Headlight clean

is200 Newbie · June 13, 2017

This subject has been brought up before but I have just cleaned the lights on mine and thought I would share the pics ...

I didn't do a before and after picture (just an after !)

I was given this t-cut by someone in work to try today so I gave it a go. My headlights were by no means badly stained but were starting to tarnish around the edges, particularly on the top of the lights, so I gave it a go. 5 minutes (if that) was spent on each light and the polish took the stains away - they didn't need a lot of time spent on them, quite a bit of pressure and it was done by hand. they have turned out very well but like I said, they were not badly stained.

It was tried on badly stained lights by the guy in work and it didn't work (Ford) but perfect on mine. I will see how long it lasts and might do it every so often just to keep on top of it.

Texas · June 13, 2017

Link here ( while it last's) if you wanna give it a go!

Note: seller is not/or known by me!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/T-Cut-Headlight-Restoration-Kit-Polishing-Compound-And-Restorer-Sealant-Headlamp-/121401134675?hash=item1c44124e53:g:KyQAAOSwbYZXdjC7

I have Read the reviews on the above product and there was quite a few negatives...

But reading the reviews on this 3M product looks a lot better (bit more expensive, but pays yer money and all that!)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3M-Headlight-Headlamp-Lens-Restoration-Polish-Kit-U-just-need-a-drill-VideoBelow-/390857513237?hash=item5b00ec5915:g:StoAAOxyR7tTkCiz

Edited June 13, 2017 by Texas
Link

chr15gb · June 15, 2017

I used the 3M kit on my old 5 Series.
The results were quite astonishing, they came out like new and they had some pretty bad clouding around the edges beforehand.

It is a bit scary when you go at it with the rough stuff seeing all the plastic coming off, they go completely white before you start making things better.

It comes with green tape to protect the bodywork but it isn't very good at all, when the pad is in a drill it simply goes right through the tape.
Similarly, you can't get into the corners with the diameter of the pad so despite what it says, the headlights really do need to come out to do a proper job.

Vintagesixtysix · June 16, 2017

+1

3M kit for moderate to severe clouding.

I did a review for this product on the forum a few months ago.

Sent from my Iphone using Lexus OC

dougie175 · June 16, 2017

Good results if anyone is struggling to polish the headlight on puts a scratch in one you can simply re-lacquer headlights.

People always assume they are bare plastic however all plastic headlights are lacquered, so you can simply sand all the lacquer off the head, sand the scratch away, then slowly sand the headlight finer and finer until you get to 4000 grit on a DA, then re-lacquer with a very good UV protected headlight lacquer, Kent do a fantastic kit obviously it needs a bodyshop to do this work, but worth noting if you think a headlight is knackered from either a scratch or just too cloudy to polish it isn't!

is200 Newbie · June 17, 2017

22 hours ago, Vintagesixtysix said:

+1

3M kit for moderate to severe clouding.

I did a review for this product on the forum a few months ago.

Sent from my iPhone using Lexus OC

Thanks Phil

I will be taking a look at your post as I have two other cars to do that will need something more than what I used for mine. The T-Cut was worth a try, didn't cost me anything and worked on my car which wasn't too bad but while it has worked on a further two cars, its just not enough to lift the clouding from the plastic on these so I will be looking to use a polishing method (attachment on a grinder).

ahmedali44 · June 19, 2017

I used this t cut head light restoration kit on my is220d was shocked how clean lights came out.

Well recommended kit

Linas.P · July 15, 2017

On 6/16/2017 at 9:07 PM, dougie175 said:

Good results if anyone is struggling to polish the headlight on puts a scratch in one you can simply re-lacquer headlights.

People always assume they are bare plastic however all plastic headlights are lacquered, so you can simply sand all the lacquer off the head, sand the scratch away, then slowly sand the headlight finer and finer until you get to 4000 grit on a DA, then re-lacquer with a very good UV protected headlight lacquer, Kent do a fantastic kit obviously it needs a bodyshop to do this work, but worth noting if you think a headlight is knackered from either a scratch or just too cloudy to polish it isn't!

I had interesting problem today. Before replacing HID bulbs I thought my headlight needed polishing again (done them ~ 9 month ago with 2000 grit and some P1 compound). This time around I thought I will use UV protective lacquer so they may last longer. Did 1200 grit to remove stone chips and then even everything out with 2000+2500, panel pre-pray, applied halfrauds UV protective gloss lacquer and the result... half of headlight reacted with lacquer in funny way - it gone white for ~20s and then clear again with some weird patterns:

Wondering what could have caused the reaction (headlight were not-ON and not warm ~ room temperature)?!

dougie175 · July 16, 2017

9 hours ago, Linas.P said:

I had interesting problem today. Before replacing HID bulbs I thought my headlight needed polishing again (done them ~ 9 month ago with 2000 grit and some P1 compound). This time around I thought I will use UV protective lacquer so they may last longer. Did 1200 grit to remove stone chips and then even everything out with 2000+2500, panel pre-pray, applied halfrauds UV protective gloss lacquer and the result... half of headlight reacted with lacquer in funny way - it gone white for ~20s and then clear again with some weird patterns:

Wondering what could have caused the reaction (headlight were not-ON and not warm ~ room temperature)?!

My money would be on too thicker application, I don't really use cellulose paint as I always have access to 2 pack and guns but cellulose goes white when you apply it too thick and will react like then when too thick.

Also did you remove ALL the original lacquer and get the headlight down to bare plastic? If not looks like the cellulose lacquer has reacted with the original lacquer possibly. You need to remove ALL the original lacquer.

Linas.P · July 16, 2017

I have sanded them for quite a while and for third time now. They were sanded/polished twice before. I was suspecting some old layer of lacquer as well, because the above happened after light application i.e. I have gone light from quite far just to dust it with lacquer so that I can put thick coats after without runs and it reacted straight away.

The tricky bit is that they reacted most on the areas which were sanded most e.g. top of the headlights which was yellow-ish before hence I needed to sand the most - it didn't react at all areas around indicators which are still likely to have old lacquer as they were in pretty good shape and just "keyed them". As such reaction with old layer seems unlikely.

I was thinking about maybe not shaking the can enough, though I did it for longer than suggested 2 min. The second though was that maybe lacquer "gone-off" but it was just ~2 month since I bought it. The third and the one I am considering most likely is that I applied it from too close which prevented lacquer to properly atomsing.

Pulling out some 800grit today and then all story again....

dougie175 · July 16, 2017

You'll be there all day with 800 mate we would start with 240 minimum to remove all the lacquer on a DA at work, don't worry you wont damage the plastic its amazing how well it re-lacquers up.

It will have reacted where you sanded the most as you have broken the surface of the original lacquer more so it can eat in more, what you need to remember is aerosol products are most lust cellulose thinners which is what we use to break down paint in the gun wash so will react and try and loosen and peel the original lacquer from the headlight!

You wont get a great finish without removing all or the original lacquer from the front surface of the headlight, we must have done over 100 headlights and in the early days a few of the lads tried to do it without removing all the lacquer or just feathering out the bit they needed to remove and it always looked a dogs dinner and had to start again.

You can hit them with as low as 180, 240, 320,400 600, 800, 1000, 2000 and finally 4000 abralon on a DA is what we would do before lacquering with a UV protected lacquer to ensure there is no chance of the lacquer turning yellow in years to come. Providing you sand to a nice 2000 - 4000 finish you wont see any sanding you have done originally with the 240's

Linas.P · July 17, 2017

you are spot on... The problem is that I don't have access to electricity where I try "refurbish" the headlights. The lowest grade I had was 400/600.... was I was able to remove all of my previous "great work", but as you said spent whole day doing it. In the end of the day I have lacquered them.. now going to leave at least overnight before giving final buff..

The conclusion I made was that - if you don't have access to garage or at least electricity to plug in DA, then it is better no to try to re-lacquer headlights. It goes without saying it is not easy to remove old lacquer by hand... and it is actually tough.. I did not enjoy today very much. In such case just get some 2000-3000 grit, feather old lacquer and finish with some nice polishing paste.

Malc · July 17, 2017

............ or you could take it to your local bodyshop repair place and they have a trade proprietary product that costs them about £25/30 ( to do both headlamp covers ) and leave it to them to " do " professionally at whatever cost you agree for labour etc ...... I believe ( from my indy ) that it's not a very long job at all ( professionally ).

He's doing it all the time with the cars he buys at auction, to spruce up, doing minor body repairs, like bumpers etc and then, the glistening long term finish of what looks like new headlights ........... and he tells me his finish lasts for many years

Malc

Linas.P · July 17, 2017

If you know local indy which you trust then definitely yes. I don't have such around me... - £120 for them to squezze 2 teardrops of cheap polishing paste on rotary and go over headlamps for 5 min each, then claim they restored them... then story repeats after 2 months.

dougie175 · July 17, 2017

I agree it is a professional job really or a very competent tooled up DIYer.

Easiest way to make sure they get re-lacquer and not just polished would be to scratch through the lacquer into the plastic, but this seems very extreme cant believe they you cant find a bodyshop you can trust to do the job correctly! Its simple enough, remove headlights 1 hour, sand down for 1-1.5 hours mask and paint, 0.5 hours polish if required then refit and reset beams 1.5 hours. With stripping and refitting its about a 4-5 hour job plus materials. We would charge about £200+ VAT at work to do a pair however if we are doing another job on the car and already have the headlight removed we charge £40-70 to refurb a headlight

Linas.P · July 18, 2017

Completely true, but here we taking about £3500 car and I need to be reasonable with spending on it + I am in process of finding replacement + I am interested and like scratching around it to get some experience. Sometimes it works out very well, sometimes I found it is pro-job, but again it is not like I am lacking skills or even tools to refurbish headlight - in this case I am lacking stupid think like simple socket for 220v...