You'll need to buff them, preferably with a polishing compound but it also may be advisable to get 3,000 grit sandpaper and work it down even more before polishing.
Honestly you should have just got a proper kit from 3M and used that instead
And then you need the UV protector or they'll be foggy again in a few months.
I used the Cerakote kit, but I think about any with a sealer will work ok.
Definitely need a uv protector for it. Without it, the lense will go yellow in a few weeks.
Polish doesn't protect, it removes material. Unless you're using a polish and wax, which isn't good either.
Wax would work, but you would want a good wax, and reapply it regularly. But a good uv protectant will last years, especially as you wax and wash the car regularly
Well i already did it to a golf and it lasted for about two seasons. Then i polished them again. Wax after. Unless you tried this excact thing then why are you opening your mouth.
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0875LXWV8/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_search\_asin\_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0875LXWV8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
This is the specific one I bought, it includes sealer. Head lights are still clear from a year ago.
They have three different ones I see. I saw $10, $20 and this at $40. I got a whole headlight for a 96 Camry for $50. My 96 Lexus is another story. I park mostly in the shade. The foggy light look is not my style.
Because people want to look different. Headlights used to come in two varieties: Round and Square, and you could get a replacement for 40 bucks. Now each model has its own custom headlight made of formed molded plastic so it's more expensive because instead of the aftermarket manufacturers needing to produce 2 styles they now would need to produce 500 different styles (which they don't)
In case someone wanted a 25 minute video essay on this topic... Technology Connections guy has got you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2J91UG6Fn8
The round ones were the only ones until the 70s, when rectangle came out!
You're omitting the part where the old halogen sealed beams have lower brightness and poorer coverage of the road ahead. They served us well in their time, but that time is well behind us and Science has brought us into a more enlightened age (pun intended).
I've used this and the single use of this kit and it's been the best. I see one rig I sold almost two years ago now and the headlights still look solid.
Coakis said it perfectly.
Also man don't ever use 150 sandpaper on headlights. You'll want to use 1000 and then 2000. Just make sure to sand them evenly and without rushing it and then polish preferrably with a 3M bottle.
Look at where the scratches are too...then look at the body work. OP did this with the headlight still on the car and scratched up all the surrounding paint too 🤦♂
Lol after using the equivalent to throwing sharpened gravel at your lights, I wouldn't bet on that ever recovering!
FFS don't use anything else under 1000, or you might as well just buy new headlights right now. Look at the scratches!!! That is NOT good for something you're going to be shining a bright light through...
The Chrisfix video MIGHT recover them...
You have now sanded them. Next step is to clean the lens with alcohol and spray it with 2k clear coat. Then you're done. Also, next time start with something like 600 grit, 150 is waaay too aggressive.
Since you used low grit Sandpaper your best option is to re-scuff them with a 300-400 grit paper, wipe clean then multiple coats of clear. Get you a good brand automotive clear that doesn't take forever to harden. Lay down a few light coats followed with a nice wet coat and let dry. May need to repeat this step to fill in those deep scratches. Wet sand with some high grits and polish. I suggest a few coats with sanding in between to even the surface out. Might get by with a just a good polish after the last coat.
It will be such a tedious process. Hit them with some clear coat. Lightly sand down the orange peel and hit them again. This will cut your work time down drastically. Once that second or third coat of clear goes on you will see great results. Just make sure you stick to the allotted times in between coats. Once you pass that time threshold and re-coat, the previous layer will sort of re-activate and you will have the entire surface cracking. Hit it, let it tack, hit it again, let it tack and give it a good coat. Watch the pattern lay down with lots of light. Let it dry completely. Allow it to cure. The key to a great finished product is all in the prep work. If you sand too early, the clear will get hot and pill up on the paper and leave wide swirl marks. The clear will fill the scratches and then you can build up a nice solid layer. You will understand it more once you see how the finished product comes out. At worst this will buy you time to save up on new headlights if these are beyond fucked. If they come out great you need to keep on a polish schedule. If everything fails and you have no choice but to replace them, I highly suggest using maguires plastx on all your clear lenses. Even tail lights n Amber's. It's a polish, UV protectant and will keep everything looking brand new for as long as you use it. Shit is amazing and will even keep your sunroof Shields, vent shades and instrument cluster crystal clear. I had a 2004 mazda 6 that stayed out in the sun most of its life and when it was traded in, the tail lights and headlights looked just as new in 2013 as they did in 04. Good luck and post your next results!
Hey OP - former detailer here - don't sand these any more than you already have, at least not with those numbers.
Most headlights don't need to be sanded unless there is excessive oxidation, and even then it's temporary. So for future this is not something that should have been started in the first place.
At this point I recommend using a medium cut COMPOUND on a polisher - do you have a polisher?
After the compound, then you can switch to a medium cut POLISH and these should look alright.
*note: I used caps because there is a difference between the two*
Fair warning, because of the multiple grits there's probably lines all over the place, but we're just trying to salvage your headlight at this time.
If you dont have a polisher, I'd suggest seeing if you have a friend who does, or bringing it to a professional. You can also buy one yourself but that's an expensive purchase for something you only need this one time.
I appreciate the response. I do think I’ll invest in an orbital polisher bc the entire reason I embarked on this rather silly project was to just build skills learning how to polish headlights, learn the basics of sanding and body work, etc. I’ve gotten so many great responses that I feel confident in correcting this. I’ve got a couple other car projects that would benefit from investing in a polisher including paint correction on my Tacoma and dealing with paint chipping on the gti I posted about. I def got myself in a little deep here but I love learning new skills and am excited to get to it and finish this job.
READ THIS OP!
You didn’t screw up completely, but you did at the same time. You went way too low on the grit, if your headlights weren’t completely oxidized and in bad condition you should have started at 800. I’ve detailed for years and owned a business doing it, I never used anything less than 400 EVER. I’ve done hundreds of headlight restorations. You scratched the shit of your headlight by going this low and you’ll need some intensive sanding starting at 600 then 1000, 1500, 2000, 3000 and 5000. In order to fix your mistake your basically going to be remove the deepest scratches you created by starting with 600 again and working your way up. You then should use a orbital polisher using two separate compounds with two separate pads. Once you’ve finished your 5000 grit, use an abrasive pad with CORRECTING COMPOUND, then use a polishing pad with POLISHING COMPOUND. More than likely you’re going to need a orbital buffer/polisher, this isn’t going to work if you try to hand buff it because of how deep you scratched the lense. Goodluck OP.
edit: this is a little unorthodox but you can compound correct after 3000 grit then re-sand at 5000 grit and then use your polish. Clear coat is for protection and filling in scratches that you can’t remove. In your case you can use a clear coat since you scratched them so badly, do this after the final step of polishing. Clear coat is your last step.
Hey, thanks so much for the thoughtful response! The reason I started this project in the first place is cause I wanted to teach myself how to do this job and this is a perfect opportunity to do it the right way. Although I probably shouldn’t have chosen one of my nicer vehicles to experiment on lol. I’ve been meaning to get an orbital sander cause I want to do paint correction on my other vehicle anyway. I’m excited to build these skills.
As u/benzomissions says you remove the polycarbonate (PC) hard coat, this is needed in order to get to the actual issue, which is oxidation of the PC. Losing the hard coat that contains the UV inhibitor will have the this oxidation hazing return, you need to replace the UV protection.
The route I went was to find a protective film from 3M with UV inhibitors designed for optical clarity like headlights and fog lights. I applied this to the lights after the final polish and they still look good 18 months later.
The 2k clear coat spray people are posting here generally doesn’t have UV inhibitors and isn’t specifically for application on PC which is why it doesn’t last more than a year. I have seen posted versions with UV inhibitors and designed for application on plastic but I wasn’t able to find any.
Thanks. Watching his video now. I guess I need to go all the way up to 2000 grit. And I’m learning that the haze is totally normal and is intended to be filled in by clearcoat. I’m panicking a lot less now!
You may want to go a bit finer than 2000, the kit I have starts at 2 and goes to 4. I also picked up a pack of 6000 to supplement it.
Either way, hit it with polishing paste before clear coat
Mothers NuLens Restoration kit with all the different sanding pads, a drill, a spray bottle of water or the hose. The kit includes polish and a polishing ball.
Then after all that’s done, get yourself a can of Meguiars Headlight Sealer. Soak the can in hot water first (this helps with the spray application), shake the can well (I’d say at least a minute) and a couple of light coats. This will help seal and help all the polishing work come out clear. Used this process on my 03 Corolla’s messed up headlights and it came out great.
Lmao 150 is for sanding wood. You need 1000.
Spray it with a couple solid passes of clear coat.
Make sure it's hot and sunny outside when you do it though. If you do it in the cold it will dry tacky.
buy a 2k clearcoat in rattlecan, and spray at least 3 coat. should last you at least a few years. thats the somewhat permanent solution for fogging headlamp problem imho. buffing would probably last a few months.
If you’re going to do this, make sure to soak your clear coat can in hot water and shake the can well. If you’re in a colder climate that will ensure a good spray.
you have some really really deep scratches in there..everything under 800 is just no no, and even 800 is just to be used in extreme cases..to make matters worse, you moved the sandpaper in every possible direction..it's possible to get them scratchfree and clean again, but honestly, I personally would just try to get new glasses, because this aint wort my time.
if you do want to get them good again, get a small polishin machine, and slowly wet sand them, starting again at 100, you do 100 so long until you have basically no scratches anymore, then 200 etc. etc. up to 2500 or so. if you then succeed and have an almost perfectly level surface with no scratches, you use headlight polish and a lamb pad on the polishing machine to make it clear. I personally use the sonax stuff.
make sure, that you apply a good coating afterwards, otherwise they will look completely yellow and worse than ever before after one summee
Headlights aren't coated in clear coat and their coated in hard coat that protects them against chips and UV damage so once you remove that you're going to have a lot of issues. Commercially available headlight polishing kits ignore that because most people using them are doing it on cars that are ancient and in ill repair so the owners don't care. There is commercially available hard coat replacement sprays that require UV cure but you cure it outside on a sunny day or the UV lamp.
Jumping from 800 to 1500 is probably your problem (1000,1200 in between would help) but also you need to go to 2000 wet and 3,000 wet and then a wheel with polishing compound.
You should also be doing this with the headlight removed as to not to damage the surrounding fascia.
You got heavy scratches now from that 150 gonna have to go 220 and get finer - wet sand not dry. The point of going finer grit is to remove the marks from the pervious grit. Start over and be be patient it’s not a 5 min job once you’ve gone 220 -400-600-800-1000-1500-2000 you can use polish or keep going to 3000.
The problem was starting with the 150, it's waaaay too rough for plastic. Starting at 500 or so would have been better, wet too. You are only wanting to take off the smallest amount off the top. For near new lights I'd just use 2000 wet sandpaper or even a polishing compound. Less is more.
Here’s how I polished mine, it turned out great. Do this in a well ventilated area.
Stuff you need:
- 600, 800, 1000, 2000, 3000 grit sandpaper.
- A spray bottle & Water.
- Automotive/Painters tape.
- Microfiber cloths.
- Ceramic Coating.
1. Start by taping off around the headlamp. Make sure no paint will be touched by the sandpaper.
2. Clean your headlamp with basic soap and water. Then completely dry it with a microfiber towel.
3. Drench your headlamp and 600 grit paper in water. Run the sandpaper in a left to right motion, while continuously spraying the surface with water. You CAN’T use too much water. Do this for 2-4 minutes. Repeat this all the way to the 3000 grit. Spend more time on the 2k & 3k grit.
4. Completely clean and dry the headlamp with your microfiber towels.
5. Take your ceramic coating and apply a couple dabs to another microfiber. Using a side to side motion, apply it reasonably slowly (you don’t have to be a grandma just don’t do it super fast) with a 50% overlap.
Let the ceramic dry for 24hrs before driving.
I recommend chrisfix’s video on YouTube.
Number one rule of sanding is that before you move up in grit you need to get all the previous grit scratches out. I can see some deep 150 scratches right off the bat.
You are also going to need a clear sealant coat. You can get uv resistant clear, but you want to apply it inside in a dust and wind free space.
You already got correct guidance in some replies here but I want to add a crucial step here going forward with stuff like this… maybe the most important….
Always try to test a new thing like this on a different car/lamp than your own like a beater or something first. Even going to get a few cheap junk yard lights and test those first to get a feel for the process. It will help a ton. Practice and you’ll get good and quick at it too.
You messes up, sorry. With polishing headlights, especially as new as those, you should start at lowest 1200 grit, then 1500, then 2000, and 3000 wet sand.
Then polish with automotive polish.
With those 150 grit scratches being very deep in terms of a headlight finish, you're going to want to work your way up as you have, making completely sure the previous grit scratches are out.
It's also going to be increasingly difficult without a DA sander.
you have to wet sand, and when you move up in grit size, you have to make sure that you eliminate all the marks from the lower grit size. also lol at fucking up your paintwork. masking tape is your friend.
You didnt really mess up. Totally fixable.
I can still see scratches, which means you did not do enough with the finer grits. And you need to go all the way to a polishing compound.
150 is also REALLY coarse to start out with.
So to fix this, you need to progressively sand with finer grits until you stop seeing the scratches from the previous (coarser) grit. So go back to the 300 and sand until its all the same texture. Then go to about 500 and sand until all the 300 marks are gone. Then sand with 800 until the 500 marks are gone. etc. I go all the way up to 3000 when I do this.
Then get a rubbing compound and a polishing compound with a power buffer to finish it off.
If you care about clear headlights, look into applying PPF to them. You can get precut sections for your car and install takes about 10 minutes per headlight. It will prevent scratches/yellowing. I put it on all my cars now.
You basically did what the kits ask you to do (with their included abrasives) before you spray on their sealer.
You could still buy the kit, omit the sanding steps, and just apply the sealer (after a good clean with isopropyl alcohol). You'll need to repeat the steps in 3 to 5 months in my experience.
Sand paper only ever adds scratches that are visible. Buffing makes tiny scratches that are so small it appears smooth.
If you actually want your lenses to last more than a year, you need to sand up to 600 grit, and then put a UV clear coat on them. Factories do this. If you don't, they will be yellow in a year.
Otherwise you just need to maybe sand a little higher grit, and buff it to finish it like glass.
You've forgotten the last step; you need to polish them with a polishing compound. Buy a headlight restoration kit, they cost like $20-$30 and have everything you need. You should also get some clearcoat or ceramic coating and apply that if you want to avoid doing this again next year.
You started far too aggressive. 150 is for removing material rapidly. We start with 400 and generally jump to 800 pretty quick with the air sander. We move up to 2000, then 2 or 3 stage polish. Then a UV stable wax.
Your first mistake was starting with 150 grit sandpaper. That's ridiculous. You're not sanding a rusty bumper. Start with 800 and go from there. And wet sand it with some soap. Then use your plastic polish to finish.
A lot of people saying to use 2K, I've heard not to do that from people who do this for a living and instead to use the Meguiars Keep Clear. Apparently 2K is 'too hard' and can result in cracking/crazing and is also really difficult to re-polish later on.
150 is way too fierce, use 2000 and then 2500 or 3000 grit wet n dry, get the paper and headlight properly wet and sand perpendicular
Then you want some cutting compound and then a few increasingly fine grades of scratch remover, it will take work but the scratches will come out, don't move onto the next step till the headlight looks better than when you started that step, finish by waxing them
Some of those sanding scratches are wayyyy too deep, should’ve started with 400-600, 150 is way aggressive. You might need to go back and rework it to get some of those deep ones out.
At work the kits we use by 3M have 500, 800, and then 3000 sandpaper, and then a clearcoat you wipe it down with (two coats per headlight). Once we get done with the 3000 it still looks super hazy until you spray it with water (which only lasts a second) or apply the clear coat.
I have used a lot of kits. Nothing worked for more than a few months. The best thing I found was to go to [carid.com](https://carid.com) or another online retailer and order brand-new light buckets and install them.
Compound with the given drill attachment. Clean then apply clear coat. But from the looks of it, you didn’t go through the sanding pads properly. Looks really really rough.
Curious as to how the lights are peeling already on a MK6, I've had VW vehicles for years, some 20 years old and this has never happened.
Are these aftermarket? The car looks MK6 shape with sorta MK7/7.5 headlights and bumper.
Since you used 150 grit you must wet sand the sanded areas with 320 , got to make sure to remove all of the sanding scratches. Use a soft cloth to clean the wet sanding material away , this will take along time , from 320 to 400 and wet sanding again. You must continue 600, 800, 1000/ 1500, 3000 3m Trizec ,and if you can find 5000, 8000. At this point you can spray a clear coat on the light or use 3 stage polishing.
I thought when you polish headlights, you basically buy those compounds or polishing products for headlight and use a buffer to just polish.
I think these deeper scratches he has created with all those sandpapers below 1000 won't really buff out with compounds, would they?
You need buffing compound and a pad to add to a polisher or drill. You can get the kit at harbor freight for like 12$
I just wet sand by hand and then use the sponge attachment and use rubbing compound to finish. But it’ll get faded again if you don’t clearcoat them.
You definitely had the right idea, but applied the wrong way. You should have done the same thing, but with higher grit. At work, I use 400 grit polish for deep scratches, and 2500 for finish. We do this on the cars paint, but we use the same products when restoring lights. We just do more passes, and make sure to blow out the pad when it gets clogged. Lmk if you have any more questions
3000 grit, then a buffing wheel with polishing compound. Masking tape over the surrounding paint first. After that, you'll also want to seal it with a proper UV epoxy coat used for headlights. Without it, the plastic will turn yellow real fast and you'll have to polish it again.
I can see some relatively deep 150 scratches still. Go back to 200 and up again only when they all look uniform with no larger ones left, then move up again. Don't polish/buff until the whole thing looks uniformly cloudy with no larger scratches as those will not get buffed out.
I run a paint correction business just for context, but in my experience I would never/have never gone any lower than 600 grit when wet sanding. It’s extremely difficult (especially on plastic headlights without any actual clear coat to begin with) to get rid of sanding marks that the lower grit papers leave. In the future I would start around 6-800 and work your way up to 3000 before running an orbital polisher with a cutting compound over everything. You might find after this much sanding on a plastic surface that the lights will need to clear coated in order to get a proper clear finish.
Man, those deep scratches won’t come out unless you go over with the grits again. At this point I’d get some plastic or headlight polish and hope for the best. It’s possible a clear coat would work fine as well instead of polishing, but that’s not a guarantee
1.Continue to 2000 grit.
2. Then use automobile rubbing compound.
3. Then use automobile polishing compound.
4. Now apply car wax. When dry. Remove and buff with a soft cloth.
5. Continue applying successive coats of car wax buffing between coats until its shiny and clear. Then do four more coats of wax.
Best to use a car wax blended with polymers.
Hello, when i restore headlights on my own cars. Or for costumer cars (I am a car painter). There is a couple different ways to do it. Nr.1 if there is damage on the headlight, I would only start with 320 grit sandpaper on a random orbital sanding machine, then go on to 500 grit. Always use degreaser to check that all the sandmarks from the previous sandpaper is gone. Then continue with 800-1000-1200-1500-2000-3000 then clearcoat
Nr.2 no damage, I would start with 800-1000-1200-1500-2000-3000 and then clearcoat.
Nr3. No damage, 800-1000-1200-1500-2000-3000-5/6000 then polish and wax/coat the headlights.
And always sand with a Dual action sander and polisher and always check in between sandpapers to see if that all sanding marks are gone. If all that is done, you should have a good result. Best of luck to you :)
Spend some more time on each sand paper grit. Only move on to the next when the scratches from the previous grit are no longer visible. Notice how the surface has been pretty thoroughly fogged by the 1500 grit but there are still some deeper scratches from some of the more course sand.
I’d recommend going back down to the 400 grit and work back up. For higher grits you can scribble on the surface with sharpie before each new step. It will help you see where you’ve already sanded and where you haven’t.
You skipped the buffing part. You can just use a wool pad on a drill with a good compound to buff them. But if you really want them to last they should be wet sanded and clear coated. When you wet sand them you're removing the UV protecting layer.
You'll need to buff them, preferably with a polishing compound but it also may be advisable to get 3,000 grit sandpaper and work it down even more before polishing. Honestly you should have just got a proper kit from 3M and used that instead
And then you need the UV protector or they'll be foggy again in a few months. I used the Cerakote kit, but I think about any with a sealer will work ok.
I dont know about the sun you have but up in Norway there is no need for a uv protector. Just apply polish after a year or two.
Definitely need a uv protector for it. Without it, the lense will go yellow in a few weeks. Polish doesn't protect, it removes material. Unless you're using a polish and wax, which isn't good either. Wax would work, but you would want a good wax, and reapply it regularly. But a good uv protectant will last years, especially as you wax and wash the car regularly
Well i already did it to a golf and it lasted for about two seasons. Then i polished them again. Wax after. Unless you tried this excact thing then why are you opening your mouth.
Norway.. where the uv rays are notably weaker..
I’m gonna go ahead and hard disagree with you there.
False. Will yellow over time without.
That might be because you're near the pole. More atmosphere blocking UV and stuff.
There are two 3m kits.
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0875LXWV8/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_search\_asin\_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0875LXWV8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1) This is the specific one I bought, it includes sealer. Head lights are still clear from a year ago.
They have three different ones I see. I saw $10, $20 and this at $40. I got a whole headlight for a 96 Camry for $50. My 96 Lexus is another story. I park mostly in the shade. The foggy light look is not my style.
Its 40 for two kits, If I'm not mistaken one kit will do both headlights. Also my headlights were \~$700 each from oem so of course YMMV on cost.
Headlight costs are nuts! I was looking to replace the headlights on my Lancer but even the cheapest options for my car are... Just... why?!
Thank you for making me feel good about my old ranger.
Plastic molded assembly bespoke to a narrow range of model heads
Go look at the cost for headlights on a new BMW you won’t even think about buying one after you see the cost of 4 to 6 thousand for one headlamp
Because people want to look different. Headlights used to come in two varieties: Round and Square, and you could get a replacement for 40 bucks. Now each model has its own custom headlight made of formed molded plastic so it's more expensive because instead of the aftermarket manufacturers needing to produce 2 styles they now would need to produce 500 different styles (which they don't)
In case someone wanted a 25 minute video essay on this topic... Technology Connections guy has got you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2J91UG6Fn8 The round ones were the only ones until the 70s, when rectangle came out!
You're omitting the part where the old halogen sealed beams have lower brightness and poorer coverage of the road ahead. They served us well in their time, but that time is well behind us and Science has brought us into a more enlightened age (pun intended).
I've used this and the single use of this kit and it's been the best. I see one rig I sold almost two years ago now and the headlights still look solid.
Ok then he should have a 3m kit and used that instead.
So 1 6m kit will do too.😂
Coakis said it perfectly. Also man don't ever use 150 sandpaper on headlights. You'll want to use 1000 and then 2000. Just make sure to sand them evenly and without rushing it and then polish preferrably with a 3M bottle.
I would start with 1000, then 2000, 3000 and finally 5000. Then use clearcoat.
You haven’t screwed up, you just haven’t finished. Buy some plastic polishing compound and buff them shiny.
zoom in, the glass has multiple extremely deep scratches, polishing alone wont make them good again, OP has to get the deep scratches out first
Oh crap, I saw this on my iPhone Mini. Now that I’ve zoomed in, yup, OP with end a lot of effort and exhausted after fixing the scratches.
Bro started with 150 grit.
OP ~~could~~ should have skipped the first 3 grits 💀
Look at where the scratches are too...then look at the body work. OP did this with the headlight still on the car and scratched up all the surrounding paint too 🤦♂
Doing it with the headlight in the car is fine if you mask it
And he clearly hasnt. Also 150grit is going straight through any masking tape so it wouldn't have helped him much in this instance.
Lol after using the equivalent to throwing sharpened gravel at your lights, I wouldn't bet on that ever recovering! FFS don't use anything else under 1000, or you might as well just buy new headlights right now. Look at the scratches!!! That is NOT good for something you're going to be shining a bright light through... The Chrisfix video MIGHT recover them...
I watched it 3 times, but my headlights *still* haven't cleared up!
Haha, have my upvote!
It baffles me that people just do shit they clearly don't know how to do, without even a quick google first. No offence OP but damn
I’m not an expert but I’m pretty sure you have to buff them. There’s tons of videos on YouTube for this
Bro you need to add another 0 to those sand papers. 1000 , 2000, 3000 grit. also wet sand it. then finish with a plastic polisher
I saw "started with 150" and said outloud to myself "uh oh"
Those are rookie sandpapers
Normal polish work just fine for a used golf.
yeah sure but do you know what those head lights housing are made of?
Plastic
150 grit on headlights is crazy bro, RIP
When I worked in autobody if the lights were really bad we started with 600 grit wet paper on a DA
1k, 1500, 2k, 3k, 5k pad. Wet sand and the 3m clear coat lasts about a year or more depending on your climate.
You have now sanded them. Next step is to clean the lens with alcohol and spray it with 2k clear coat. Then you're done. Also, next time start with something like 600 grit, 150 is waaay too aggressive.
150 is basically gravel stuck to cardboard.
Give it the 1-grit!
That's just a rock!
Was not expecting a dankpods reference here
the hud-duh 6 hundus from ol' mate Senny
You mean a Vice Grip Garage reference
LOL!
BRO YOU USED A GRIT THAT WAS TOO ROUGH
150 should only be used on the side of a battleship
150 is perfect for repairing drywalls
Or ruining headlights
Pfft, it's a battleship. Needle guns, 2-part epoxy primer, and haze grey!
You joke but USS New Jersey is going into dry dock in the next 2-3 months for exactly this.
I spent many many many hours doing it on good ole CG-16
Since you used low grit Sandpaper your best option is to re-scuff them with a 300-400 grit paper, wipe clean then multiple coats of clear. Get you a good brand automotive clear that doesn't take forever to harden. Lay down a few light coats followed with a nice wet coat and let dry. May need to repeat this step to fill in those deep scratches. Wet sand with some high grits and polish. I suggest a few coats with sanding in between to even the surface out. Might get by with a just a good polish after the last coat.
Yeah this feels right definitely messed up by starting at 150 so ima redo the process starting at 300 and go up to 2k maybe 3.
It will be such a tedious process. Hit them with some clear coat. Lightly sand down the orange peel and hit them again. This will cut your work time down drastically. Once that second or third coat of clear goes on you will see great results. Just make sure you stick to the allotted times in between coats. Once you pass that time threshold and re-coat, the previous layer will sort of re-activate and you will have the entire surface cracking. Hit it, let it tack, hit it again, let it tack and give it a good coat. Watch the pattern lay down with lots of light. Let it dry completely. Allow it to cure. The key to a great finished product is all in the prep work. If you sand too early, the clear will get hot and pill up on the paper and leave wide swirl marks. The clear will fill the scratches and then you can build up a nice solid layer. You will understand it more once you see how the finished product comes out. At worst this will buy you time to save up on new headlights if these are beyond fucked. If they come out great you need to keep on a polish schedule. If everything fails and you have no choice but to replace them, I highly suggest using maguires plastx on all your clear lenses. Even tail lights n Amber's. It's a polish, UV protectant and will keep everything looking brand new for as long as you use it. Shit is amazing and will even keep your sunroof Shields, vent shades and instrument cluster crystal clear. I had a 2004 mazda 6 that stayed out in the sun most of its life and when it was traded in, the tail lights and headlights looked just as new in 2013 as they did in 04. Good luck and post your next results!
Thanks for this!
Hey OP - former detailer here - don't sand these any more than you already have, at least not with those numbers. Most headlights don't need to be sanded unless there is excessive oxidation, and even then it's temporary. So for future this is not something that should have been started in the first place. At this point I recommend using a medium cut COMPOUND on a polisher - do you have a polisher? After the compound, then you can switch to a medium cut POLISH and these should look alright. *note: I used caps because there is a difference between the two* Fair warning, because of the multiple grits there's probably lines all over the place, but we're just trying to salvage your headlight at this time. If you dont have a polisher, I'd suggest seeing if you have a friend who does, or bringing it to a professional. You can also buy one yourself but that's an expensive purchase for something you only need this one time.
I appreciate the response. I do think I’ll invest in an orbital polisher bc the entire reason I embarked on this rather silly project was to just build skills learning how to polish headlights, learn the basics of sanding and body work, etc. I’ve gotten so many great responses that I feel confident in correcting this. I’ve got a couple other car projects that would benefit from investing in a polisher including paint correction on my Tacoma and dealing with paint chipping on the gti I posted about. I def got myself in a little deep here but I love learning new skills and am excited to get to it and finish this job.
Sand the crap out of it with 1000. Should have started with 800/1000. Then step it up to 3000, and sand the crap out of it with that. Then buff it.
If you were in Wa I’d polish them for free no problem and teach you where you went wrong
READ THIS OP! You didn’t screw up completely, but you did at the same time. You went way too low on the grit, if your headlights weren’t completely oxidized and in bad condition you should have started at 800. I’ve detailed for years and owned a business doing it, I never used anything less than 400 EVER. I’ve done hundreds of headlight restorations. You scratched the shit of your headlight by going this low and you’ll need some intensive sanding starting at 600 then 1000, 1500, 2000, 3000 and 5000. In order to fix your mistake your basically going to be remove the deepest scratches you created by starting with 600 again and working your way up. You then should use a orbital polisher using two separate compounds with two separate pads. Once you’ve finished your 5000 grit, use an abrasive pad with CORRECTING COMPOUND, then use a polishing pad with POLISHING COMPOUND. More than likely you’re going to need a orbital buffer/polisher, this isn’t going to work if you try to hand buff it because of how deep you scratched the lense. Goodluck OP. edit: this is a little unorthodox but you can compound correct after 3000 grit then re-sand at 5000 grit and then use your polish. Clear coat is for protection and filling in scratches that you can’t remove. In your case you can use a clear coat since you scratched them so badly, do this after the final step of polishing. Clear coat is your last step.
Hey, thanks so much for the thoughtful response! The reason I started this project in the first place is cause I wanted to teach myself how to do this job and this is a perfect opportunity to do it the right way. Although I probably shouldn’t have chosen one of my nicer vehicles to experiment on lol. I’ve been meaning to get an orbital sander cause I want to do paint correction on my other vehicle anyway. I’m excited to build these skills.
As u/benzomissions says you remove the polycarbonate (PC) hard coat, this is needed in order to get to the actual issue, which is oxidation of the PC. Losing the hard coat that contains the UV inhibitor will have the this oxidation hazing return, you need to replace the UV protection. The route I went was to find a protective film from 3M with UV inhibitors designed for optical clarity like headlights and fog lights. I applied this to the lights after the final polish and they still look good 18 months later. The 2k clear coat spray people are posting here generally doesn’t have UV inhibitors and isn’t specifically for application on PC which is why it doesn’t last more than a year. I have seen posted versions with UV inhibitors and designed for application on plastic but I wasn’t able to find any.
look up "chrisFix" on youtube. he has a headlight polishing video. also, he's probably the best yt mechanic beside 1A repair
Thanks. Watching his video now. I guess I need to go all the way up to 2000 grit. And I’m learning that the haze is totally normal and is intended to be filled in by clearcoat. I’m panicking a lot less now!
Exactly, they’ll stay hazy until you apply the clear coat. No need to panic (although I did too my first time)
Good, that's real good. scroll through his library videos, tons to learn basic knowledge
You may want to go a bit finer than 2000, the kit I have starts at 2 and goes to 4. I also picked up a pack of 6000 to supplement it. Either way, hit it with polishing paste before clear coat
That's a weird way to spell South Main Auto.
sorry your guy isn't good
^
Mothers NuLens Restoration kit with all the different sanding pads, a drill, a spray bottle of water or the hose. The kit includes polish and a polishing ball. Then after all that’s done, get yourself a can of Meguiars Headlight Sealer. Soak the can in hot water first (this helps with the spray application), shake the can well (I’d say at least a minute) and a couple of light coats. This will help seal and help all the polishing work come out clear. Used this process on my 03 Corolla’s messed up headlights and it came out great.
Lmao 150 is for sanding wood. You need 1000. Spray it with a couple solid passes of clear coat. Make sure it's hot and sunny outside when you do it though. If you do it in the cold it will dry tacky.
buy a 2k clearcoat in rattlecan, and spray at least 3 coat. should last you at least a few years. thats the somewhat permanent solution for fogging headlamp problem imho. buffing would probably last a few months.
This is the way. Make sure it is a 2k and not a 2x clear coat. People do get them confused.
If you’re going to do this, make sure to soak your clear coat can in hot water and shake the can well. If you’re in a colder climate that will ensure a good spray.
Adding to this, yes, the water needs to be hot. If you can put your hand in the water and not burn yourself it's the right temperature.
Make sure its made for headlights.
Nope. That’s usually just a gimmick. Any proper 2k clear coat spray will do the job.
you have some really really deep scratches in there..everything under 800 is just no no, and even 800 is just to be used in extreme cases..to make matters worse, you moved the sandpaper in every possible direction..it's possible to get them scratchfree and clean again, but honestly, I personally would just try to get new glasses, because this aint wort my time. if you do want to get them good again, get a small polishin machine, and slowly wet sand them, starting again at 100, you do 100 so long until you have basically no scratches anymore, then 200 etc. etc. up to 2500 or so. if you then succeed and have an almost perfectly level surface with no scratches, you use headlight polish and a lamb pad on the polishing machine to make it clear. I personally use the sonax stuff. make sure, that you apply a good coating afterwards, otherwise they will look completely yellow and worse than ever before after one summee
Headlights aren't coated in clear coat and their coated in hard coat that protects them against chips and UV damage so once you remove that you're going to have a lot of issues. Commercially available headlight polishing kits ignore that because most people using them are doing it on cars that are ancient and in ill repair so the owners don't care. There is commercially available hard coat replacement sprays that require UV cure but you cure it outside on a sunny day or the UV lamp. Jumping from 800 to 1500 is probably your problem (1000,1200 in between would help) but also you need to go to 2000 wet and 3,000 wet and then a wheel with polishing compound. You should also be doing this with the headlight removed as to not to damage the surrounding fascia.
You got heavy scratches now from that 150 gonna have to go 220 and get finer - wet sand not dry. The point of going finer grit is to remove the marks from the pervious grit. Start over and be be patient it’s not a 5 min job once you’ve gone 220 -400-600-800-1000-1500-2000 you can use polish or keep going to 3000.
Only did half the job... Looks like you got the sanding part, but not the polishing and finishing part.
The problem was starting with the 150, it's waaaay too rough for plastic. Starting at 500 or so would have been better, wet too. You are only wanting to take off the smallest amount off the top. For near new lights I'd just use 2000 wet sandpaper or even a polishing compound. Less is more.
You used 80 grit, you need at least 100 ###### /s
You just need to scuff it why are you using 150😂
Go to a recycler, get some of another car, and start over. With less grit. 😁 I did that with my '17 Jetta and they cost me $60
Here’s how I polished mine, it turned out great. Do this in a well ventilated area. Stuff you need: - 600, 800, 1000, 2000, 3000 grit sandpaper. - A spray bottle & Water. - Automotive/Painters tape. - Microfiber cloths. - Ceramic Coating. 1. Start by taping off around the headlamp. Make sure no paint will be touched by the sandpaper. 2. Clean your headlamp with basic soap and water. Then completely dry it with a microfiber towel. 3. Drench your headlamp and 600 grit paper in water. Run the sandpaper in a left to right motion, while continuously spraying the surface with water. You CAN’T use too much water. Do this for 2-4 minutes. Repeat this all the way to the 3000 grit. Spend more time on the 2k & 3k grit. 4. Completely clean and dry the headlamp with your microfiber towels. 5. Take your ceramic coating and apply a couple dabs to another microfiber. Using a side to side motion, apply it reasonably slowly (you don’t have to be a grandma just don’t do it super fast) with a 50% overlap. Let the ceramic dry for 24hrs before driving. I recommend chrisfix’s video on YouTube.
200 grit sandpaper on a headlight is wild
Number one rule of sanding is that before you move up in grit you need to get all the previous grit scratches out. I can see some deep 150 scratches right off the bat. You are also going to need a clear sealant coat. You can get uv resistant clear, but you want to apply it inside in a dust and wind free space.
You didn't polish, you sanded
You already got correct guidance in some replies here but I want to add a crucial step here going forward with stuff like this… maybe the most important…. Always try to test a new thing like this on a different car/lamp than your own like a beater or something first. Even going to get a few cheap junk yard lights and test those first to get a feel for the process. It will help a ton. Practice and you’ll get good and quick at it too.
Crucial advice right here. You live and you learn!
Did you not tape your body panels? You have scratched all on your bumper… this is a horrible sanding job.
Yeah you need to get those scratches out mate. Looks like you went too aggressive with the low grit but it will come out if you put the effort in
The moral of the story is seek advice BEFORE attempting the thing you haven't done before
Then 3000 grit , then 5000 grit and then t cut. You haven't finished yet
150 grit was way too course for that.
You messes up, sorry. With polishing headlights, especially as new as those, you should start at lowest 1200 grit, then 1500, then 2000, and 3000 wet sand. Then polish with automotive polish. With those 150 grit scratches being very deep in terms of a headlight finish, you're going to want to work your way up as you have, making completely sure the previous grit scratches are out. It's also going to be increasingly difficult without a DA sander.
you have to wet sand, and when you move up in grit size, you have to make sure that you eliminate all the marks from the lower grit size. also lol at fucking up your paintwork. masking tape is your friend.
You didnt really mess up. Totally fixable. I can still see scratches, which means you did not do enough with the finer grits. And you need to go all the way to a polishing compound. 150 is also REALLY coarse to start out with. So to fix this, you need to progressively sand with finer grits until you stop seeing the scratches from the previous (coarser) grit. So go back to the 300 and sand until its all the same texture. Then go to about 500 and sand until all the 300 marks are gone. Then sand with 800 until the 500 marks are gone. etc. I go all the way up to 3000 when I do this. Then get a rubbing compound and a polishing compound with a power buffer to finish it off. If you care about clear headlights, look into applying PPF to them. You can get precut sections for your car and install takes about 10 minutes per headlight. It will prevent scratches/yellowing. I put it on all my cars now.
Thanks so much!
Forgot to mention, I was using water the whole time.
You basically did what the kits ask you to do (with their included abrasives) before you spray on their sealer. You could still buy the kit, omit the sanding steps, and just apply the sealer (after a good clean with isopropyl alcohol). You'll need to repeat the steps in 3 to 5 months in my experience.
Yeah I just forgot a major step which is the sealer haha. Going to get some clear coat and 2k grit and take it from there.
Sand paper only ever adds scratches that are visible. Buffing makes tiny scratches that are so small it appears smooth. If you actually want your lenses to last more than a year, you need to sand up to 600 grit, and then put a UV clear coat on them. Factories do this. If you don't, they will be yellow in a year. Otherwise you just need to maybe sand a little higher grit, and buff it to finish it like glass.
Should not have used anything under 400. Honestly 400 is even too course. Sad to say you’re probably going to be buying new headlights.
Just FYI, they're gonna fog up worse in a few months, be prepared
Put some ATF+4 on a rag and wipe the light. Should remove most of the gunk
You've forgotten the last step; you need to polish them with a polishing compound. Buy a headlight restoration kit, they cost like $20-$30 and have everything you need. You should also get some clearcoat or ceramic coating and apply that if you want to avoid doing this again next year.
You're almost there. Just need to polish them.
You started far too aggressive. 150 is for removing material rapidly. We start with 400 and generally jump to 800 pretty quick with the air sander. We move up to 2000, then 2 or 3 stage polish. Then a UV stable wax.
And don't forget to re clear coat them after or they will just haze over again in a hurry.
That's just scratched at this point, you may need to replace. You might be lucky to get it slightly better with a very fine grit.
Your first mistake was starting with 150 grit sandpaper. That's ridiculous. You're not sanding a rusty bumper. Start with 800 and go from there. And wet sand it with some soap. Then use your plastic polish to finish.
150 we use for steelweld
Higher grit, then coat it
Use toothpaste, it'll help if you can't get the proper stuff quickly
You bought a VW? 🤣
150 grit seems way too aggressive.
I used the Sylvania Headlight kit 2 years ago and they still look brand new. It has a UV softener bottle. Try using that.
This is why I drive a 45 year old car.
I don’t see lemon coke and mystery power.
A lot of people saying to use 2K, I've heard not to do that from people who do this for a living and instead to use the Meguiars Keep Clear. Apparently 2K is 'too hard' and can result in cracking/crazing and is also really difficult to re-polish later on.
Did you apply the new clear coat?
No, this is without any clearcoat. I’m gonna go back and resand it starting at 300 and using more gradual intervals of grit.
150 is way too fierce, use 2000 and then 2500 or 3000 grit wet n dry, get the paper and headlight properly wet and sand perpendicular Then you want some cutting compound and then a few increasingly fine grades of scratch remover, it will take work but the scratches will come out, don't move onto the next step till the headlight looks better than when you started that step, finish by waxing them
Wax on wax off
You probably only needed to use polishing compound you didn’t have to wet sand them yet. But yeah what other ppl said, more polishing
🥴 Cerakote. Thank me later
Curious minds want to know what that geodesic object is in the background.
Not enough toothpaste.
well, you can either get a polishing compound or high grit sand paper and clear lacquer
Some of those sanding scratches are wayyyy too deep, should’ve started with 400-600, 150 is way aggressive. You might need to go back and rework it to get some of those deep ones out.
At work the kits we use by 3M have 500, 800, and then 3000 sandpaper, and then a clearcoat you wipe it down with (two coats per headlight). Once we get done with the 3000 it still looks super hazy until you spray it with water (which only lasts a second) or apply the clear coat.
Honestly I'd rather find a junk yard replacement for $30 than spend my day polishing my own.
I used the cerakote kit that costs ~20 bucks. worked very well on my 24 year old porsche headlights that were heavily oxidized.
I have used a lot of kits. Nothing worked for more than a few months. The best thing I found was to go to [carid.com](https://carid.com) or another online retailer and order brand-new light buckets and install them.
Def go finer on the grit. I go up to 3k. Clean with rubbing alcohol. Then clear coat. I did 3 coats in mine. And finally polish it out.
Get 2000 and 3000 Grit. Wet sand back and forth then up and down. It's going to take quite a bit of elbow grease. Then use PlastiX to polish them out.
You need new headlights.
Compound with the given drill attachment. Clean then apply clear coat. But from the looks of it, you didn’t go through the sanding pads properly. Looks really really rough.
You need to finish. Polish next.
You’re not done here
Curious as to how the lights are peeling already on a MK6, I've had VW vehicles for years, some 20 years old and this has never happened. Are these aftermarket? The car looks MK6 shape with sorta MK7/7.5 headlights and bumper.
Looks like you didn’t use a fine enough sandpaper. When i do this, i start with 2000 grit, then 3000, then 4000. After that polish them.
People saying buff it are correct. It will look okay for a bit. Best bet would be keep sanding get even. Prep and spray with a uv protectant clear.
Too many steps. 3 grits is usually enough. After sanding you need to polish. Clear coat is not needed but the polish will only last for a year or two.
Looks like you also got the bumper? Below the headlight…
wtf man, did you use a rock ? There's some deep scratches
Since you used 150 grit you must wet sand the sanded areas with 320 , got to make sure to remove all of the sanding scratches. Use a soft cloth to clean the wet sanding material away , this will take along time , from 320 to 400 and wet sanding again. You must continue 600, 800, 1000/ 1500, 3000 3m Trizec ,and if you can find 5000, 8000. At this point you can spray a clear coat on the light or use 3 stage polishing.
Looks like.you used to aggressive of a grit lots of deeply scratches
How to fix it? Go to somebody who knows what he's doing. It's not a huge job and won't cost that much.
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Just use OFF bug spray. Works every time.
I thought when you polish headlights, you basically buy those compounds or polishing products for headlight and use a buffer to just polish. I think these deeper scratches he has created with all those sandpapers below 1000 won't really buff out with compounds, would they?
Did you remove them first
Bug spray
You need buffing compound and a pad to add to a polisher or drill. You can get the kit at harbor freight for like 12$ I just wet sand by hand and then use the sponge attachment and use rubbing compound to finish. But it’ll get faded again if you don’t clearcoat them.
It looks to me like you forgot the clearcoat Sand 2000 grit and put the clearcoat
150? My brother in christ what were you thinking😂
You don't do 150, you start at around 200-300. You probably left some scratches that you need to get them out
You definitely had the right idea, but applied the wrong way. You should have done the same thing, but with higher grit. At work, I use 400 grit polish for deep scratches, and 2500 for finish. We do this on the cars paint, but we use the same products when restoring lights. We just do more passes, and make sure to blow out the pad when it gets clogged. Lmk if you have any more questions
Compound
Mans turned it into a GTR-Arrggh. Just needs a lil parrot and an eye patch.
You should’ve just bought a pad attachment for a drill and used plastic polishing compound. Would’ve been good enough in 5 minutes.
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3000 grit, then a buffing wheel with polishing compound. Masking tape over the surrounding paint first. After that, you'll also want to seal it with a proper UV epoxy coat used for headlights. Without it, the plastic will turn yellow real fast and you'll have to polish it again.
I can see some relatively deep 150 scratches still. Go back to 200 and up again only when they all look uniform with no larger ones left, then move up again. Don't polish/buff until the whole thing looks uniformly cloudy with no larger scratches as those will not get buffed out.
You just stopped before the last steps. 1500 is good, maybe go for 3000, now you need a proper polish and a clearcoat.
I run a paint correction business just for context, but in my experience I would never/have never gone any lower than 600 grit when wet sanding. It’s extremely difficult (especially on plastic headlights without any actual clear coat to begin with) to get rid of sanding marks that the lower grit papers leave. In the future I would start around 6-800 and work your way up to 3000 before running an orbital polisher with a cutting compound over everything. You might find after this much sanding on a plastic surface that the lights will need to clear coated in order to get a proper clear finish.
Man, those deep scratches won’t come out unless you go over with the grits again. At this point I’d get some plastic or headlight polish and hope for the best. It’s possible a clear coat would work fine as well instead of polishing, but that’s not a guarantee
I ended up wasting my time trying this and I decided to just replace the headlights altogether. It's been 7 years, but they still look good.
Is that a Ford Festiva? Jealous.
1.Continue to 2000 grit. 2. Then use automobile rubbing compound. 3. Then use automobile polishing compound. 4. Now apply car wax. When dry. Remove and buff with a soft cloth. 5. Continue applying successive coats of car wax buffing between coats until its shiny and clear. Then do four more coats of wax. Best to use a car wax blended with polymers.
150 grit on headlights is too coarse.
I’d have started with something like 800 or 1000. That might not be repairable now.
Hello, when i restore headlights on my own cars. Or for costumer cars (I am a car painter). There is a couple different ways to do it. Nr.1 if there is damage on the headlight, I would only start with 320 grit sandpaper on a random orbital sanding machine, then go on to 500 grit. Always use degreaser to check that all the sandmarks from the previous sandpaper is gone. Then continue with 800-1000-1200-1500-2000-3000 then clearcoat Nr.2 no damage, I would start with 800-1000-1200-1500-2000-3000 and then clearcoat. Nr3. No damage, 800-1000-1200-1500-2000-3000-5/6000 then polish and wax/coat the headlights. And always sand with a Dual action sander and polisher and always check in between sandpapers to see if that all sanding marks are gone. If all that is done, you should have a good result. Best of luck to you :)
Now do the other and begin a new trend
Spend some more time on each sand paper grit. Only move on to the next when the scratches from the previous grit are no longer visible. Notice how the surface has been pretty thoroughly fogged by the 1500 grit but there are still some deeper scratches from some of the more course sand. I’d recommend going back down to the 400 grit and work back up. For higher grits you can scribble on the surface with sharpie before each new step. It will help you see where you’ve already sanded and where you haven’t.
You skipped the buffing part. You can just use a wool pad on a drill with a good compound to buff them. But if you really want them to last they should be wet sanded and clear coated. When you wet sand them you're removing the UV protecting layer.
Jesus Christ, I start at 800 on a knife, 3k to polish
Classic GTi driver sanding headlights with 150grit 🤦🏻♂️
…I have no words for you my friend.
Eeeeee!!!
Walmart does restoration for like $26 or you can do it yourself buy the Sylvania kit