tuscarora dave
03-24-2011, 08:40 PM
Hi AG members,
With the spring detailing season under way I thought I would go out and restore just one of the headlight lenses on my Buick. I see it as a good way to market the service to the folks that I come in contact with throughout my daily travels, in addition to the folks that have me out to give estimates for detailing jobs.
My Buick's headlight lenses:
The headlight lenses on my 1997 Buick are actually degraded into the matrix of the plastic. I did not expect perfection on this restoration but I was able to achieve near perfection regardless of my expectations. I spent about 1 hour working on this lens.
The lens that was restored: (before)
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/040-2.jpg
The lens that will remain degraded: (until inspection time 10/11)
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/041-4.jpg
For the purpose of marketing the headlight restoration service, I decided to leave the lens that was in the worst condition unrestored to give a more dramatic difference for my perspective clients to see.
I will show the results of the four different grits of sand paper used to remove the heavy defects from the plastic lens. I wasn't able to capture the actual depth of the defects in the plastic lens with my camera but i assure you they were worse than they look in the photos.
I had to go pretty deep into the plastic to remove the heavy crust of spent UV protection that was left on the plastic so in the interest of time I started with a heavy grit paper. (220 grit)
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/043-5.jpg
Here are the results of this sanding pass.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/049-2.jpg
Next up was 320 grit to smooth out the scratches from the 220 grit paper.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/044-6.jpg
Here are the results of this sanding pass.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/051-5.jpg
Up next was 500 grit sand paper.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/046-3.jpg
Here are the results of this sanding pass.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/052.jpg
And finally 2 sanding passes with 1200 grit sand paper.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/047-3.jpg
Here are the results of these sanding passes.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/055-3.jpg
I used my Makita rotary polisher, Cyclo and Lake Country pads to do the compounding and polishing. First up is 3M Heavy Duty Compound on a Cyclo wool cutting pad.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/056-1.jpg
I applied a generous amount of compound and worked it into the wool fibers to prime the pad as I prefer to keep the pad wet to allow the product to do most of the work. This makes for faster cutting and a better finish. I worked the wool pad and heavy compound at speed setting 3 1/2 or roughly 1800 RPM.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/057-4.jpg
As I worked the compound against the headlight lens I began to experience some clearance issues where the handle of my rotary polisher was hitting the bumper and not allowing the pad to get into the bottom of the lens. My trusty rotary extension fixed this problem and gave me the reach that I needed to do a better and safer job of compounding.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/058-1.jpg
Here are the results of the heavy compounding.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/059.jpg
Up next was Mothers Professional Rubbing Compound. This was my first time using this brand of compound, it seemed to finish out rather well and removal of the residue that remained was very easy. I used an orange LC 4" pad for this step.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/061-1.jpg
Same as with the wool pad, I applied a generous amount of compound onto the pad and primed 100% of the face of the pad to avoid any dry buffing and also to allow the product to do most of the work. I worked the orange LC pad and Mothers Rubbing Compound at speed setting 2 1/2 or roughly 1200 RPM. I reduced the speed because using a foam pad creates more heat than a wool pad does and it is easy to burn these plastic lenses as it is.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/062.jpg
Here are the results of the Mothers Rubbing Compound and orange LC pad. In my opinion this product finished out well and cut rather quickly. I'm anxious to try this out on paint.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/064.jpg
Next up was a green Cyclo pad and Mothers Foam Pad polish. I worked this the same as the orange pad and rubbing compound, at speed setting 2 1/2 or roughly 1200 RPM. The green Cyclo Pad is a polishing pad with a very small amount of cutting ability.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/065-2.jpg
Thanks to forum member DARK HORSE I had a sample of Menzerna PO85RD to finish the polishing out with. With all the other pad/product combos I did 2 slow section passes while keeping the pad rather wet with product. With the PO85RD I applied a little less product onto a super soft white Cyclo finishing pad and did 4 section passes and then reapplied the same amount of finishing polish and did an additional 4 passes. I did the extra passes here to ensure that the PO85RD fully broke down to get the best clarity out of the product.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/066-3.jpg
Here are the results of the polishing and finishing passes.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/067.jpg
Thanks to forum member audilover, I have this sample bottle of Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant 3.0 that I used to protect the finish of the lens.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/069-2.jpg
Below is another photo of the before and the after together.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/040-2.jpghttp://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/070.jpg
Here's the car as it looks now after a quick ONR spray and wipe of the surrounding area to remove the compound and polish splatter that results from rotary polishing.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/072-1.jpg
Now when I am talking to folks around my car about what I do detailing wise, I can say look, here's how you headlight lenses look and here's how they can look for a small fraction of the cost of replacement lenses.
I actually recommend replacement lenses because the factory UV protection is dead before I ever do the lens restoration but some headlight lenses cost upward of $1000, most I believe are in the $250-$400 range nowadays. It's tough for most folks to come out of pocket to pay for replacement lenses.
Your headlight lenses can get so cloudy that they won't pass inspection.
When you pay for replacement lenses, you don't have to maintain them like a restored lens or you can pay a small fee to have your restored lenses maintained regularly. Either way you pay in the end.
A restored lens has no UV protective coating other than the sealant that I put on it and they require a regular coating of protection just as your car's paint does. When your car gets sealed or waxed so should your restored headlight lenses. If you fail to keep your car's paint or restored headlight lenses protected with at least a Bi-monthly coating of protection, both will likely get cloudy looking eventually.
This concludes my writeup, Thanks for looking. TD
With the spring detailing season under way I thought I would go out and restore just one of the headlight lenses on my Buick. I see it as a good way to market the service to the folks that I come in contact with throughout my daily travels, in addition to the folks that have me out to give estimates for detailing jobs.
My Buick's headlight lenses:
The headlight lenses on my 1997 Buick are actually degraded into the matrix of the plastic. I did not expect perfection on this restoration but I was able to achieve near perfection regardless of my expectations. I spent about 1 hour working on this lens.
The lens that was restored: (before)
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/040-2.jpg
The lens that will remain degraded: (until inspection time 10/11)
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/041-4.jpg
For the purpose of marketing the headlight restoration service, I decided to leave the lens that was in the worst condition unrestored to give a more dramatic difference for my perspective clients to see.
I will show the results of the four different grits of sand paper used to remove the heavy defects from the plastic lens. I wasn't able to capture the actual depth of the defects in the plastic lens with my camera but i assure you they were worse than they look in the photos.
I had to go pretty deep into the plastic to remove the heavy crust of spent UV protection that was left on the plastic so in the interest of time I started with a heavy grit paper. (220 grit)
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/043-5.jpg
Here are the results of this sanding pass.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/049-2.jpg
Next up was 320 grit to smooth out the scratches from the 220 grit paper.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/044-6.jpg
Here are the results of this sanding pass.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/051-5.jpg
Up next was 500 grit sand paper.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/046-3.jpg
Here are the results of this sanding pass.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/052.jpg
And finally 2 sanding passes with 1200 grit sand paper.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/047-3.jpg
Here are the results of these sanding passes.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/055-3.jpg
I used my Makita rotary polisher, Cyclo and Lake Country pads to do the compounding and polishing. First up is 3M Heavy Duty Compound on a Cyclo wool cutting pad.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/056-1.jpg
I applied a generous amount of compound and worked it into the wool fibers to prime the pad as I prefer to keep the pad wet to allow the product to do most of the work. This makes for faster cutting and a better finish. I worked the wool pad and heavy compound at speed setting 3 1/2 or roughly 1800 RPM.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/057-4.jpg
As I worked the compound against the headlight lens I began to experience some clearance issues where the handle of my rotary polisher was hitting the bumper and not allowing the pad to get into the bottom of the lens. My trusty rotary extension fixed this problem and gave me the reach that I needed to do a better and safer job of compounding.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/058-1.jpg
Here are the results of the heavy compounding.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/059.jpg
Up next was Mothers Professional Rubbing Compound. This was my first time using this brand of compound, it seemed to finish out rather well and removal of the residue that remained was very easy. I used an orange LC 4" pad for this step.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/061-1.jpg
Same as with the wool pad, I applied a generous amount of compound onto the pad and primed 100% of the face of the pad to avoid any dry buffing and also to allow the product to do most of the work. I worked the orange LC pad and Mothers Rubbing Compound at speed setting 2 1/2 or roughly 1200 RPM. I reduced the speed because using a foam pad creates more heat than a wool pad does and it is easy to burn these plastic lenses as it is.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/062.jpg
Here are the results of the Mothers Rubbing Compound and orange LC pad. In my opinion this product finished out well and cut rather quickly. I'm anxious to try this out on paint.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/064.jpg
Next up was a green Cyclo pad and Mothers Foam Pad polish. I worked this the same as the orange pad and rubbing compound, at speed setting 2 1/2 or roughly 1200 RPM. The green Cyclo Pad is a polishing pad with a very small amount of cutting ability.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/065-2.jpg
Thanks to forum member DARK HORSE I had a sample of Menzerna PO85RD to finish the polishing out with. With all the other pad/product combos I did 2 slow section passes while keeping the pad rather wet with product. With the PO85RD I applied a little less product onto a super soft white Cyclo finishing pad and did 4 section passes and then reapplied the same amount of finishing polish and did an additional 4 passes. I did the extra passes here to ensure that the PO85RD fully broke down to get the best clarity out of the product.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/066-3.jpg
Here are the results of the polishing and finishing passes.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/067.jpg
Thanks to forum member audilover, I have this sample bottle of Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant 3.0 that I used to protect the finish of the lens.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/069-2.jpg
Below is another photo of the before and the after together.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/040-2.jpghttp://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/070.jpg
Here's the car as it looks now after a quick ONR spray and wipe of the surrounding area to remove the compound and polish splatter that results from rotary polishing.
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/072-1.jpg
Now when I am talking to folks around my car about what I do detailing wise, I can say look, here's how you headlight lenses look and here's how they can look for a small fraction of the cost of replacement lenses.
I actually recommend replacement lenses because the factory UV protection is dead before I ever do the lens restoration but some headlight lenses cost upward of $1000, most I believe are in the $250-$400 range nowadays. It's tough for most folks to come out of pocket to pay for replacement lenses.
Your headlight lenses can get so cloudy that they won't pass inspection.
When you pay for replacement lenses, you don't have to maintain them like a restored lens or you can pay a small fee to have your restored lenses maintained regularly. Either way you pay in the end.
A restored lens has no UV protective coating other than the sealant that I put on it and they require a regular coating of protection just as your car's paint does. When your car gets sealed or waxed so should your restored headlight lenses. If you fail to keep your car's paint or restored headlight lenses protected with at least a Bi-monthly coating of protection, both will likely get cloudy looking eventually.
This concludes my writeup, Thanks for looking. TD