ChemMan

I did this last night but had difficulty posting the pictures. Just finished resizing them so hopefully they will post. I did not do a close up before picture. The picture I did post is from a few weeks ago.

I started by wet sanding with 1500 and then 2000 grit. I could have used 1200 or 1000 but the lights were just a bit hazy. I used the 3M kit last year. I also considered removing the headlights but then had to figure a way to secure them when machining. The lights will look very bad after wet sanding. Sort of a white haze over them.

Taped around the lights.

Machined with Meguires M105 and a medium cutting pad. Careful as to not get past the tape and onto the paint. Wiped clean.

Machined with Meguires M205 and another medium cutting pad. Again careful as to not get past the paint. Wiped clean.

I used a buffer and Meguires mirror glaze #7. Removed the tape and wiped everything down.

Applied a sealer. I want to give the sealer time to dry completely.

Overall, I am pleased with the results. The whole thing took about 30 minutes or so.

The compound does tend to get everywhere. I washed and waxed today.

CDLVancouver

To get basically new headlights for a 1/2 hr of work thats great!
Beautiful colour too!

Marc Gelefsky

Looks awesome!
You know what bummed me out, the chrome looking stuff seems to fade, I have one brand new light and one original that was polished out but you can see the difference in the "shiny stuff"

b8_rdc

Looks good. Just did the same this weekend.

I opted to remove from car and use a random orbial buffer w/ PlastiX polish. I think I should of wet sanded w/ 1000 grit before.

carcster88

Looks nice, I have some fogging on the inside that I can't fix.

silotwo

I did the ones one my C2 a while ago using the 3M kit with the lights removed from the car. Looks as close to new as possible. Applied the UV sealer and they still look like I just did them yesterday. I think I paid $20.00 for the kit on sale at autozone. Took my time and followed the instructions and kept thinking I was going to ruin the headlights when I first starting the sanding but it is the way to go.

Ubermensch

What sealer did you use?

fpena944

I tried doing this before but didn't get much of a result afterwards. I guess I wasn't aggressive enough but then again I don't want to mess things up too bad. I guess I'm too worried to really do this the right way.

philooo

it freaks me out, especially the sealing part, I mean how can you prevent dust from getting stuck on this unless you are in a paint booth

Ubermensch

I really didn't find the kits sold in most stores that helpful. The process described above with wetsanding at 1500 and 2000 grit produces very good results.

fpena944

When do you know when to say when?

In other words at what point do you decide it's good enough and move on to the next step?

Ubermensch

In general when I'm sanding things I always err on the side of not removing enough material. You can always go back and do it again to remove more material. The high grit papers like 1500 and 2000 really remove so little material that it's hard to do any damage. Even 2000 grit paper on a clear coat is reasonably safe. So if you're worried, you can wet sand with 2000 grit paper and then polish it. After sanding if you wipe the surface with a wet towel you can see roughly what it will look like after polishing. If you still see defects you can polish it again with 2000 or go lower to 1500. You'll probably find 1500 is required to remove most defects.

ChemMan

Blue Magic or something like that. Probably better ones on the market but I already had this on the garage shelf.

Ubermensch

Interesting. I've never seen that one before. Does it say you need to reapply it, or is it a one time application?

ChemMan

It just apply and wait to drive until the sealer was completely dry. Hence my waiting until the next day to wash-wanted to make sure it was on there good.