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Re: Critique my headlight restoration...
It does look a little cloudy. I’m not sure why they don’t look better. Your process sounds good. Maybe dry sanding would have gotten better results. They still look way better than they previously did. When you coat them they will shine a bit more.
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Re: Critique my headlight restoration...
Originally Posted by
rlmccarty2000
It does look a little cloudy. I’m not sure why they don’t look better. Your process sounds good. Maybe dry sanding would have gotten better results. They still look way better than they previously did. When you coat them they will shine a bit more.
I haven’t coated them yet because I’m debating doing the whole process over again. Thanks for the insight, I hadn’t thought about the lsp possibly improving the look.
FYI this vehicle belongs to my neighbor and he let me use it as a guinea pig so the final results aren’t critical, this is mainly just a test subject.
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Re: Critique my headlight restoration...
Typically when they're still cloudy, they needed to be sanded more. Also, you said you polished with a yellow LC? Isn't that the heavy cut? I like to compound with a cutting pad and finish with a light polishing pad. Here's the last Toyota I did.
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Re: Critique my headlight restoration...
Overall, it looks pretty good though.
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Critique my headlight restoration...
Originally Posted by
sudsmobile
Typically when they're still cloudy, they needed to be sanded more. Also, you said you polished with a yellow LC? Isn't that the heavy cut? I like to compound with a cutting pad and finish with a light polishing pad. Here's the last Toyota I did.
Yea the Yellow is considered a heavy cut foam pad. It was my 1st time using it. It was a brand new pad and I had been wondering how it would do but I had to try it sometime... I usually use a Gray Thinpro and I believe that’s considered heavy cut as well, but it delivers great results.
I think you’re right though, I feel like I should’ve dry sanded like it said.
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Re: Critique my headlight restoration...
When you guys talk about a coating what type of coating are you thinking of? Something like CQuartz DLUX?
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Re: Critique my headlight restoration...
I have not done this my self but have read and looked at alot of headlight restorations on a domestic forum. When you have that kind neglected headlight you have been working on. It's recommended to sanding through the oem coating layer. And you would be noticeing when the sanding residue gets a lighter and clearer color. You are know down to the headlights plastic and the old oem clearcoat is off. Then you start to go with sanding with a finer grit till you either wants to apply a headlight coating or paint it with a new headlight primer and clearcoat. When the oem coating is to damage it's an yellow color on it and does not clear up. The downside is that if not resprayed with a new headlight primer and clearcoat you have to always have a protection that is not degrading to not have any uv protection left. The one headlight primer and clearcoat I have seen used alot is from Spray Max and think it's available in the US know. The 1k primer is needed so the 2k clearcoat is bonding stronger to the kind of plastic used in headlights. When you do this the 2k clearcoat is only going to be able to be used in that time. You activate the spray bottle when you are going to paint with it. And there is 2 components that blends in the spray can. A hardener and clearcoat which is the 2k part. I would have some headlights ready to spray and maybe 4 headlights it can be sprayed on. And would buy 2 cans if it don't covers they you have ready to do. Some skip the primer but in a year or two it's starts to flake clearcoat. And with the primer clearcoat combo you can have it last for a long time if you protect them with headlight coating after it has cured and outgasing. It's like a new oem clearcoat you get when sprayed with this. And the best is to take the headlights off when doing this. But can of coarse be sprayed when on the car if you are masking it thoroughly so you don't get any overspray from it on the vehicals. This way you can be doing it for a higher price too. And get a yearly maintance with a headlight coating to keep the headlights and the other protections up to a high quality standard.
When you see it starts to oxidize on the inside of the headlights it's not much you can do. It takes often a longer time till that happens. And if it happens compound and polish them as long as the owner decides to replace them. I would also start with a compound or headlight polish to be able to evaluate the condition on the inside of the headlights and go from there.
If you want to get a little deeper into headlight restorations. I would learn to apply a headlight ppf film and apply after a restoration.
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Re: Critique my headlight restoration...
Originally Posted by
Finick
Maybe needed more sanding. The couple times I’ve used OTC headlight kits I’ve been mostly pleased.
That was the most recent ones I’ve done. You can see they’re clearly not sanded down perfectly, but I see that car super often so if the megs OTC coating (the gooey one, not the aerosol) starts having issues I’ll just polish them again. I only sanded those with 1500, some 1000 probably would’ve done better but I just didn’t have any on hand.
Is it possible some of the cloudiness is coming from inside the headlight? I know I’ve heard some people say they encounter headlights where the inside is worn, so they don’t ever look brand spankin’ new.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
See now that looks feakin good!
I’m pretty sure it’s not on the inside.
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