evilbadz, your lenses were worse then mine??? That's pretty bad! How long did you send sanding with the 800 grit? This is the step where you need to remove all of the cracks and oxidization from the plastic. Every step after that is just to remove the sanding scratches left behind and to polish the plastic. Here's a shot of the cracks that I had:
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I tried with 400, 1000, and 1500 and used Meguiar's Plast-X polish. It looks tons better than it did, but not as good as yours. I think I either needed the 800 grit, needed to sand a bit longer with the 1500 grit, or needed the Novus polish instead of the Meguiars. Or all of the above heh. And yeah, I think my lights look worse than yours too. I need to get a pic. I've got one head light polished and one not lol. Sort of a before/after effect right there on my car.
I was wondering if anyone noticed if there was an outer "skim" layer of plastic as they were sanding? I tried to do this with a Viper headlight and before you got anywhere near deep enough to get the crazing out, you were thru this top plastic layer. The uncovered lower layer was no where near as polishable as the top layer. (I was afraid of this possibility so I only did a small spot on the lens. I quit when I observed a top layer.)
However, photos don't lie! These polished lenses look great! I think this 3 step polishing product must be superior to the 2 step 3M I used.
Not all headlights are constructed the same... I didn't notice myself sanding through any layers on my lenses, but I do remember reading something about this when I did my research before the project. I can't remember the details about those types of lenses now...
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I did mine first using 400, then 600, then 1000, then 1500. Then I used the Novas plastic polish. I would say the results were less than spectacular. I managed to get all the orginal spiderwebbing out, but I still have the scratches I put in there myself. Maybe I'll spend some more time sandingwith the 600, 1000, and 1500 later. I would say the passenger side light looks only marginally better than before.
I wish I had found some 800 grit paper, but I went to Home Depot, True Value Hardware, O'Rieliey's, and Hobbytown USA looking for the ones I managed to find.
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The key to getting good results is spending enough time with each grit sandpaper to remove the scratches left by the previous step. This is a time-consuming process, I think I spent about 4 hours on one lens.
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Does anyone know if this process also works on mustang headlights. I know someone that is thinking about buying new lights but this would be cheaper. I'm sure that someone out there knows if there is more than 1 layer of plastic. I just don't want to experiment on hers and screw up.
I did mine first using 400, then 600, then 1000, then 1500. Then I used the Novas plastic polish. I would say the results were less than spectacular. I managed to get all the orginal spiderwebbing out, but I still have the scratches I put in there myself. Maybe I'll spend some more time sandingwith the 600, 1000, and 1500 later. I would say the passenger side light looks only marginally better than before.
I wish I had found some 800 grit paper, but I went to Home Depot, True Value Hardware, O'Rieliey's, and Hobbytown USA looking for the ones I managed to find.
I did half of the passengers side to see what result would look like in person. I used 600, 800, 1000 (or 1500) and 2000 then and old bottle of #M plastic polish and a little plextor plastic polish. I dont think I spent more than a minute or two on each step, as I was doing this as a quick test. Remarkable how great it came out. I was going to post step by steps but I see you now have them posted. what did you guys wet sand with, water?
I actually dry sanded and was clogging up the paper. I had a spray bottle of WD-40 and actually shop a spray of that, not that I recommend it but it did help.
I thought I already had a a drivers side, so I bought a passengers side headlight. When I put them side by side I noticed I had two of the same, so I practiced on this one as the other was in great condition. this one came out so good, Im selling the other untouched light
I found the 800 grit as well as the others at Pepboys.
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I polished my lights up too, but i didnt spend too much time but man they look so much better. I just got some water and dishwashing soap and some sand paper and moved up on the grits until i got to a real fine grit i believe 2000 or higher i dont remember too well...but here are some pics
Before
AFTER
Still a little more to do but they will do for now!
Damn shes dirty lol but u can see they are way more clear than before.
Side by side difference
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