Headlight polishing best cheapest method?

bennylava

bennylava

New member
I don't really know if you detailers do much of this. But in case you do, what is your method of polishing out headlights? You know what I mean. How those pesky automakers just can't seem to figure out how to make a headlight that won't be seriously obstructed, thereby rendering it actually somewhat dangerous in a few years. All by oxidization, or just the deterioration of its clearcoat. They turn foggy or hazy, or even completely yellow.

But there is a way to fix it, which is polishing them out. I have bought a few kits over the years to do this, and they work fine. I'd say they even work great. Problem is though, the foam pads wear out rather rapidly. Some even wear out after just polishing out a single set of headlights. And they're not cheap either. At $5 per kit, I'd probably just keep buying kits. But as I'm sure you know the inexpensive ones start at about $20.

So what materials can be purchased, and which method used, which will work on every set of headlights, and not be so expensive? I'm assuming it will go something like this, but I'm not a bodyman, and I know little of autobody. So this is just me imagining some kind of example:

Wetsanding, start with 600 grit. Then go to 1k grit. Then 1500 grit. Then 2k grit. Then 3k grit. Then, grab your buffer (or perhaps power drill?) and a small buffing pad, and some medium polishing compound. Polish them with that. Then, clean them off, and switch to a light buffing compound. Now buff them out with that. At this point, they're starting to look new again. Now, wash them off really well, and dry them well. Take some automotive exterior clear coat, and spray paint it onto the headlights. (after masking of course). Done.

So what is the real method for doing this cheaply, and effectively?
 
sometimes the entire headlight assembly can be replaced for not too much more money (depending on vehicle). a new, entire headlight aftermarket assembly for my 2000 ford f150 is about $25.00 at rockauto.com. great if you just don't have the time or energy to refinish one.
 
I use the 3" Mirka sanding discs on my rotary. Start with 500, though sometimes I don't need to go that low, and work up to 4000. Then finish off with a foam pad and rubbing compound. Only takes a few minutes, really, and you wind up with crystal clear headlights.
 
I've been able to get decent results out of compounding them with anything, 105, Sonax, Menzerna etc and coating with Dlux afterwards. I couldn't let a customer's car leave with terrible looking headlights, but I also wouldn't recommend spending the time to do a full restoration if you aren't getting paid for it.
 
I buy 3" sanding discs in bulk to save money and have 320, 400, 600, 800. 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000, and 3000 available. I normally start at 600 and work my way up, but it's nice to have the 320 and 400 for those rock hard headlights.

I use a 3 inch Griots Garage polisher with a Meguiar's 3" foam interface pad before switching to a 3 inch wool pad on a rotary with compound and a foam polishing pad with finishing polish.

The most expensive part of my setup is the headlight protection because I use any spare surface coatings I have open like CQuartz or GTechniq EXO. But I end up using so little per headlight that a single bottle of CQuartz can coat A LOT of headlights.

Of course, keep your used sanding discs as you may be able to get a few uses out of them to save even more money.

Edit: I completely agree with top189h, but the method I described above is when I'm getting paid to get the headlights perfect. If they decline getting their headlights polished, I completely skip them.
 
I get excellent results with a GG6 + 3" BP + 3" Surbuf pads + Megs 100/105 followed with 3" Tangerine + DP All In One Headlight Restoring Polish. Often follow with a good WOWA.
 
I don't do this for a living or even side income, I do my own cars. I had a 2004 TBird that for the last two years or so of ownership had fogged over headlights. A rubdown with Deep Woods OFF twice a year kept them clear. Spray down with Off, wipe off with MF towel, spray again and rub off and you're done.
 
Sanding and polishing is only doing exactly that...sanding and polishing. They will look the same in 6 months if you don't coat them. I da sand with 600 to remove all the old coating, scrub with Presta Scuff Stuff and a grey scotchbrite pad, use plastic cleaner, adhesion promoter and 2 coats of automotive clearcoat. You shouldn't have to touch them again. An inexpensive Harbor Freight mini gun is roughly $35, a gallon of clear anywhere from $75 a kit and up from there. For stuff like that I use Medallion Rubberseal 4810. It will be out of dust in 3-5 minutes and depending on activator completely dry within 20 minutes. It runs about $120 for a gallon of clear and the hardener. You could do hundreds of sets of headlights with a 5 qts of sprayable material. The initial investment would cost a little bit but compared to a lot of the other coatings out there it is cheap. With a small gun and small parts like that you wouldn't need a big compressor either.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. Can anyone recommend a decent polisher for this task? I guess it could be either electric, or air powered... not sure...

Something that doesn't cost much to replace the buffing pads and the sand paper discs. I'm thinking it would be something small too, so its not too heavy while I'm doing this. Please excuse the ignorance, like I said I'm just pretty unfamiliar with this.
 
You dont know if we detailers do this?????????????? did you try and search "headlight polishing" lol ;) you would have probably gotten 890 posts on the subject.

Now that we are here, I use the DP headlight restoring polish and protector (2 different products). Since picking that up I have only had to sand one set of headlights. I would say for 70% or more of the headlights you will do the DP polish will do it alone, no wet sanding.
 
dcjredline said:
...I use the DP headlight restoring polish and protector (2 different products). Since picking that up I have only had to sand one set of headlights. I would say for 70% or more of the headlights you will do the DP polish will do it alone, no wet sanding.
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That looks awesome. I didn't know if I dared to dream of something like that. I thought for sure that you'd need at least 3 different grits of "sanding" minimum. Even if it was in a paste or polish.

I'll give that a try.

Now onto the various pads. Again, I'm a pretty big noob to all of this. Many of you seem to distinguish pads by colors, across the board. From any manufacturer? What is that? And what is the best place to buy all sizes of pads?

I'm looking for something I can buy in bulk since they wear out fast. Is this something that you'd recommend?

20pcs 80mm 3 inch Polishing Buff Pad Kit for Car Drill Adapter 5 8" 11 Thread | eBay
 
Meguiars PlastX + fingers

Or basically any compound. There really isn't any secret to it.

But really, working PlastX into the headlight like a lotion yields great results.
 
craigdt, glad to hear this. I just bought some Megs UC (have never used it) and thought I'd try it with a mf. My headlights aren't bad, just starting to fog. Glad to see this thread, didn't really want to deal with the whole rigamarole of 3 different grits of sandpaper.
 
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