cs2000 Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 Hey all, so after seeing some inspiration over here http://www.350z-uk.com/topic/73480-headlight-cleanup/ I thought id give this a go, and document the process for anyone else who is nervous at doing this, like I was The entire process takes a little while, the longer you spend, the better the results, so bare this in mind. You will need the following. 1x, Painters Masking Tape, 1x Polishing Mop, 1x Foam Sanding Block, 1x sheet of 1000,1500,2000,3000 grit sandpaper and (because Rob63 kindly sent me some) some 8000 grit micromesh and finally something to polish them, personally I used Meguiars Plast-x and Autosol. So, mask off the area with the tape as shown. After this photo I doubled the size of the masked area just to be safe. You can see the offending yellow patches circled on the upper faces of both headlights. So, now get the 1000 grit paper and wrap it round the foam sanding block, wet it (seeing as were using wet & dry), then sand sand sand until its all one texture. In my example, I sanded in straight lines and did 50 motions, so if I was sanding from top to bottom, id hit the top 50 times. I then moved the pad left, and repeated, trying as much as possible to keep the strokes all in 1 direction. After 10 mins orso, this is what it looks like. You will notice some change of direction in the sanding on the front of the lights, it was difficult to get this area sanding top to bottom so switched left to right for the bottom 3rd of the light. Next, wipe it all down, then go at it again with 1500 grit, alternating the stroke direction this time. Again I kept at 50 strokes as this seemed to get rid of the previous sanding marks. Hmm, not a lot better, this is where I started to panic. I forgot to take photos of the 2000 grit level, so the next one is the 3000, and again, keep alternating the stroke direction & keep the paper wet. This looks a lot better, but still.... So, finally as mentioned rob63 sent me some 8000 grit micromesh. This thing feels kinda like leather, its hard to imagine it does ANYTHING let alone sands plastic. Its also extremely durable. My guess is that the sanding particles are so close together, it cannot get clogged like regular paper does. So, use the same process of keeping the paper wet, but this time using 100 strokes, you get this. Much better. Now. get out your drill and the polishing mop and then polish of your choice. I started with Autosol as its more abrasive, and then switched to Meguiars Plast-x afterwards. After a through polish on each we end up with this. From here I washed and waxed everything and even the micro scratches you can see in the last picture have gone. In trust, it probably need another 10 mins orso per headlight using a proper rotary polisher, or some serious hand work, but looks 10x better than before, especially after a bit of wax. very pleased overall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MITZ@CougarStore Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 Well worth doing, the difference after is night and day... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliveBoy Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 Have you used anything to prevent it from happening again? Otherwise you'll find it comes back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cs2000 Posted July 22, 2013 Author Share Posted July 22, 2013 No I havnt. I just assumed it was caused by the UV light degrading the plastic over several years, as in, yes it will come back, but in another 3-4 years orso, just bearing in mind the car is 9 years old, so its took 9 years to get to that state. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliveBoy Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 I use t-cut (yep, the stuff the devil created) which polishes the haze out quite quickly, however give it a few months and I can notice the haze coming back. I'm not sure if this is because I haven't removed the top layer as sanding would do, or because the UV has already reacted with the plastic and it happens again. Bringing new unprotected plastic to the surface (buy removing the top layer) might re-haze, but some anti UV wax might save all your hard work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spursmaddave Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 Nice job, is that the tape Octet covered his car with 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliveBoy Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 Nice job, is that the tape Octet covered his car with I'd heard if it gets wet and then dries it's a pain to get off, explains a lot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cs2000 Posted July 22, 2013 Author Share Posted July 22, 2013 haha is a very similar colour! Luckily with that being tape meant for making when painting it was pretty good with being wet, only had a few small areas that caused me trouble. I have previous used just the Plast-x stuff and yes after a week or so the yellowing came back. Im hoping that the work put into it by physically removing the damaged plastic will stop it coming back, but just for peace of mind, il look at some UV wax Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob63 Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 Looks much better and well worth the effort you put in :thumbs: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilogikal1 Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 haha is a very similar colour! Luckily with that being tape meant for making when painting it was pretty good with being wet, only had a few small areas that caused me trouble. I have previous used just the Plast-x stuff and yes after a week or so the yellowing came back. Im hoping that the work put into it by physically removing the damaged plastic will stop it coming back, but just for peace of mind, il look at some UV wax You'll definitely need some protection on it. The yellowing is caused by UV damage, the lights have a protective layer on from the factory which naturally breaks down over time anyway, but anything that was left has now been removed with the sanding. Most waxes and sealants will offer adequate protection, but obviously wax will need topping up or re-applying more often than a sealant - what LSP do you use on the paint? That should be okay to use and just include the headlights whenever you do the paintwork in future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cs2000 Posted July 22, 2013 Author Share Posted July 22, 2013 LSP is usually Meguiars Ultimate quick detailer, however sometimes I finish off with a sealant. The headlights always get waxed along with the car with Meguiars ultimate wax, and sometimes even get a compound, polish then wax. Overall I just treat them like another body panel. They get no special treatment, but no less than the car gets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skidder Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 Im hoping that the work put into it by physically removing the damaged plastic will stop it coming back, but just for peace of mind, il look at some UV wax When you say removed the damaged plastic what do you mean by this?Not the lens itself I presume? The reason I ask is that I seem to have internal smudging inside the lens and i have no idea whatsoever how to remove this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mopedmark Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 Xeropel fantastic little product no need for all that rubbing down mullarky I have used it for years brilliant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cs2000 Posted July 23, 2013 Author Share Posted July 23, 2013 Im hoping that the work put into it by physically removing the damaged plastic will stop it coming back, but just for peace of mind, il look at some UV wax When you say removed the damaged plastic what do you mean by this?Not the lens itself I presume? The reason I ask is that I seem to have internal smudging inside the lens and i have no idea whatsoever how to remove this? No, I meant the action of sanding has physically removed the UV damaged plastic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yankeesiter Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 Xeropel fantastic little product no need for all that rubbing down mullarky I have used it for years brilliant Don't know about this product but I took mine around to a my local bodyshop and they polished out in about 3 mins. Cost - zip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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