Rep Power: 450

STEP: 1
tape off around the headlight so you dont sand your precious paint job





STEP: 2
wetsand the headlight
(use 800 grit if the lens is really bad)
(use 1000 grit if lens has normal issues)





STEP: 3
wipe headlight dry





STEP: 4
wetsand the headlight
(use 1000 grit if your first sanding was 800 grit, then move on to 2000 grit)
(use 2000 grit if your first sanding was 1000 grit)





STEP: 5
wipe headlight dry





STEP: 6
buff headlight using plastic polish/cleaner
(i used a drill attachment to speed the process)





FINAL RESULTS:

 
Rep Power: 395

sweeeeeet

 
Rep Power: 260

the headlight in the first pic didnt look like it needed to be recondition but damn urs came out real nice and smooth...last time i try mine came out shitty and u can still see some scratches lol

 
Rep Power: 0

looks good man, and yeah, the headlight in the first picture doesn't even look that bad?

I think I'm going to have to do this sometime this week.

 
Rep Power: 289

Another way you can do this same thing to your headlights, I've done it before on a different car, you can sand everything like you did, then just spray a clear coat over the whole thing, it comes out crystal clear.

Slowwitecivic, you might see scratches because you didn't use a fine enough grain, or you didn't sand enough. those would be my guesses.

 
Rep Power: 235

Don't sand or buff too hard or you have the chance of warping the lens which in turn would make the light come out the lens the wrong way.. or create 'grooves' in the lens.

 
Rep Power: 0

should you sand more with the higher grit, rather then more with the lower grit?

 
Rep Power: 450

true, but im very picky and after seeing some of the fine scratches starting to appear, it was time...also, the passenger side was yellowing due to the way the sun hits it when i park at work.


what grit levels were you using? you may need to go lower and then work your way up to 2000 or higher.

 
Rep Power: 450

The more you sand with the lower grits, the more "layers" come off. It may be necessary to sand longer with the lower grits if your lens is deeply pitted. Just make sure that you sand the whole lens evenly and work your way through the higher grits. The lens should be very smooth right before you start to polish.

 
Rep Power: 813

make sure you seal it to protect what you did using a clear plastic sealer.

 
Rep Power: 226

That is pretty similar to what I did, but I started with 1500 then moved to 2000. I also used Menzerna intensive polish via rotary on a megs burgundy pad, menzerna final polish via porter cable on a megs yellow pad, then plastic x via porter cable on a LC ccs white pad. It came out perfect. The only reason I went that in depth is because I detail cars as my job.

 
Rep Power: 231

I just wet sanded mine and then cleared them....it looks so nice. But nice job falken.

 
Rep Power: 260

i think im gona have try this again lol..im gona try to move up to 2000 grits

 
Rep Power: 261

x2 or you can wait about a month and watch it go back to how it looked before.

 
Rep Power: 258

where can you pick up plastic sealer

 
Rep Power: 813

wolfgang clear plastic sealer. i use it on my lights every month or so. it beads water and protects from sun. very good for $40 the big bottle is worth it. i still have mine for over two years its still not empty. hmm cargeek used to sell but i cant figure out what the site url is

 
Rep Power: 258

thx i will do some searchin'

are you thinking of autogeek.net?
they have almost all of the wolfgangs products in bulk except for the sealant...go figure

 
Rep Power: 813

yeah autogeek is where i bought mine a while back.

 
Rep Power: 258

so i did this and they did not turn out very good
what buffer/polisher thingy did you use?
I used the mothers red foam ball thing

 
Rep Power: 813

use turtle wax rubbing compound before doing the final polish like scratchx or plastx.

 
Rep Power: 321

I used to do a lot of auto body work and the easiest thing we used and the cheapest was the mothers clearcoat polish...the ultra fine stuff...its like $10 a bottle but it works the best in my opinion

 
Rep Power: 301

Looks good, now do my windshield

 
Rep Power: 258

I have officially failed at this and am about to throw my headlights away. I followed the steps and i can not get them clear again.

 
Rep Power: 256

^^ what did you do wrong? i just did it and it came out fine! .. you probably didnt let enough water under the headlight while you were sanding. i used a sponge to squeeze on top of the area i was sanding [while sanding] to have water constantly fall under the sandpaper so it never gets dry. so sponge in one hand and sandpaper in the other for laymans terms. the most important thing is the final grade of sanding. i probably sanded with 2000 grit for 10 minutes on each headlight just to make sure everything was smoothened out then used the plastix and it came out very nice. the outside of the headlight is flawless now but the inside is kinna messed up for some reason. just redo the final grade sandpaper sniper and make sure there is always water under the sandpaper!

 
Rep Power: 813

is it smooth? you need rubbing compound to smoothen the plastic and then you can go ahead with the plast-x to polish it up to clear. dont worry they cant be ruined and you have tons of plastic left to mess with lol. if you are lazy get an orbital polisher for the last two things to put on. it will shine up dont worry.

 
Rep Power: 258

i sanded with 2000 for a long time and i know to keep it very wet. it seems to be extremely smooth before i polish...i am using polishing compound and then plastx.

it pisses me off cause i am normally good with this sort of stuff.

i am starting off with 600 then 800 then 1000 then 1500 then 2000

 
Rep Power: 235

shoulda stuck with 1000-2000. 600 is way to hard unless your sanding off eyelid paste :X

 
Rep Power: 256

i actually used 400 to start off with so it should be fine. as long as you sanded all the grades of sandpaper very well it wouldnt be a problem.

 
Rep Power: 258

maybe that is my problem... i should go longer with say 800 and 1000

 
Rep Power: 0

is it just me or is the finish product looks kinda filmy and unclear?