today since it was so nice out i clearcoated my headlights. and i said **** it might as well take pictures since there was someone else asking about it in another thread.

this is how they looked before.







i buffed them like 6 months ago with this. so they really werent in that bad shape.



First i masked them off with 3m 1/4" green masking tape and a roll of 12" masking paper. first you perimeter mask the lens and then you use the paper to mask the rest of the headlight off.







Then i sanded them down with 800g wet. i wouldve used a thousand but 800 was what i had around the house and it works fine. i sanded the sides of the lens too.





Then i mixed up my clear, filled my compressor, and sprayed away.
1 Coat




3 coats




Then youre done! either bake them at 140 degrees for 25 minutes or let them sit over night. and make sure to clean your gun thoroughly.



youll need plenty of these

 

Awesome!!

This was the best I've seen thus far.

 

they are CRYSTAL clear, except for one spot on my left headlight where i burned it with my buffer way before .

 

Looks great. One question after you sand them down do you buff them then clear coat?

 

Those look better than new.

 

nah you leave the 800grit scratches in there so the clears got somethin to bite to.

 

looks good

hope that clear is heat resistant

 

no idea but i think it should be good. its DuPont 74700s.

 

wooahh and i thouught mine were bad

 

mine werent bad?

 

I want to do this but I'm an idiot with no tools or sense when it comes to these kinds of things. Those came out great.

 

i would offer to do this for people. but with shippin costs, time to wait and everything, i dont think itd be worth it. atleast not in the price range of many people on this board.

probably be more worth it if people wanted the chrome panted as well. or eyebrows painted. or a couple things painted.

 

just trying to get my 15th post, might as well bump this thread, great job on the headlights, they look great

 

that the 3m restoring kit?

 

Your not too far from NYC? Maybe I could make the trip if the $$ is right???

 

lol

 

what year did they stop using glass?

 

97 im pretty sure.

 

At my shop we charged $100 for a headlight resto. We wet sanded (by hand) with 600, 800, 1000, and then 1500. Then we used a random orbit buffer with polishing compound first with a heavy wool cutting pad, then medium wool cutting pad, then a medium foam polishing pad, and finished with a soft foam pad. It usually took about 45mins to 1 hr to do a set of lights...depending on how oxidized they were. We coated the lights with a UV resistant clear fluid to keep them in good shape. (basically the same as clear coating them like you did)


Good job on your resto....looks nice!

 

thanks mang. next i will be painting the front clip! and blending the front doors!

 

Looks good.

 

Same here. Have to make sure all of the old coating is off. It can be a pain. OP, great job

 

Those look awesome bro!! I just got a set that drastically need some love an I'll be tryin this soon

 

Props for a good, albeit old thread.

I took 5 minutes to sand with 800 wet, taped off around the headlights (left them in the car) and used a clear coat rattle can. OK not exactly as good guy in this thread, but I can tell you I'm not looking to buy new headlights anymore!

 

so rattle can clear worked well enough for you? im glad to hear it, as ive never seen anyone do it that way.

id assume if you wetsanded them with 2000 now and then buffed they would look even better.(because when you spray, your spray-pattern isnt perfect, being that youre human. when you sand with 2000 it makes the clear more flat and cuts off the orange peel.)

 

I plan on doing the rattlecan clearcoat trick

 

It isn't paint gun quality for sure, and I actually used Duplicolor wheel clearcoat just because it's what I had laying around. But honestly it's good enough I'm probably likely to leave it as is. But you're right with more effort I likely could make them look like new.

For now I'm quite happy with 30 minutes total work including masking off the car.

 

you people doing this rattle-can style should post up detailed pics like i did. so we can see the difference on camera atleast.

 

Well I didn't take before hand pics of mine, but I'm doing my GF's in the next day or so. I'll take pics. Hers are worse much worse than mine.

 

word. with sanding and clearing im hopin it barely even matters the condition before hand. seems like the clearcoat trick works no matter how oxidized they are.

 

This time 600 wet sand for 5 minutes each. Again, these did not turn out perfect, but (especially considering how worn this car is) not worth me spending 3 hours on, and it's hella improvement. Left side a little less clear, but it was really beat up bad. Maybe 5 more minutes sanding would have helped.

Uh.. sorry guys. Still have to host pic somewhere else, in 2012? I thought those days were over. Anyway, came out fine. You'd never know unless you were going out of your way to scrutinize the headlights.

 

two of my friends both have one light thats all oxyfied. im gonna do both of them at the same time one day repeating my method. pics maybe.

 

another happy customer

 

Great job GGENIUS! I didn't believe the clear coat route was the way to go, but it looks BETTER than new. Congrats amigo!

 

Subscribed -- I'll keep you in mind if/when I need this done. Could you PM me what you are charging for this?

 

What would you use to buff the headlight afterwards?
I'm assuming the polish would be different since you're polishing the clearcoat as opposed to the plastic, correct?
Would it just be wax? Sorry I don't know much about this stuff.

 

with some technique you wont need to ever polish your lights again. 3 wet coats of clear should protect them from the sun forever unless its parked facing the sun all day every day.

only reason youd need to buff is if you sprayed too dry, and have orange peel. in which case you would wet sand with 1000g until clear is smooth as glass. then use 1500g, then 2000g to get the 1000g scratches out. some cutting compound and a buffer will buff out 2000g scratches at which point you will be ready to roll.

 

Wow. I was ok with the before PICs lol Nothing great but reasonably clear.

Gotta admitt that they do look holy F*&ck fantastic afterwards.

 

yeah only problem with the before pics is after 6 months theyre semi dulled again.

 

Look great. Thats how I did my dads 5th gen HL's. Sand and clear. Really the only semi-permanent method as long as you pay them attention every car wash. Yet another reason the 95'-96' is better....Mine dont need all that