Shahano

My front lights have many many chips due to driving close to people in front of me on dirty track roads...
What to do? Looked for a new lens, but you can only buy the whole housing.

Can I polish the light?

ZZinger

3M makes a "headlight restoration kit" that works well for this.

sccchiii

Same here, nothing can be done other than new lenses. Someone needs to make track shields for light assemblies as mine get hammered. At this point my lights look like I driven directly behind the rear wheels of a 18 wheeler for all 2500 track miles

sccchiii

Have you used it? A guy at track with GT3 used a "repair kit" (don't know if it was 3M) to remedy the chips and it caused his lens assemblies to delaminate shortly after use so he had to replace both of them?

STG

The UV coating which also happens to be the gloss on the lenses is very thin. Any sort of polishing that layer down has the potential to cause more damage than you're trying to fix

LED headlight housings are ALOT more expensive to replace than the PDLS's.

Shahano

My headlights look like they have been used for 2 years although my car has 2400 miles on it only...
I was told not to put a film on the headlights like I did for the rest of my car due to delamination.

Can someone please tell me what delamination is and why it would make more damage if I use the polishing kit to the lights.
Its driving me nuts.

Shahano

This pic is my car with only 2300 miles and new housings costs 4K.. Just doesnt make sense.

NateOZ

I'm not sure that's rock chips unless you drive behind quarry trucks all the time? It might be damage from whatever you're cleaning them with.

bigkraig

looks like he drove through a sand storm

hfm

My whole car is wrapped, including the lights. When I came to the delamination issue, where the factory UV film cracks and leaves a bad surface when clear bra film is removed in the future, I had a decision to make. I saw another GT3 that didn't have it's lenses wrapped and a big chip in that one made my decision to wrap. My clear bra man, Moe with GP, also indicated when the film needs to be pulled, that the delamination of the UV coating can be removed by polishing and a new wrap, with UV coating can be reapplied.

Judging from what you have, I'd suggest going to a very reputable body shop guy, ask if he thinks he can polish it out and what guarantee he's willing to offer to stand behind his workmanship given the healights are $4k to replace. If you can get somekind of guarantee, I'd get the chips buffed out and I'd wrap thereafter. Hope that helps.

Dan (is very happy the car is bubble wrapped)

mwar99

+1 - same comment my guy made to me, a removal of the coating if it started to de-laminate and an application of a new one.

Dr. G

Can you clarify the part about removal of the film causing UV delamination? Does removal of the film always result in the UV coating needing to be replaced?

NateOZ

I still think they've been cleaned with an ammonia containing product (like windex) that's started to pull the UV coating off - mine were perfect unwrapped after 2000 miles, including winter driving behind some salt trucks etc when I got caught in a snow storm. It's still going to feel like they're pitted as it is corroding the coating.

ZZinger

My car has 2300 miles and I have no rash on my lights at all. Where the hell are you guys driving!

hfm

There are multiple threads on the subject if you do an advanced search keying "delamination." The short answer is yes, although I've heard some good clear bra guys have pulled off film without delamination. Better plan on the worst. It's a quasi-hard UV film that cracks when clear bra film is pulled off of it. Here is a picture of Kraig's delamination:

https://rennlist.com/forums/991-gt3-...l#post11727194

In that thread, I was planning to keep the film off and it was only later in time when I changed my mind and decided the film was necessary. By the way, to OP, while doing a search for the above, I noted this:

https://rennlist.com/forums/991-gt3-...eadlights.html

Back in June I recommended putting on film at that time. I looks like three months later, it turns out you might have been better off putting on the film as suggested.

Dan (hates to say I told you so but....)