Facelift D2 headlight detail
 

Hi there,

Well, my mate and i were inspired by a 'Detailing World' (DW) user 'Detailer27' when he posted his thread about reconditioning his Audi A3 headlights in his thread here and decided to have a go ourselves this weekend on a cold rainy saturday.

My car is an Audi A8 with 163k miles on the clock so the headlights were seriously scratched (although due to my rubbish camera it was a bit hard to show).

Products used:
Megs wet and dry sandpaper
400 (dry)
800 dry
1500 wet
2000 wet
2500 wet
3000 wet
Sand block
Megs G220
Megs Plastix
A bucket
Detail spray
3M Tape
microfiber towels

This is what it looked like before...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2287/...e594bd6046.jpg

First off, we put the wet and dry paper in water with fairy liquid overnight to make sure it was properly lubricated and ready to use the following day.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2410/...f003ed99d5.jpg

We then taped up the car and commenced with the sanding using 400 dry paper

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2325/...52f22c9bc4.jpg


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2021/...e0299d51c7.jpg

This is what it looked like after the first run.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2207/...20d72366d1.jpg
We then proceeded with 800 dry, 800 wet, 1500 wet, 2000 wet, 2500 wet and then 3000 wet.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3046/...f97ff53090.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2192/...ae6f435a8e.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3232/...9bc866e326.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2207/...20d72366d1.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2043/...29de64cf44.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2055/...ba505abb16.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3046/...ed04f9b498.jpg

And here is the finished headlight...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3104/...1d514c2d38.jpg

Please see some closeup pics below! :)

The reason for the 400 dry is because it had some serious stone chips that required heavy sanding ... it can require quite some time even with 400 dry just to get to a point where you can get to a 'clean' layer of plastic to work with.

Before....

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2013/...2dacc423e6.jpg

After

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3245/...269424f55e.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2333/...aa86f1a21d.jpg

After 2 weeks, they were still beading...:thumb:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2220/...da6e2ac87a.jpg

Hope it is of use to others...:thumb:

-oli

holy c**p thats going the extra mile right there :-)

Nice....

How do you think it'd go on the PF models which have a glass front on the lights? Mine are badly chipped and every extra bit of light is worth it on these things.

I love how far you guys go to make the cars spotless. Cleaning is a bit like excercise to me, bloody huge inertia to get going, but the results are great +++