Been meaning to have a crack at my headlights for a while now, they weren't the worst looking in the world but certainly needed a bit of attention.
I saw someone using a 3M kit that looked pretty nifty and was only £20 off eBay so thought I would give it a shot.
It's worth pointing out that I have never tried anything like this before so I didn't really know what results I would get. Also the kit recommended using a drill with a speed range of around 1200-1600 RPM. The only 2 drills I have are a cordless drill at 550 RPM and a mains drill at 2800 RPM, so like a man I went for the faster of the 2.
Lets have a look at the kit then shall we:
Pretty neatly packed, I was expecting something much bigger. It didn't come with a banana for those wondering, that would just be weird.
Lets open it up:
Everything inside feels good quality and the velcro is pretty strong.
Now lets see the state of the headlights:
Lets get started.
Looks pretty cool with green tape I think:
There is plenty of masking tape, I would recommend doing 2 layers of it if you can. Because of the speed of my drill it was quite hard to control it and I did slip off once and catch some of the paint work on the bumper (some G3 has fixed this pretty much though).
During the sanding stage:
I'll skip right ahead to the finished stage, i'm sure you don't need to see all the inbetween sanding stages.
Much better:
After a much needed bath:
Side by side before and after:
So whats the verdict? Its not completely perfect but that depends how much effort you put in, you can see it makes a big difference though. The instructions do recommend repeating the 3000 grit and mopping process a few times to improve the result but I only did it once, so I guess if I can be bother spending more time on it I can get them looking better. There is enough compound so go over the lights about 4 times each I guess.
But for £20 (and free next day postage) I really can't grumble and it's worth doing.
Comments are appreciated. Thanks.
Chris.
I saw someone using a 3M kit that looked pretty nifty and was only £20 off eBay so thought I would give it a shot.
It's worth pointing out that I have never tried anything like this before so I didn't really know what results I would get. Also the kit recommended using a drill with a speed range of around 1200-1600 RPM. The only 2 drills I have are a cordless drill at 550 RPM and a mains drill at 2800 RPM, so like a man I went for the faster of the 2.
Lets have a look at the kit then shall we:
Pretty neatly packed, I was expecting something much bigger. It didn't come with a banana for those wondering, that would just be weird.
Lets open it up:
Everything inside feels good quality and the velcro is pretty strong.
Now lets see the state of the headlights:
Lets get started.
Looks pretty cool with green tape I think:
There is plenty of masking tape, I would recommend doing 2 layers of it if you can. Because of the speed of my drill it was quite hard to control it and I did slip off once and catch some of the paint work on the bumper (some G3 has fixed this pretty much though).
During the sanding stage:
I'll skip right ahead to the finished stage, i'm sure you don't need to see all the inbetween sanding stages.
Much better:
After a much needed bath:
Side by side before and after:
So whats the verdict? Its not completely perfect but that depends how much effort you put in, you can see it makes a big difference though. The instructions do recommend repeating the 3000 grit and mopping process a few times to improve the result but I only did it once, so I guess if I can be bother spending more time on it I can get them looking better. There is enough compound so go over the lights about 4 times each I guess.
But for £20 (and free next day postage) I really can't grumble and it's worth doing.
Comments are appreciated. Thanks.
Chris.
.
