Restored my 172 headlights today with awesome results!!

[DJR1210]

My headlights were looking pretty dire to be honest, with pitting, yellowing and a very hazy look to them, you can't really tell from the photos how bad they were. Anyway,.... couldn't put up with it anymore and the rest of the car is pretty tidy, (apart from the grille, which I'm hoping someone will help me out with soon!?) so time for action. Ordered the 3M kit for just under £20 which you use with a cordless drill. 500 grit first, then 800, then a 3000 grit Trizact foam disc, which you wet the disc and headlight whilst using. Then finally a polishing pad with the supplied rubbing compound. Took me an hour per headlight but I was very thorough and used two of each of the 500 and 800grit discs per side.
Well worth the effort though, they're gleaming now. I wouldn't want to try and achieve the same results by hand though, that's for sure!! Here's the before and after pictures.

 

[Stay Puft]

Top effort, much better.

 

[imprezaworks]

Huge improvement. Makes the car look so much fresher

 

[LeeRS]

Yep, great job.
looks 100x better!

 

[Sunglasses_Ron]

Now get something on them to protect them and stop them going again.

Carpro Dlux is what I use.

 

[DJR1210]

Now get something on them to protect them and stop them going again.

Carpro Dlux is what I use.

@Sunglasses_Ron
I've just used some standard turtle wax on them for now for a bit of protection, but thanks for the tip, I'll look into that

 

[DJR1210]

Cheers for the comments too guys, I'm well happy, they literally look brand spanking!

 

[Sunglasses_Ron]

@Sunglasses_Ron
I've just used some standard turtle wax on them for now for a bit of protection, but thanks for the tip, I'll look into that

You'll need to get something on with UV protection to stop them going again.

I did the lights on my mates Astra last year and I've just had to do them again. Put Dlux on this time.

 

[DJR1210]

@Sunglasses_Ron
Nice one, I'm on it!

 

[Sunglasses_Ron]

@Sunglasses_Ron
Nice one, I'm on it! :wink:

If your anywhere near Essex I'll put some Dlux on them for you.

 

[DJR1210]

@Sunglasses_Ron
Kind offer buddy but I'm down on the south coast in Poole near Bournemouth.

 

[cat171]

Deffo get some DLUX on them, it's so good!

 

[bloke]

take them off, hit them with a scotch pad until they are satin all over then get some 2k clear coat on them, any half decent bodyshop should do it for you for £30 or so.

 

[D3tailed CC]

Looking good mate, I do headlights aswell with 800/1200/1500/2k/3k followed by a multi stage polish and then finally protected using some self healing Paint Protection Film to stop it happening again ;-)

 

[Silent_Scone]

He's lying, he bought new headlamps

 

[JD]

View attachment 169070 View attachment 169071 View attachment 169072 Looking good mate, I do headlights aswell with 800/1200/1500/2k/3k followed by a multi stage polish and then finally protected using some self healing Paint Protection Film to stop it happening again ;-)

800 is far, far, far too coarse. Hence there is some cloudiness in your last photo. You'll be leaving behind irreparable damage!

 

[bloke]

800 is far, far, far too coarse. Hence there is some cloudiness in your last photo. You'll be leaving behind irreparable damage!

depends how bad they are to start with, started with 800 when i did the wife's lights, could of possibly been 600??

 

[DJR1210]

No cloudiness at all on mine, in fact they look like they're brand new, a coat of UV protectant wax and jobs a goodun, and I started with 500 grit!!?

 

[D3tailed CC]

I've been detailing for 10 years, and flatted and polished loads of headlights and full cars. If you know what your doing 800 is fine. Most of the time you only need 1500/2/3k.

The cloudiness is from the moisture from applying the Paint Protection Film as its applied wet.

800 is far, far, far too coarse. Hence there is some cloudiness in your last photo. You'll be leaving behind irreparable damage!

 

[JD]

I've been detailing for 10 years, and flatted and polished loads of headlights and full cars. If you know what your doing 800 is fine. Most of the time you only need 1500/2/3k.
The cloudiness is from the moisture from applying the Paint Protection Film as its applied wet.

And I've been detailing for 13, but thanks for sharing...

depends how bad they are to start with, started with 800 when i did the wife's lights, could of possibly been 600??

No cloudiness at all on mine, in fact they look like they're brand new, a coat of UV protectant wax and jobs a goodun, and I started with 500 grit!!?

Gents, if you really believe 500/800 grit wet and dry paper isn't going to permanently mark your plastic headlights, you're bonkers. But each to their own.
2/3/4k is all that is required if you take your time and don't want to damage them.

 

[Coby.]

But it's quicker using 800 to start with @JD [emoji19]

But agree with you, I sorted Em's brothers MOT failure lights starting at 2000 and they came up brilliantly.

 

[bloke]

Gents, if you really believe 500/800 grit wet and dry paper isn't going to permanently mark your plastic headlights, you're bonkers. But each to their own.
2/3/4k is all that is required if you take your time and don't want to damage them.

proof...pudding...eating...

could of ended up with a better finish but was a bit of a rush job.

 

[cs_dave]

proof...pudding...eating...

could of ended up with a better finish but was a bit of a rush job.

View attachment 170219 View attachment 170220

Grades used?

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

[DJR1210]

proof...pudding...eating...

could of ended up with a better finish but was a bit of a rush job.

View attachment 170219 View attachment 170220

Yeah exactly! Mine look brand new, not a mark on them and I absolutely blitzed them with 500 first! Just scroll back up to the top of the thread and take another look. Just gotta work your way back up to 3000 and be thorough with each grade. The state they were in I'd have been there all day if I'd have started with anything finer!

 

[Darren S]

Respect to anyone who can get decent results with the headlamps on the car, with the 3M kit. Tried it twice now and at best, the results have been 'meh'. Such a difficult light to polish consistently with a rotating drill bit on highly curved headlight.

I really should remove them and do it properly.

 

[imprezaworks]

Doesn't wash car but restores headlights.

@bloke
Looks ace

 

[Danith]

Need to do one of mine. Had a go with W&D paper and then t cut and some polishes on the end of a drill/polishing pad thing. Not as good as this though.

How long did it take? I haven't got the patience.

 

[imprezaworks]

I made mine look better with a 3m kit, still not shiny.

 

[Danith]

I made mine look better with a 3m kit, still not shiny.

There's some stuff on the counter at ECP they sell for like £12.99. Just looks like a wipe of some sorts but they say they're selling really well.
Anyone tried it?

 

[imprezaworks]

Mmmm wipes?

 

[bloke]

Grades used?

think started off with 800, possibly 600 but can't remember to be honest. worked up to 2000 until they looked nice and clear, then went over them with a scotch pad until they were satin and hard to see through, when sprayed with brake cleaner they looked clear again and then chucked them to a mate who did the with 2k clear coat and went in his oven for a bit.

was only a quick job as they were battered to begin with, worse than they looked in the pic, if i could of found my da at the time they would of been pretty much perfect. they've probably done best part of 100,000 miles since then and apart from one stone chip they still look fine. funnily enough bottom left corner of the light you can see a patch that i missed and that's where the stone chip is so it's lifted a bit of the clear coat around it.

Doesn't wash car but restores headlights.

that's on the wife's car and can't deny they had to be done!! plus that gets cleaned at least three times a year...just been done this morning.

 

[DJR1210]

Need to do one of mine. Had a go with W&D paper and then t cut and some polishes on the end of a drill/polishing pad thing. Not as good as this though.

How long did it take? I haven't got the patience.

It took me an hour per lense, but I'm very anal. I used nearly all the discs supplied, and think I probably needed to, but the results speak for themselves! Had serious backache afterwards though!!

 

[JD]

proof...pudding...eating...

could of ended up with a better finish but was a bit of a rush job.

View attachment 170219 View attachment 170220

Yes you're quite right, that totally proves there are no deep scratches in your plastic headlights after a going over with a grade far too coarse for application... what was I thinking (sunlight, LED, street lamps, any source of light that shows the irreparable damage you have caused...). :up:

 

[JD]

think started off with 800, possibly 600 but can't remember to be honest. worked up to 2000 until they looked nice and clear, then went over them with a scotch pad until they were satin and hard to see through, when sprayed with brake cleaner they looked clear again and then chucked them to a mate who did the with 2k clear coat and went in his oven for a bit.

was only a quick job as they were battered to begin with, worse than they looked in the pic, if i could of found my da at the time they would of been pretty much perfect. they've probably done best part of 100,000 miles since then and apart from one stone chip they still look fine. funnily enough bottom left corner of the light you can see a patch that i missed and that's where the stone chip is so it's lifted a bit of the clear coat around it.



that's on the wife's car and can't deny they had to be done!! plus that gets cleaned at least three times a year...just been done this morning.

Then you put plastic in an oven... 😂 you really could not write this s**t. Read up kids, there's a pro amongst us.

 

[JamesBryan]

They bake cars with plastic panels in an oven though....

 

[DJR1210]

This is getting a bit pathetic now!!! I only put the post up as I was a bit pleased with myself, being a first time headlight restorer yet achieving amazing results, and wanted to share with others in the hope it might help them too!! I think people just need to pipe down and stop bickering. Everyone has different opinions and different ways of doing things, and as long as they're happy, then that's that!!

 

[ADS_V6]

This is getting a bit pathetic now!!! I only put the post up as I was a bit pleased with myself, being a first time headlight restorer yet achieving amazing results, and wanted to share with others in the hope it might help them too!! I think people just need to pipe down and stop bickering. Everyone has different opinions and different ways of doing things, and as long as they're happy, then that's that!!

:up:

 

[JD]

They bake cars with plastic panels in an oven though....

I'd presumed he meant his home oven based on the hilariously slap dash approach above 😂

 

[JD]

This is getting a bit pathetic now!!! I only put the post up as I was a bit pleased with myself, being a first time headlight restorer yet achieving amazing results, and wanted to share with others in the hope it might help them too!! I think people just need to pipe down and stop bickering. Everyone has different opinions and different ways of doing things, and as long as they're happy, then that's that!!

You've done nothing wrong. It's the supposed "professionals" that state 500 grit is suitable for use on a plastic headlight that really should be ashamed. Much like CarPlan selling brick acid as wheel cleaner...

 

[bloke]

Yes you're quite right, that totally proves there are no deep scratches in your plastic headlights after a going over with a grade far too coarse for application... what was I thinking (sunlight, LED, street lamps, any source of light that shows the irreparable damage you have caused...). :up:

ok, so we've established i'm nowhere near as clever as wot you is, wot wiv being a car cleaner.

tell me exactly how you would like me to get a pic of the lights for you to show up all the damage? and in all seriousness do you think they could look anywhere near as bad as the first pic of them?