Tackled my headlights today

[Chris_R]

Having lived with them since I got the car, and them getting an advisory on my MOT last week decided to tackle my lights today.
May give you some confidence to do it yourself as you can see it looks terrible until right at the end...

What we started with, not pretty at all. Did it in situ, as my car has need of respray anyway and took my time carefully.


Weapons of choice, 1000, 1500, 2000 and 2500 grit wet and dry, bucket of soapy water, sprayer and these two to finish - my new DA getting it's first proper outing, it's a cheap one from Argos, but already can tell it's far better than my old 110V DA that I have had for years. Polish is Scholl S20 black one step on a Hexlogic green pad


The oh crap what have I done stage after two passes of 1000 grit and wipe down



Then through 1500 and 2000. All done by hand, only needed a single sheet of each paper per side. Split the sheet in half and while using one bit keep the other in the bucket, alternate between the two for a clean surface, rinsed with plain water and dried between each grade to see if we have covered all of the light


2500 stage, just before we break out the polishing compound and DA. It is important to finish on the finest grade paper you can to make the polishing nice and easy, you are basically refining it at each stage making the scratches finer and finer till they can be buffed away.


Halfway!


Repeated for the other side and here are the results, very happy with that. Finished with a couple of coats of sealant and buffed off by hand.

[Andy]

Beautiful job

[bradh]

Awesome need to do mine but it's on my list of things to do hehe


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[AJP]

Keep seeing threads like this that remind me I really should get off my arse and do it myself! Now the weather's decent I've no excuse..

I'd be very happy with that. Better than new.

[Lewo]

Top job chap 
What sealant did you use?

[ChrisGT]

Great result!

Chris

[dools225]

Awesome work! Great feeling when you can do something like that and stand back to admire!

[lukemk5gti]

Great work there, I did my girlfriends car on the weekend with the same method although I only had 1200 grit to hand.

[Chris_R]

Great work there, I did my girlfriends car on the weekend with the same method although I only had 1200 grit to hand.

How did you find it? Mine started in a pretty bad state so went in stages to make it easier on the polishing at the end. Wasn't sure how much work would be needed finishing at a more coarse grit, just from previous experiences, finish fine and makes it so much easier.
I saw your comment on the other guys thread, hope this can help others get to grips with it, for an hour or so work got to be worth it.

Oh and the sealant used was a coat of Megs Ultimate Paste wax and then finished with Chemical Guys Blacklight which has UV protection - https://www.chemicalguysuk.com/Chemical_Guys_Blacklight_Radiant_Finish_p/blklgt.htm

[Gingertosser]

That's impressive.
Really good to see the difference between the two.

Gonna have to give this a try :)

[spicypixel]

I used a similar method as a first go

[barelyrelevant]

Awesome job, I bought the Autoglym headlight restoration kit and will doing the same this weekend. If I can get anywhere near the same results as you I will be chuffed.

I'm just using a drill, it has a variable speed setting, shall I just go as high as possible?

[larry.gti]

Great result! I did mine earlier in the year but still some marks visible, really wish I had a DA!

[DaveyBoyWonder]

Looks incredible. Desperately need to do mine... Got the Meguirs kit so might remove the lights and give it a go this weekend...

[Chris_R]

Great result! I did mine earlier in the year but still some marks visible, really wish I had a DA!

Save a few pennies and you can have one!
https://www.argos.co.uk/product/4645777

This is the one I am using, it's far better than my UDM that was a first generation car polisher than I got from the USA donkeys years ago and it's a decent price.