Headlight restoration advice

[john.r2k]

Need some advice on restoring some second hand headights. They are not badly oxidized or anything they are actually quite good except one of them has a big cloudy patch that looks like it was polished at some point and it looks a bit like friction burn. So i've got a big golf ball size cloudy patch that almost looks like a thin layer of sticker on the headlight. But it definately looks like friction burn from a polish gone wrong at some point.

I've come across the following kit: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223724528583

It comes with a drill bit attachment, i have a cordless variable drill that i can run slowly. So the question is do I need to wet sand the entire headlight first and specially the friction burn area? whats the best way to get rid of this friction burn mark?

Thanks

[Bobton125]

Can’t comment on that kit, but I recently used the autoglym kit which had brilliant results. Contains more pads but then it’s more expensive.
If you wet sand with a lower grade then you’ll have to work your way back up again with gradual finer grades, so more time consuming

[john.r2k]

Thanks for your reply. Below is a pic of the damage i'm trying to fix. If I was to wet sand it, what grit should I start at and what grits should I do and what grit to finish at before polishing it? Should I wet sand the entire lens or just around the area of the damage?

Thanks

[anonymous-user]

I used a similar kit on my wife's car where the headlight plastic was very opaque and cloudy and was visibly affecting the light output.

The set I bought was a big bag of small wet-and-dry sanding discs with a drill pad and a few sponge discs also, then using lots of water (a big sponge squeezed over the headlight every few seconds) and working through the grades up to about 5000 or 10000 grit IIRC, then the foam pads and some plastic polish and then a sealer sprayed on at the end.

Took perhaps an hour for both while being cautious (including the time to work on a small test area first to see what happens) and the headlights still look like new a couple of years later, it was well worth the effort.

It was similar to this one:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/324158129218?chn=ps&n...

The polish and sealer I already had and I think was this Meguiars set:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Meguairs-G2970EU-Perfect-...

Edited by anonymous-user on Sunday 14th June 17:23

[Burnzyb]

The quickest and best results I’ve had so far, e-tech headlight lacquer and 2500 or 3000 W&D, I’d use a rotary or an DA if possible.

Use the W&D to remove the yellow in the headlight lens make sure it’s a hot or warm environment, and the can of lacquer is warm to help with orange peel, dry headlight after sanding and panel wipe the headlight, then spray the lacquer straight onto the headlight, light even coats till it lays on glossy.

This is how the headlight was before.



This is after 15 minutes, with doing it as written above, some cynics may see some differences in the photo but I ran out of time to do that headlight and only did the driver side, it was nearly 12 months later before I did that side so it was actually worse than that when I started.



I tried doing it as the instructions say but not only was it much longer to do, I felt the results weren’t as good and I still don’t like the idea of painting a polished surface.