Headlight restoration

[*B2*]

I finished up the bodywork today on the '98 Z28 I was working on. His headlights were terribly yellowed and hazed so I offered to fix them for them. They were really bad so I started with 600, then 800, 1000, and 2000. I would have done 1500 but I didn't have any and didn't want to buy any just for his headlights. After the 2000 I polished them with a 4" LC CCS orange pad with Menz SIP on my UDM, speed 6. Followed up with white 4" pad and Menz Micro Polish.

Before:

After:

Comparison:

[crash93ssei]

Excellent job!!

Did you get any pics of the finished car?

[*B2*]

Excellent job!!

Did you get any pics of the finished car?

Thank you. Honestly it was just a quick job. I spent no more than 40 mins on both of them. I have no pics of the finished job because it is still in primer right now, wetsanded with 600. Not much to look at. I'll get pics of it by next weekend though, after its painted. It isn't going to be much of a show car but rather a street/strip car(more strip than street). It is a very heavily modded car. It is going to be '01 Prowler orange, so it should pop. The downside is that all of my hard work may be for not since Maaco will be painting it. I've always heard that Maaco can spray if its prepped well. I guess we'll see...

[TenGHz]

Awesome job. I need something like that done on my passenger side headlight. It's starting to get pretty hazy. My driver's side is new thanks to a deer I smashed last year.

[*B2*]

Awesome job. I need something like that done on my passenger side headlight. It's starting to get pretty hazy.

Thanks. I'd hook you up if you were closer. You could easily do the wetsanding part but you couldn't finish the job without some sort of buffer and polishes.

[TenGHz]

Yep, that's the part I don't have - the buffer. There's a place in town that I can take it to that will do it for $30... They're supposed to do a good job, and that's not a terrible price IMO. I'm kinda waiting for it to get really bad before I waste money on it.

[JayGXP]

wow great job on the lights

[93 SSE 4 ME]

Really nice job on the F-Body lights.

Mark

[*B2*]

Thanks guys.

[Rochester SE]

Ditto.... good job. My headlights look that bad. Could I use some plastic polish and good ole elbow grease on mine? Or is a buffer absolutly required?

[ohenry5]

With all the cars that that happens to now you could probably make some good money fixing them! Looks great.

Soap Box- I dont get why car makers use Plastic that does that. I know plastic is cheaper/lighter, but come on figure out a way to do it without the haze. Its a safety issue to me, who can see with lights like that. I had an 95 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme with plastic headlights, looked clear as new when I sold it and that was with 170,00 miles. The turn signals however were not.

[EWC88]

Question could you use a spray polish after wet sanding them and just use the spray polish and then rub and whip it down good or no?

[95SLE]

Nice pics and write up. Menz SIP FTW. Grimm turned me on to it and I stopped looking for the next best polish. I found it!

[*B2*]

Question could you use a spray polish after wet sanding them and just use the spray polish and then rub and whip it down good or no?

No, an aggressive buff is required.

Thanks to everyone for the kind words.

[EWC88]

Ok thats what I was thinking. What kind of buffer did you use? Would one of those attachment kind on a drill would work? I really would love to clear mine up like that and then seal them up after so it prevents it from happening again for awhile.

[*B2*]

Ok thats what I was thinking. What kind of buffer did you use? Would one of those attachment kind on a drill would work? I really would love to clear mine up like that and then seal them up after so it prevents it from happening again for awhile.

I used a random orbital buffer, the Ultimate Detailing Machine to be exact. I would think that a drill with a pad would work. Be sure not to get too aggressive with the sandpaper, don't use too course of paper or you'll never get the scratches out. Many people get impatient and make this mistake.

EDIT: The car has been finished and Maaco did an OK job painting it. Not great but about as good as Maaco gets, especially with a SS metallic paint. I didn't take any pics but the owner posted a couple on LS1tech if I can find them...

[ptrfair]

alright im going to as a silly question . .

i had done the wet sanding on my lesabre which needed some love and it looked great. Took about an hr.

But a few weeks ago i took care of my bonneville's headlights with Meguiars Plastic X and the headlamps looked just as good as the Buick. No wetsanding, just buff on and wipe off.

Did i have dumb luck or is the aggressive wetsanding needed to take off oxidation?

[*B2*]

Did i have dumb luck or is the aggressive wetsanding needed to take off oxidation?

It depends on the condition of the headlight. I buffed out a Maxima headlight on a detail, no wetsanding required, and it was returned to 100%. This light was in terrible condition and even the wetsanding couldn't remove all of the issues. The owner should have purchased new headlights in this case IMO.

BTW, this is the car that these headlights belong to...
http://www.pontiacbonnevilleclub.com/fo ... f=7&t=4450