Quote:
Originally Posted by The_Laird
What did you use on the headlights?
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Thanks, Jim. Blood, sweat and tears mostly
It's a really nerve wracking process sanding your headlights until they're opaque. Then the next pass with finer grit paper appears to do nothing at all, your heart starts thumping and there's a sick feeling in your stomach as you keep repeating "oh no, what have I done".
I bought the Holts restoration kit and it's okay for the most part. Just work up through the grits, coarse to fine. Didn't like the result using their 3000 grit discs on the drill attachment as it seemed to leave bad swirls and pigtail marks from the edge of the disc. I just did the 3000 by hand using wet and dry in the end. Their paste isn't all that gritty so I added in a little G3 Professional Scratch remover which seemed to help remove the 3000 sanding marks. The wee sponge they give you in the kit is pretty good.
I think I used the Farecla polish on them after that too. Then it was finished using the aerosol sealant in the kit. That stuff is proper slippy btw when it gets on your wooded floor. Family not happy!
Best advice I'll give is to go heavier than you think you should on the first two coarser grits. At 20+ years old it takes quite a lot to get the plastic level to all the pitting. Just need to have confidence that the polishing stages will indeed repair the initial damage you are doing.
The aerosol sealant was enough to do 6 headlights. (I practised on a cracked spare first, did the D3's, and re-did one of the D2's as I wasn't happy with it initially) Can't seem to find the aerosol on its own anywhere.
Washing the insides really helps too, I think. Just be sure to blow dry them somehow as water spots on them quite easily.
It's a time consuming process. I suppose I wasn't in a rush but it probably took most of the day to do the pair properly. I was in there initially to replace the headlight aim motor so the insides got a good clean out too.
