - I spent an hour today just trying some stuff out.. 1st - use Autosol polish which is quite a course polish.. this seemed to get rid of some of the scratches and the paint shit that was on there.. I than went over the top with Scratch-X

This has improved some parts of the light, but I think I need to get some sand paper and get rid of some of the shit on there and see how it goes.. worried i'll scratch them and not be able to get the cleared up.. once scratched.. that could be it..

[Ol_Mate]

Yeah, go out and pick up some 1200, 1500 and 2000 grit wet and dry from supercheap. Also grab some sort of polishing compound and a few rags if you don't already have them.

IMPORTANT:

~Make sure you use a lot of water while sanding, you will get a much better finish~

Now, starting with the 1200, give the lens a light rub all over. Remember, water is your friend.

Do the same with the 1500 and the 2000 grit. It will look matt, but don't panic. You should be able to see if you have taken the scratches out or not. Just keep sanding until they are gone.

Wipe all the crud off the front of the light (there will be a fair bit). Grab a clean rag and your polish and go to town on the mofo. It should start clearing up in a few minutes but keep polishing until you're satisfied.

If the scratches are still there, just repeat the procedure.

PM me if ya have any questions.

Enjoy!

Edited June 11, 2006 by Ol_Mate

[khunjeng]

some of my older cars have had the de-laminating headlight issue and essentially the best way I found was to

start with 1200 wet and dry then move to 2000

then use some cut and polish

then brasso....brasso makes it nice and clean and really good for cleaning plastuc up...in fact I use it on my ipod and phones all the time..

this should make it look nice...if not perfect. Don't rush it and spend a good 2 or so hours as effect = results.

KJ

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Thanks for the feedback everyone..

Looks like i'll be heading in the right direction with some wet and dry.. start rough.. work to finer.. than polish the jebesus out of it lol..

I'm currently at work stupid public holidays - so i'll have to pick up all the stuff in a couple of days I guess.. and give it a bit of a go..

I'll give everyone an update when I get a chance to polish them up.. hmmm brasso eh..

Ol Mate thanks for the detailed info - it sounds like people have had to do this before.. I should probably get the panelbeaters to fix them, but I just don't trust them.. they did it in the first place..

do you recommend putting anything with the water when sanding? or just plain water??

[Ol_Mate]

just plain old water will do the trick. good luck

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K - bit of an update..

Trialed with some 1200grit wet/dry.. got rid of the scratches.. used some autosol and scratch x to buff it out.. however I think the scratch x is still a bit rough and i've got very fine matte finish..

Need to get something finer and buff them out..

Over all - great way to get rid of slightly deeper scratches but need to work out how to get the matte finish out..

[R33S2]

lots of hand rubbing, I used the gumption/3m pad at this stage, its hard to estimate but every time i did it, it got better.

[Links]

Thanks for the positive thoughts R33S2..

I'll probably get stuck into it next wekend.. goto get the water/condensation out of the light first ..

[jrocket]

Toothpaste might work okay to take very fine layer off the head lights. I am going to borrow a special jewlers tool like a dremel (think thats the name) from my work which we use to polish metal to a mirror finish. It comes with felt pads and a diamond paste (like $80 for glue stick size tube) and i will give this a go on my head lights n tell yas how it turns out.

Edited July 21, 2006 by jrocket