Headlight Restoration

**flyinbryan** · 02-06-2007, 11:20 PM

I had done this last summer and thought i'd bring it to these forums.

I have had plan's to Joey Mod my headlight's with BMP for a few weeks now, well before embarking on that Project I Wanted to try and get the Lenses looking somewhat decent before I tore them apart to Joey Mod them.
" Joey Mod " is painting the inside of the headlight housing to get rid of all the chrome.

I had stopped by the local Part's store looking for A varitety pack of wet sanding paper. I found what I was exspecting to find large 12x12 sheet's in a pack of 5 of each grit, way more then what I needed & way more then I wanted to spend. I told the sales guy that I was looking to wet sand & buff out my headlight's, he replied with we have A specific Headlight restore kit. I was glad to hear that. The maker is permatex & here is the part #09135. Im sure most major parts stores could order it

The Kit comes with 1,000/1,500/2,000,2,500 Grit sandpaper, A 1oz bottle of platic Polish, Rubber gloves and A polishing Cloth. All the products worked great, but you wont get very good results with the Polish unless you have A Buffer. I Polished till I thought my hand was gonna fall of and it looked better but you could still see the sanding marks from the 2,500 grit. The rotary buffer made short work of polishing them out maybe 2-3 minutes max. Overall I am very happy with the results, There are a few deep knicks left but I used the paper till it started to break apart, but im sure if you had more paper or say 800 grit to start you could get everything out. I used 1 kit for each light and they were $13.99

The passenger headlight before

Before

Headlight Restore Kit & the drink of the day.

The Paper included in the Kit.

The WET in wetsanding, by far the easiest way to do it.

**flyinbryan** · 02-06-2007, 11:21 PM

Vertical sanding with 1,000 Grit.

1,500 Grit sideway's

2,000 Grit Vertical

2,500 Grit sideways

When wet sanding I sanded untill I could not see the sandingmarks from the previous direction.

Here is A picture of bout 30 seconds worth of buffing with the Buffer. I chose to remove the bumper when buffing, you can get down to the edge of the light better without worrying about burning the paint.

Here are A few Afters

Any Comment's or questions are welcome. =)

**06CivicSi** · 02-06-2007, 11:46 PM

very nice!

**r_wain** · 02-07-2007, 01:22 AM

I agree nice work

One ? how long did the entire process take on both headlights?

**supercharged** · 02-07-2007, 01:32 AM

Great job! Two thumbs up! How was that beer?

**flyinbryan** · 02-07-2007, 07:10 AM

Originally Posted by supercharged

Great job! Two thumbs up! How was that beer?

I probably spent 1 1/2 hrs sanding then probably 5 minutes buffing per light. I was mostly trying to get all the nics out.

The Beer was awesome, same company that makes fat tire but this is there seasonal summer release.

**Nuke33** · 02-07-2007, 07:20 AM

Looks great

**supercharged** · 02-07-2007, 07:54 AM

Originally Posted by flyinbryan

I probably spent 1 1/2 hrs sanding then probably 5 minutes buffing per light. I was mostly trying to get all the nics out.

The Beer was awesome, same company that makes fat tire but this is there seasonal summer release.

**Gary Sword** · 02-07-2007, 08:54 AM

That beer really did a nice job!

**Nica** · 02-07-2007, 09:34 AM

Those lights look good, question though. The process doesn’t seem that bad but was removing the bumper really necessary? Just wondering another question is when you said "buffing" what did you use PC, rotary, hand?

Like I said the lights look really good and it's something I do in the near future...mmm...actually I could use it now.