On most vehicles popping the hood give you more room to and allows you to reach more of the headlight. However on this Civic since most of the headlight mounted in the quarter panel popping the hood didn't help as much.
I use a cotton applicator to apply Opti-Lens. I don't like applying any of the Optimum coatings using a foam applicator. For Opti-Coat and Opti-Glass I put the foam applicator inside a nitrile glove and then wrap a blue shop towel around the glove. I find that the foam applicator is too grabby on the glass and absorbs an excessive amount of product.
Whenever applying Opti-Lens finishing a headlight restoration in or around an hour is out the question. The Opti-Lens application it self takes the better of an hour.
When restoring headlights this is my process:
1. Tape off the headlights.
2. Wet the lens and 800 grit sanding disc
3. Sand 4 passes (2 horizontal and 2 vertical) with 800, 1500 and 3000 grit paper. Between each pass I wipe down the light with a microfiber towel and clean the sanding disc to prevent clogging.
4. Repeat 2 and 3 for the other headlight.
5. Compound the headlights.
6. Polish the headlights.
7. Clean up the sanding slurry.
8. Perform an IPA wipe down on the headlights.
9. Apply Opti-Lens and wait to dry.
Once in a while I will get a pair of lights that only need 1500 grit paper and I can skip the 800 grit.
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