Sorta screwed the pooch on my headlights

4

454Casull

New member
I picked up some 1000, 1500, and 2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper with some PlastX to polish up my headlights. My headlights have lots of tiny dings from rock chips and I wasn't getting anywhere fast with 1000 grit, so I decided to use some 400 I had laying around. Worked fast enough... but it would've probably taken me an hour of hand-sanding just to take out the marks from the 400 using the 1000 grit. What are my options? PC+yellow pad+M105, or even more aggressive?
 
My general rule of thumb using sandpapers below 1000grit is, you can always double it to take the scratches out. In your case, 800 will remove your 400 grit scratches. From there, you can possibly get away with 1500 after 800 on plastic and be fine. From 2000, I would hit it with 3000 and it should polish out a whole lot easier.
 
rcrobbins said:
My general rule of thumb using sandpapers below 1000grit is, you can always double it to take the scratches out. In your case, 800 will remove your 400 grit scratches. From there, you can possibly get away with 1500 after 800 on plastic and be fine. From 2000, I would hit it with 3000 and it should polish out a whole lot easier.
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+1



Whenever you're using sandpaper, it's always best to remove the previous scratches by doubling the grit.



It's easiest to tell when you've removed the previous grit's scratches by making your new sanding marks 90 degrees to your previous ones... so if you sanded horizontally with your previous grit, sand vertically with the next paper. Then when all the horizontal marks are gone (all you can see are vertical ones) you're there. Time to double the grit, sand horizontal til the vertical ones are gone, and keep doing this till you've hit at least 2000 grit. I'd go to 3k or 4k grit before reaching for the M105 and a buffer, though.
 
Yes... what I'm saying is that it's going to take me forever. I'm going to pick up some 600 and 800 grit and give it a shot, but I wish there was an easier solution. Maybe a palm sander...
 
If you can remove your headlight easily, you can sand with a D.A. dry 800 or 1000 grit, then wetsand afterwards with a block.



John
 
Yeah take the headlights out and do it on a bench with a DA, much faster. On the other hand if you'd just been patient in the beginning you probably wouldn't be in this mess ;)
 
Most D.A.'s have a velcro backing plate. If you use a 3M backing plate, then you're pretty much stuck using their sandpaper.



John
 
You could probably use an actual DA sander, as opposed to your PC polisher. Autobody suppliers will have rolls of sticky backed sanding discs ranging up to very high grits.



I have one like this



2008311171941.jpg




This is the paper your can find from autobody suppliers



18528_300.jpg
 
jono20 said:
You could probably use an actual DA sander, as opposed to your PC polisher...
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While it's not quite the same as an air-powered DA, keep in mind that the original PC (7424/7336) *is* a sander, we just stretch its envelope a little by polishing vehicles with it. Didn't want 454CAsull running out to buy a sander he doesn't need.



454Casull said:
How to attach sandpaper to the DA?
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Adhesive-backed sandpaper should stick to the PC's backing plate well enough to do this job.



I think you might oughta resign yourself to this taking a fairly long time no matter how you do it ;)
 
Not to worry. The comments above should put you back on track very quickly.



I did my daughters Grand-Am the other day and the plastic was so yellowed I started off with 400 myself. I blocked it out using a flexible pad and water. Once I go through the major crap I switched to 800, then 1500. From here I used Meguiar's M105 and an orange pad. Plastic X was the final chemical I used. I probably could have used M205 or finer but they came out pretty decent so I stopped here.
 
Well, I ended up toughing it out with the 400 -> 1000, though judging from the ease of 1000 -> 1500 -> 2000, I should've probably got some 600 or 800 in between. Didn't turn out too bad, but I found out that PlastX, while a great product in itself, doesn't do a great job on 2000. Probably would've netted perfect results at 2500 or more likely 3000, but I don't feel too bad. It's a temporary measure while I get some more M105/205.



At that point, I can also take care of the hazing that happened near the tape edges.
 
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