Headlights, wet sand then polish, or cutting compound?

[Mikesdak]

More basic questions:

I'm looking to do headlight restoration on several of my vehicles. Some of them are foggy enough that I might need to start wet sanding with 600 or 800 grit. I plan to carry the wet sanding up through 3000 grit .

After wet sanding, I plan to polish with a drill pad or my DA polisher. I have a bottle of plastx polish and Meguairs ultimate Polish, but no compound. I was thinking of picking up a bottle of ultimate compound, is that necessary to do as an intermediate step before polishing?

I will then fully clean the headlight with alcohol, and coat either with Meguairs spray coating or 3M headlight coating wipes.

[TTQ B4U]

Likely no need to go to 600 or 800. I know many do but honestly, it's not necessary. I do a lot of them and all you need is 1000 at the most. Then 2000 and 3000 then spray.

I use a drill kit. If they aren't too bad and sanding isn't necessary, then use any good compound and polish but understand that unless you spray or PPF them the work won't likely last more than 1yr.

[JustJesus]

Just like with paint....do a test spot.

I teamed up recently with another detailer on a job. I noticed the headlights were foggy, as did he. he asked if we were going to do them. I said, "if we have time" - thinking sanding was needed.

He's a young and eager guy. He is also VERY happy with the M105 bottles I gave him. He felt it might be enough to do the job.

Sure enough, i was blown away with the results from the simple method he used, and it only took minutes. M105 on an older Griot's MF 3" pad.

[Mikesdak]

That's very helpful info, guys. I was mostly curious as to whether I needed to use compound (Meguairs UC) in between sanding and polish... But it sounds like I may be able to use UC compound instead of sanding, depending on condition of plastic...which would save a lot of time.

I guess then it probably makes sense to pickup some UC, and try that first on a spot, and go from there, if looks good, finish with UC and then UP. If not, I can always go back and wet sand.

[dgage]

I would normally say 800 or 1000 grit is needed to remove the surface of plastic. Compounding doesn’t really remove much plastic, which is really what needs to happen, remove the compromised outer plastic layer…sort of like removing dead skin. If you go to 2000 grit, you can then compound from there. If you go to 3000 grit, you just need a quick polish.

For me, I use 1000,2000, and 3000 grit Mirka Abralon sanding pads and then polish with a Rupes yellow wool pad and Griots Fast Correcting Cream.

[TTQ B4U]

Post up some before pics. That will also help with feedback.

[Mikesdak]

So I did the headlights on my wife's pilot tonight. Wet sanded with 1000-2000-3000, then polished with Ultimate Polish.

Edit... I don't coat them yet, it started raining a bit, so I figured I'd do it tomorrow, I've got some 3m coating wipes that should work ok, I hope.

Here's the before and after shots Pilot headlights - Google Photos

Sorry for the Google album, couldn't upload pics from my phone.

Thanks for all the help!

[Desertnate]

Depending on the condition, you might not need to go all the way to 1000 grit either.

I just restored the headlights on my daughter's car using the Griots severe headlight kit. While they were pretty foggy, I think using the 1000 grit disk in the kit might have been a bit too aggressive for their condition. I probably would have done just fine starting with the 2000 grit and following up with the 3000 grit.

One thing you might want to consider as well is following up the sandpaper with a plastic polish. I was really happy with the results from the Griots kit, but I could help but wonder if I could have made them a touch more clear by using some of the polish from my Wolfgang headlight kit before applying the protectant from the Griots kit.

[TTQ B4U]

I've got some 3m coating wipes that should work ok, I hope.

When coating lights you want to have them scuffed up a bit. Hit them with 3000 or 5000 to give the coating something to bite onto. Otherwise it will run and likely begin to flake over time.

[Mikesdak]

When coating lights you want to have them scuffed up a bit. Hit them with 3000 or 5000 to give the coating something to bite onto. Otherwise it will run and likely begin to flake over time.

ahh. I wondered that. I'm assuming wet sand with either of those grits? In that same vein, I called the body shop a few weeks ago about clear coating headlights when done. They said not to polish, only wet sand prior to clear coat. Is this the case for clearcoating paint jobs too? Is the polishing done to the finished clear? And, do I need to polish the coated headlight? Sorry lots of newb questions. This is like a whole new world to me, I was blown away by the transformation.