Hello all, my 996 is in perfect condition except for scratches/checking of the headlight lenses, see pics, anyone have a good method of removing them and bringing these back to clear? hate to have to buy new lights just because of this.

Thanks

 

Should be able to polish out and clear coat.

 

Thanks for the video, taking the lights out is much easier than expected.

 

Don't forget to coat them with UV protection after you polish them. If you don't, then they will yellow very quickly.

 

I seem to take mine out once a week for some reason or other, super duper easy.

 

Thanks all. I am planning on useing the Sylvania lens cleaning kit. It includes the sand papper, buffing and polishing compounds and the UV Protectant. Was concerned about doing this with lights in car but now knowing how simple it is to remove them, feel better. Has anyone else cleaned and UV Protectent then installed the invisable film cover?, does the film add additional UV protection or just help resist scratches?

 

It should be a UV stable clear coat to help protect them for the long term.

 

What you will likely find is that you didn't sand long enough with the 800-1200 grit paper, and now you have polished scratches. It takes a long time with the 800 and 1200 grit to get all the scratches out. Use clear warm water with a few drops of liquid soap in the bucket. For me, it takes a full sheet of 800 and then another full sheet of 1200 on EACH lens to get them smooth. Then move up to 1500 and 2000 grit, and take your time. Lots of water, lots of smoothing before you go to the polish compound and the buffing wheel.

 

Will I be able to see if I got the scratches and checkering out after performing the 800 grit sanding?, hate to get to polishing just to find out I still have scratches and hate to take off any more lens than required.

 

+1

Did this to our Jetta, and that was one of the regrets - although I was as careful as I could have been. Doing it again I'd take it down to 400 and work up from there. It wasn't really my scratches I missed, it was that some of the pits and issues it had were a bit more than the 800 or 1000 I got in the kit could take care of.

 

Probably not. Most people wind up doing it twice because when they get to the polishing, they notice the scratches(or pits) are not fully removed. It's very time consuming, even though the instructions make it sound like you just wipe it a few times and you're done. You need to sand for a while. As for taking off too much material, that's pretty hard to do with 800-1200 grit wet or dry paper.

 

Nothing I see in your photos looks very deep...have you considered an abrasive polish? Polishing is much less aggressive than sanding and in most cases does not require new UV clear coat (unless you have serious yellowing).

I've used Mequiars Plast-X polish on many, many headlights. Shallow scuffing like I see in your photos usually cleans up really well.

It's quick and cheap. Might be worth a try before you take sandpaper to them

 

The checking part does not feel that deep but some of the lateral or vertical scratches can easily be felt when running your finger nail across them.