Sandpaper sheets
250 grit, 500 grit, 800 grit, 1000 grit, 1500 grit, 2000 grit
Spray bottle
Dish soap
Bucket
Microfiber cloth
Masking tape
Mothers power plastic polish
Wax ( I use Zymol wax) you can use any wax you prefer as long as it has UV protection
Orbital Buffer (Not required) highly recommended though
Here I have listed everything I used to refinish my headlights to a like new state. I started with coarse sandpaper (250 grit) for the sole reason that my headlights had major and I mean major rock chip damage. You’ll have to assess your lights and gauge how bad you think they are. 500 grit is also a good starting point. I like sanding with by hand as it gives me more control with how much I take off. It would be a lot easier to do it with say an orbital sander but it isn’t required.
Step 1
Take your spray bottle and fill it about ½ to ¾ full of water mixed with dish washer soap.
Step 2
Thoroughly clean your headlight lenses using said mixture.
Step 3
Fill up your bucket about ½ full of just plain tap water
Step 4
Depending on which grit you chose to start with. Take your sandpaper and let it soak in the bucket for about five mins. This is a good time to mask the area around each light while you wait for the paper to soak.
Step 5
Spray the lenses down again with the solution in your spray bottle. Make sure to get a good amount of water on them. Now you’ll take your sand paper 250 grit or 500 grit and just start sanding the lenses using a left to right motion. You’re gonna try and use an even amount of pressure so as to not leave sanding marks with your fingers.
Make sure you re spray the lenses every so often with your soap dish soap mixture. I look to dip my sandpaper in the bucket of water just to clean it up a bit. You’re also gonna wanna wipe down the lenses so you can see if you have gotten the rock chips out. Just take your microfiber cloth and give them a good wipe, they should have a nice and even haze in every area if you are doing it right. Any chips or scratches will be shown after you wipe them down.
I sanded with 250 grit for about 30 mins as I really wanted to get the majority of the chipping out. Again this will vary from headlights to headlights so you’ll have to decide when you wanna stop.
Step 6
When you are satisfied with how they look you’ll move on to the next grit level. So the same thing applies here. Get a nice even coating on the lights with the spray bottle mixture and start sanding again. You’re now removing the previous scratches you made with the 250 grit so you’re gonna sand until the haze you see after you wipe off gets clearer. You wanna wipe down the lights maybe every 8-10 mins of sanding.
Step 7
Now we move on to 800 grit. This is the most important step in my opinion! The more time you spend on this step the better the clarity will be at the end. Again you’ll spray down the lenses and start sanding left to right uniformly. This is the step where you’ll see the lens clear up significantly. Just to give you a time frame sort of, I sanded with 800 grit for about 45 mins.
Step 8,9,10
I bunched these steps together since you’re doing completely the same thing over and over again. The longer you sand with 1000, 1500, 2000 the best results you will have at the end. Just continue to gauge the scratches and move on to the next step of grit after you see you have taken out the scratches from the previous step. When you’re done with 2000 grit your light should be close to clear. There will still be a slight haze but we’ll get that out with the polish.
Step 10
This is where you’ll see your lenses come back to life. The polish I used was mother’s power plastic polish and it works amazingly. I tried plastx but it didn’t even come close to bringing out the shine like the mother’s did. I used an orbital buffer! One isn’t necessary but you’ll save you’re self a lot of work and you’ll get a much greater shine. I started with the polisher attachment and made an X shape on the pad with the mother’s formula. Now just start polishing, make sure you hit every area on the lens.
Step 11
After polishing now you’re gonna buff off the compound and give it a nice shine. I used my buffing attachment and just really put some elbow grease into it. NOTE: You can repeat steps 10 and 11 as many times as you would like to achieve a greater shine
Step 12
After you’re satisfied with the shine just lather both lenses with your choice of UV protective wax and you’re done.
Note : Many people note that sanding off the initial UV coating on the lights could have adverse affect but I have never experienced anything of the sort. I have done many lenses this same way. I have even done a set of B6 S4 Bi-xenon Ecodes and are still shining to this day on the new owners car.
Before
After
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Originally Posted by rongeur
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