DIY Headlight restoration without taking off the lense or headlight
07-03-09, 05:26 PM
#1
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DIY Headlight restoration without taking off the lense or headlight
Materials:
1. Little piece 1500 grit Sand paper
2. Used water bottle filled with water with a small hole on the cap
3. 2 rags, one for drying, other for taking off wax
4. Food, Drink, and something to occupy your time while you wait for wax to cake.
5. A big smile at the end.
So about 4 weeks ago i finally got fed up with my headlights and fogs being yellow out from sun damage, and making my beautiful 1997 SC300 look like it was old car that had no class. So I finally built up the courage to test out wet sanding the head lights, Well problem was, I had limited supplies and I was at the point where I just didn't care so i went ahead and did it, I had a quarter of a sheet of 1500 sand paper, and my water bottle that i poked hole in the cap with a nail, and went to town on the head light and fogs and this was the result
beautiful. Well that was the passenger side, and i still had the driver side to go
So i ripped of and 1"x1" square of 1500grit sand paper, filled up my bottle with water and started.
i first soaked the sand paper with water, then started dropping water droplets over the surface of the lense where i started to sand.
this photo shows the progress after just 15 strokes
after continuing, this was after 5 minutes
i took these shots so you can see the difference of the top where i started sanding to the bottom that was the sun damaged surface.
[IMG]http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs134.snc1
/5735_204022975580_515025580_7587482_3137477_n.jpg[/IMG]
so i continued wet sanding the headlight for about another 10 minutes, making sure i got every corner and edge. and the result after drying off with a rag was this
once it was completely dry, first used meguires cleaner wax (the actual solid) on the lense, waited for it to cake and took it off
,
and then used Meguires high gloss wax (solid) on the lense.
While i let that caked on, i worked on my fog lense, took me about 5 minutes. In this photo you can see the yellow just melt off the lense
after cleaning it off and drying it i did the same step process with the waxes.
after the wax was caked on the lenses, I took it off the wax on the headlight lense with a microfiber cloth (any rag works really.) and this was the result,
and i took some night shots of them with my hids and jdm yellow fogs. The light out put was an amazing difference from before i did the cleaning.
1. Little piece 1500 grit Sand paper
2. Used water bottle filled with water with a small hole on the cap
3. 2 rags, one for drying, other for taking off wax
4. Food, Drink, and something to occupy your time while you wait for wax to cake.
5. A big smile at the end.
So about 4 weeks ago i finally got fed up with my headlights and fogs being yellow out from sun damage, and making my beautiful 1997 SC300 look like it was old car that had no class. So I finally built up the courage to test out wet sanding the head lights, Well problem was, I had limited supplies and I was at the point where I just didn't care so i went ahead and did it, I had a quarter of a sheet of 1500 sand paper, and my water bottle that i poked hole in the cap with a nail, and went to town on the head light and fogs and this was the result
beautiful. Well that was the passenger side, and i still had the driver side to go
So i ripped of and 1"x1" square of 1500grit sand paper, filled up my bottle with water and started.
i first soaked the sand paper with water, then started dropping water droplets over the surface of the lense where i started to sand.
this photo shows the progress after just 15 strokes
after continuing, this was after 5 minutes
i took these shots so you can see the difference of the top where i started sanding to the bottom that was the sun damaged surface.
[IMG]http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs134.snc1
/5735_204022975580_515025580_7587482_3137477_n.jpg[/IMG]
so i continued wet sanding the headlight for about another 10 minutes, making sure i got every corner and edge. and the result after drying off with a rag was this
once it was completely dry, first used meguires cleaner wax (the actual solid) on the lense, waited for it to cake and took it off
, and then used Meguires high gloss wax (solid) on the lense.
While i let that caked on, i worked on my fog lense, took me about 5 minutes. In this photo you can see the yellow just melt off the lense
after cleaning it off and drying it i did the same step process with the waxes.
after the wax was caked on the lenses, I took it off the wax on the headlight lense with a microfiber cloth (any rag works really.) and this was the result,
and i took some night shots of them with my hids and jdm yellow fogs. The light out put was an amazing difference from before i did the cleaning.
07-03-09, 05:27 PM
#2
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passenger side
driver side
fog light
the whole process for one side took me about 30 mins, and that's including sitting around, eating, and getting something to drink. I hope this was helpful and gives all of you members on the line of sanding your headlights that push to do it. All I used was that little piece of 1500 grit sand paper for the driver side headlight lense and the fog lense. It took me over and hour to make this thread, more time to do the write up then the actual project, so you see the ease of this project. Good Luck!
driver side
fog light
the whole process for one side took me about 30 mins, and that's including sitting around, eating, and getting something to drink. I hope this was helpful and gives all of you members on the line of sanding your headlights that push to do it. All I used was that little piece of 1500 grit sand paper for the driver side headlight lense and the fog lense. It took me over and hour to make this thread, more time to do the write up then the actual project, so you see the ease of this project. Good Luck!
07-03-09, 05:56 PM
#4
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if you read in the directions, i used two different sets of waxes for them. Haven't had to do anything since, they are holding up amazingly, all my friends first ask if got new lenses, then when i tell them my process, they drop their jaws.
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07-03-09, 10:34 PM
#15
Lexus Test Driver
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so was this the first thing you tried??? why not use a terry towel and some plastx?? Worked awesome for me. Meguiars even have a new headlight "kit" out now that comes with the plastx and a small buffer ball....
