Fix or leave alone?

[Circa40]

In the course of a year I have noticed that my drivers side head lamp had a bit of an clear coat failure issue. When washing my car yesterday, I noticed that its getting worse. At first it was just a little (1/4" circle), but now its beginning to spread down the edge of the headlamp.

I've always protected my headlamps with Blackfire Crystal Seal. Im not sure if its just not working because the sealant was intended for paint or I just have bad luck.

When I first discovered the problem, I wasnt really annoyed at the way it looked because it was so little, but frustrated that it was happening.
My question is should I lightly sand the damaged part and polish it?

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Is this on the e46?

[Circa40]

Is this on the e46?

No, its my `09 Honda Fit

[Detailing by M]

To do it right you have to completely remove the coating on your lens and re-paint them.
sand, polish, paint/seal
There are lot's of products out there to do this.
Meg's Heavy Duty Headlight Restore Kit is about $30 and will do you good

[Setec Astronomy]

The BCS you have been using won't do much to forestall the problem, and this is just something that happens to headlights over time. What you have noted with the problem starting in a small area and progressing is normal.

As Detailing by M noted, usually you have to remove all the original/factory coating on the lens, but some members have said they have just been able to remove the hazed portion of the coating and recoat (that may have been using the spar urethane method). I'm going to try that on some Honda lights in the next few weeks; we'll see how that goes.

You're going to need to restore the UV coating wherever it's been removed. I've used Opti-Coat, but I found it to last less than a year on cars that live outside. I just redid a pair over the weekend with Opti-Lens, we'll see how that compares, but you will need to use some sort of coating or the spar method unless you want to be repolishing every few months.

[Circa40]

To do it right you have to completely remove the coating on your lens and re-paint them.
sand, polish, paint/seal
There are lot's of products out there to do this.
Meg's Heavy Duty Headlight Restore Kit is about $30 and will do you good

The BCS you have been using won't do much to forestall the problem, and this is just something that happens to headlights over time. What you have noted with the problem starting in a small area and progressing is normal.

As Detailing by M noted, usually you have to remove all the original/factory coating on the lens, but some members have said they have just been able to remove the hazed portion of the coating and recoat (that may have been using the spar urethane method). I'm going to try that on some Honda lights in the next few weeks; we'll see how that goes.

You're going to need to restore the UV coating wherever it's been removed. I've used Opti-Coat, but I found it to last less than a year on cars that live outside. I just redid a pair over the weekend with Opti-Lens, we'll see how that compares, but you will need to use some sort of coating or the spar method unless you want to be repolishing every few months.

At the moment the damage is still very small and I'm not sure if I feel comfortable removing OEM coating to fix it.

I didnt realize you have to actually replace the OE clear coat with another coat. I just assumed light sanding/polishing the damaged area and coating with something like OPT headlight coating would be sufficient

[Setec Astronomy]

At the moment the damage is still very small and I'm not sure if I feel comfortable removing OEM coating to fix it.

I didnt realize you have to actually replace the OE clear coat with another coat. I just assumed light sanding/polishing the damaged area and coating with something like OPT headlight coating would be sufficient

Again, I can't really see what you are seeing in your pictures, so I'm guessing you have a hazed area which is the failure of the OEM coating. You'll have to remove the hazed portion to restore the clarity to the lens. Whether that is going to take off all of the remaining coating in that area, I can't say.

I think you misunderstood what I said about "replacing" the OEM coating--if you remove it, you will have to replace it with SOMETHING, whether that be a similar UV cured coating, a 2K clear (I'm not even sure you can do that), or a coating like CQuartz, Opti-Coat, Opti-Lens, etc. If you just remove it and don't replace it the lens will yellow very quickly.

EDIT: I went back and looked at your pictures and I can make out the hazed area. The problem is the OEM coating is very hard, and once it gets mottled like that from UV exposure, it's very difficult to remove, it needs to be sanded off, generally speaking.

[Circa40]

Again, I can't really see what you are seeing in your pictures, so I'm guessing you have a hazed area which is the failure of the OEM coating. You'll have to remove the hazed portion to restore the clarity to the lens. Whether that is going to take off all of the remaining coating in that area, I can't say.

I think you misunderstood what I said about "replacing" the OEM coating--if you remove it, you will have to replace it with SOMETHING, whether that be a similar UV cured coating, a 2K clear (I'm not even sure you can do that), or a coating like CQuartz, Opti-Coat, Opti-Lens, etc. If you just remove it and don't replace it the lens will yellow very quickly.

EDIT: I went back and looked at your pictures and I can make out the hazed area. The problem is the OEM coating is very hard, and once it gets mottled like that from UV exposure, it's very difficult to remove, it needs to be sanded off, generally speaking.

Yeah, I do realize that you will have to protect the sanded/polished plastic with something or else it'll get yellow quickly. I am just a bit on the fence about sanding and polishing the entire head lamp just to fix a small area. The damage as it stands now is about a 1" circle on the top of the headlight and about a 5"x1/8" strip along the side. Overall, very little but quite annoying.
I do have about 1/2 a syringe of Opti-lens left and may clean up the damage and apply the left over coating.

Thanks for the advise

[inDetail]

Unless I'm getting paid for it. I let mine go until it starts to interfere with the actual quality of the light coming from the lamps. Once I notice them getting dimmer then I correct them at that point it's a safety issue.