What's the best technique to getting headlights looking mint with that really wet glossy look to them. (Without employing you )
What's the best technique to getting headlights looking mint with that really wet glossy look to them. (Without employing you )
Hi Hamish, it really depends on whether they are plastic or glass. I'm going to guess they are plastic, and of so then they can be treated in a very similar way to paint. Normally a fairly aggressive polish by machine is enough to polish them up nicely. Sometimes it's necessary to wet sand them first, normally starting with 800 grit wet and dry, working through the grades up to 2500 then machine polish to a wet finish. You can do the polishing by hand but it takes longer is requires a lot more elbow grease.
Plastic does have the problem that it can discolour due to UV light, sometimes this discolouration is on the outside, it can be on the inside, but in some cases it can be all the way through the plastic, in which case there is nothing to can do to make them clear.
If they are glass you'll normally find they are actually covered in tiny stone chips and glass is very hard to polish.
Last edited by Jem; 24-12-2013 at 17:41.
They are glass . If there anyway to full the tiny stone chips?
Maybe the resin they use in windscreen repair??
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I do like your thinking, but unfortunately that wouldn't work (if it was one larger chip, like you'd get in a windscreen, it may do though)
For the more general 'gravel rash' on glass headlights, they can be wet sanded and then polished by machine with a cerium oxide polish.
I've seen a lot of clear headlight covers for s14s too.. Wonder if you can get them for 14a's? Although would be a pricier option
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Ideally I want to keep the glass covers. Aftermarkets ones seem to be plastic.
Jem. Can you run me through the details of wet polishing them please?
Wet sanding them is pretty simple really. Either remove the headlights or mask off surrounding areas that could get scuffed, then fill a bucket with water and a squirt of liquid hand soap to ail lubrication. Then for glass I'd start with 600 grit wet and dry, throw the paper in the bucket of water and leave it a few minutes, the simply sand over the glass keeping the glass nice and wet. Every now and then rinse the sandpaper in the bucket and wipe the headlight with a cloth to see how the sanding is going. Repeat until you have a nice smooth surface with no signs of chipping etc. Then work up the grades of wet and dry, something like 600, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000, 2500. Then with a machine polisher and a cerium oxide polish, polish them to a wet glossy finish.
Cheers mate. Now I've just got to decide which headlight I want to **** up first lol