Peeling \ opaque headlight fix

[mcgon1979]

Decided to do my lights today.... here is the original light. This is actually the 'good one'. The other lamp was twice as scuffed as this....
all I used was some simonz cutting compound and ALOT of elbow grease. Certainly not as easy as a simple 5 minute job. Took me about 1 hour per light, but the results were well worth it.

Original Lamp shot detailing scuffing..

[mcgon1979]

applying the cutting compound....

[mcgon1979]

40 minutes of vigerous work later and the lamp is starting to look transparent again...

[mcgon1979]

huge difference when all scuffing is removed...

[mcgon1979]

lights look like new again

[mcgon1979]

scuffing 100% gone and lens that look like crystals.... lol

[mcgon1979]

defo give it a go if your lamps are scuffed. you don't need sand paper or buffers etc. just an old t-shirt, a couple of hours, and some good compound... preferably a light one like a liquid... then get working....

[johnny]

i did mine when I had the fto using wet & dry sandpaper, then cutting compound, then t-cut to finish....each light only took about 15 mins. I can see why urs took so long....using an old tshirt and compound is tough work....the sandpaper sands down the scuffed layer in a couple of mins!

[Muad_dib77]

That looks really well! Well done!

[Sebastian]

congrats
Great JOB ! ! !
wanna do mine as well ?

[steelroe]

I would suggest to use some very fine car polish after the Compond to give them an evan better finish

Look very well though huge difference

[ftolam13]

nice

[Sebastian]

i used the tips on mine

[Sebastian]

after seein mcgon1979 work of art and after reading some bits about it on different forums, i decided to do mine

crap day to do them but i wanted


so :

what i used:




the before pics : driver's side




masking your paint job:



wet&dry sandpaper .. scrub it good



after a few minutes .. start aplying the cutting compound
(dont drop to much)


now elbow power!
i did it for 10 mins/light - clean the lens after

apply T-cut and after that some wax should do




and the result :




did the other side in less then 15 min




Its a huge difference.
but i still think they are not perfect .
i will do them again when i'll have more patience

Q: .. will that peeling come back on the plastic ?

[ftolam13]

nice good job man

[kevinod]

Nice! I did my drivers side one before and it came back shortly afterwards so I must do it again.

[kona]

i decided to clean up the head light lens using
sandpaper(3 grades),compound and metallic colour restorer.
they were not really peeling but just very scruffy and weather beaten


before




during




and the final look



there is not much difference in how they looked before and how they looked after a lot of sanding.
it was dark when i had finished so im hoping that they will look better in daylight as the camera flash can be fairly harsh.

[Sebastian]

very good !! well done

you can use some Tcut then a bit of wax to give them a final shine

[kona]

i did use halfords cutting compound and turtle wax metallic colour restorer all ready, but as i never used them before maybe i didnt give it enough drying time or used them too sparingly,
i suppose i could give it some more compund and wax tomorrow without sanding?

[Sebastian]

yes , cutting compound and elbow power!!

few examples (BEFORE/AFTER pics-cars from the forum):

[kona]

ahh sound job,thanks.
tomorrow ill have a few weetabix and get stuck in with the cutting compound

[Sebastian]

sweet! what sandpaper did u use what grade?

[kona]

it was halfords 800,then 1200 and finally 1500.
they didnt have anything finer than the 1500

[Sebastian]

1500 it's ok .. you should have used that all the way if the lights were not badly scuffed.

there is 2k grade but it's hard to find
best of luck

[kona]

here is a little trick i learnt from my painting days,
it stops the sandpaper from slipping.
instead of folding it in half ,fold it 3 ways like so