MK5 Golf GTI

All Things Mk5 => How to Guides / Troubleshooting => Topic started by: Coe on June 18, 2013, 12:25:12 am

Title: Headlight sanding, polishing repair
Post by: Coe on June 18, 2013, 12:25:12 am

Hi there, I've had my Gti a few years now and the headlights have been a real mess since I got it. Well, I finally took the plunge and sanded them. Once the sandpaper touch there was no turning back now. I thereafter machine polished them and sealed with wax.

Before -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70317494@N04/9072113172/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/70317494@N04/9069883959/

After -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70317494@N04/9069892655/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/70317494@N04/9072126184/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/70317494@N04/9069906243/

I'm pretty happy with the results :)

Title: Re: Headlight sanding, polishing repair
Post by: skard on June 18, 2013, 08:14:01 am

Very nice  :happy2:

Doing this on both ours cars soon, my mate has an air compressor so going to use that with the two 3M kits I got.
I also have a DA en route, what wax did you use?

Title: Re: Headlight sanding, polishing repair
Post by: Coe on June 18, 2013, 10:27:26 am

Yeah, I was chuffed with the end result. I didn't have the actual headlight kit.

I taped up the surrounding paintwork to protect it and used the following grit sandpapers 'wet'- 500, 1000, 1500 and finished with 2000. I then used my DA polishers with a small head attachment with a cutting pad and compound.

I used Auto Glym HD wax to finish.

This is probably not the best way to do it but I already had the above items and was willing to have a go. Took me about 2.5 hours or so.