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I refinished headlights with the 3M kit and had good results, but I noticed the clear coat scratched easily. The cure is WD-40. A quick spray and wipe made the scratches disappear.
I think the best solution is that once you get them polished and cleared to have them PPF'd. Should last a few years before it starts yellowing and needs to be replaced at which time it will probably take the clear with with it and you can repolish the lights again and repeat.
If you are still seeing scratches on your lenses after using the 3M product, I would try using the following product applied with a Rupes Nano polisher. (WD40 may temporarily hide scratches, it won't remove or eliminate them.)
There are a few gotchas to polishing headlight lenses. I don't know if Porsche put's UV blocker in the plastic, bonus if they do. On most other cars, they don't. They clearcoat the lenses to protect the plastic from UV. When you use those sanding and polishing kits, you remove the clearcoat. The lenses look great for a few weeks, then they start to cloud again due to the sun attacking the plastic. I just finished a full renewal process for my TSX lenses. Sand the headlights wtih progressively smaller grits until you get to 2500. I went 600-800-1000-1500-25000. You have to remove ALL the old clearcoat or it will show cloudy streaks where it borders the underlying plastic (ask me how I know this! ). Once you get a nice even scratch with the 2500, you can shoot them with clear.
The 2K provides the UV protection you want and cures harder. There is a Youtube vid that shows the basic process (light coat, flash, medium coat, flash, heavy coat and tilt lens to horizontal so it doesn't run) but the guy is using a professional gun and product. Wtih the rattle can you just can't quite get it to flow out completely and will have to sand the orange peel back off with 2500 and then polish them back to clear. I used Menzerna for that. They look brand new now. I keep the 911 garaged and so far they haven't taken enough damage for me to justify this much effort but the TSX was good practice!
or spraying UV clearcoat can work as well. im sure some people may do both (not sure if its overkill or not)
Originally Posted by Petza914
I think the best solution is that once you get them polished and cleared to have them PPF'd. Should last a few years before it starts yellowing and needs to be replaced at which time it will probably take the clear with with it and you can repolish the lights again and repeat.
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Headlight scratch tip
). Once you get a nice even scratch with the 2500, you can shoot them with clear.
