I need to wetsand my headlights before they get any worse. I have no experience doing this so any help is appreciated. Also any ideas on where I can get 1000+grit sandpaper from locally? I called lowes and sherwin williams with no luck. I've seen them online but only 50+ sheets and I want 1000 grit 1200 grit 1500 grit and 2000 grit. Does anyone have some laying around I have paypal. PM me.

Ryan

 

Try Autozone, Pep Boys, O'Reilly's, etc. I've gotten up to 2000 grit from at least one of those places before

 

Try another paint store, if you still can't get what you need then I can help. PM me

 

I found it at advance auto (formerly discount auto). I called lowes, home depot, NAPA, carquest, sherwin williams, autozone and finally got some at advance. I also bought platicx by meguiars. I'm looking forward to these headlights looking new again. They sure did look sweet brand new.

 

dude just use heavy cut rubbing compound...no need to go crazy with wet sanding. i used fine cut and it just took a little longer (5 minutes total)

 

may I suggest you check this thread;
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=431901

In my post I have linked what I consider to be one of the best write ups on Autopia, check that for tips and post questions to the Grz, he's got some good experience.

 

this is kinda off topic, but also kinda relevant.
i am wet-sanding my valve cover and hopefully my upper IM in the near future.

i'm just misting the VC w/ water and then i'm sanding with Metalsand sandpaper. it was a variety back from Home Depot starting with coarse - medium - fine.
do i'm just sanding and then every once and a while (after 5 mins or so) i take the VC to the sink and rinse it all down, dry it off and then go at it again.

Does this sound right? so far, after probably 15 minutes total i am seeing a lot of difference. much smoother and more silver than a dull gray.

sorry if this kinda jacked the thread, but is this the correct process for wet sanding? (metal, specifically).

 

bump... any tips?

 

Autozone has 400,600,800,1000,1500, and 2000 Imperial 3M Wet/Dry Sanding papers. I've done this to my jeep's headlight and the results are descent.

Here's my procedure I aquired over time...

Remove your headlamps from the car, disconnect the harnesses. (Unless you want to risk accidently slipping and sanding your finish). I did mine under a stream of cool running hose water, but it can be done anywhere, just consider the mess you'll make.

Put some tape over the holes with the light plug in, and make sure water cant get in there, waterspots on the inside of your housing will be aggravating. Start with some 600 grit to get all the deep pitting out and the discoloration out. You will likely be sanding through the nautral UV protectant in the headlamp housing so after you finish I'd reccomend a weekly waxing to mantain its transparentness.

After your satisfied with your work with 600 grit, move up to 1200, or something close. Again wet sanding out all the 600 grit scratches and cleaning up the lights. They should start to look better, but hazy.

Now move up to 2000 grit, and repeat the wet sanding until the entire housing has been sanded with 2000 grit. At this point, a lot of people would use a rubbing compound followed by a wax, but I used a platic polish.

I first used Meguiars #10 and then #18 to polish them up. I'll up load picture later, at the moment I am digital-camera-less. Edit: I used #10 and 18, not 17.

 

after you use 2k grit, you can just use a medium cut rubbing compound with a porter cable yellow cutting disc, then use a fine cut RC, then just use some hand glaze from 3m, let it sit, then wax the *****es. It'll stay for a while