What am I doing?

[H3_VX]

Can anyone guess what i've been doing for the past several days (my time is scarce right now) with these tools and ingredients?........

Plastic putty knife
Heavy duty dish soap degreaser
Clean rags
Water
Denatured alcohol
1000 grit sandpaper
Goo off

[pbkid]

Can anyone guess what i've been doing for the past several days (my time is scarce right now) with these tools and ingredients?........

Plastic putty knife
Heavy duty dish soap degreaser
Clean rags
Water
Denatured alcohol
1000 grit sandpaper
Goo off

sounds to me like your maybe trying to clear up some foggy headlights? but why the putty knife?

[H3_VX]

sounds to me like your maybe trying to clear up some foggy headlights? but why the putty knife?

you are correct. and holy cow i googled this method and its working like a charm after my GM dealership f'ed up myone headlight last week. the putty knife is meant to scrape off grime and some of the "film" without making scratches on the lense. what worked better was degreaser. tomorrow i'm moving onto step 4, but goo gone, degreaser and putty knife have already almost 100% corrected my lenses. i have no doubt that after the alcohol and just a tiny bit of sandpapering i'll have headlights looking brand new......and mine were AWFUL!

[JoFotoz]

PHEW...

Thank gawd you answered that first Jack...

...I was going a whole different route...:eek:

Hope they come out all "sparkly".....
...its a very satisfying 'chore' :thumbup:

Jo

[vxfocus]

i googled but all i found was links promoting some headlight restoration kits..anyone got a link to the above mentioned procedur?.

[H3_VX]

i googled but all i found was links promoting some headlight restoration kits..anyone got a link to the above mentioned procedur?.

I'll find it and post the link for you. Or i'll just type it up on this thread. Stay tuned.

[H3_VX]

Here it is. Worked pretty good for me. Not perfect yet, but continuing the process again. Some of my problem is under the lense.
http://www.ehow.com/how_7823979_repair-headlight-film.html

[vt_maverick]

Now make sure you protect them so you don't have to go through all that trouble again. I'll have to post pics of my headlights but they still look perfect after the thousands and thousands of miles I spent driving across the country this summer.

[frankd14321]

How did you protect them Maverick?

[evillecutter]

any thoughts on if using headlight covers would make this problem better or worse?

[rowhard]

How did you protect them Maverick?

Not sure how Ashley did, but I went to my local tint shop and had them covered in lexan after I had sanded and polished them. Still crystal clear after 7 years and rock chip resistant :yeso:

[SlowPro48]

Alcohol is fine, the degreaser you're using might be OK as well - depending on what's in it - hopefully no ammonia - but I definitely wouldn't use GooGone, Goof Off or any other solvent to clean those lenses! Polycarbonate is a very solvent-sensitive plastic and it doesn't tolerate NH3, terpenes or aromatics well at all. GooGone is made with citrus-based terpenes - and Goof Off reeks of xylene, which is an aromatic. Your headlights may look good for a while if you keep waxing them to fill in the surface imperfections but eventually the crazing will get bad enough that it scatters too much light and there's no fixing that - they will be ruined.

Anything gentle enough not to harm the plastic is not going to dissolve the remnants of the old clearcoat. So you have to sand those sections anyway. It won't take much longer to go ahead and sand the whole thing. Then polish and clearcoat and you're good to go for another ten years of sparkly, maintenance-free headlight bliss. The key is protecting them with a good UV resistant clearcoat. If you don't, you'll be re-doing the job in a couple years.

[SlowPro48]

Not sure how Ashley did, but I went to my local tint shop and had them covered in lexan after I had sanded and polished them. Still crystal clear after 7 years and rock chip resistant :yeso:

Wha...? They installed a Lexan cover/guard or are you saying they somehow coated your headlights with Lexan?

[JoFotoz]

X2...


It won't take much longer to go ahead and sand the whole thing. Then polish and clearcoat and you're good to go for another ten years of sparkly, maintenance-free headlight bliss. The key is protecting them with a good UV resistant clearcoat. If you don't, you'll be re-doing the job in a couple years.

I havent clearcoated, but a good all over sanding with 1500 wet & dry..
....although kind of scary at first (cloudy / hazy mess!) is IMO the way to go
to remove original coating.

Follow this with a good mechanical buffing (drill/sponge buff pad)..
...using liberal amounts of Mequiars "PlastX".

We did two VX's a couple of weeks ago...took about an hour.
Mine had been done 3 years ago, the other VX, never.
They both look like new.

After this...15 mins with the buffer and PlastX every year
will keep them pristine :thumbup:

Jo

[SlowPro48]

Yeah that'll work too! I'm just lazy I guess. I'd rather spend an hour on three coats of clear (most of which is cleaning the gun) and not have to think about it again for a long while than spend 15 minutes every year polishing. Definitely agree on finishing up with 1500 grit. Makes the polishing go much quicker....

[rowhard]

Wha...? They installed a Lexan cover/guard or are you saying they somehow coated your headlights with Lexan?

No, he actually took a sheet of lexan, cut and molded it to the headlight. There are a few bubbles around the horn bump but that's it, just like if you bought them pre-cut. I would suggest cutting around the horn light if I was going to do it again