Headlight Restoration w/ pics

My headlights on my 05 were getting worse by the day it seemed. I paid about $25 for the 3M Headlight Restoration kit. After letting the kit sit on the workbench for a month, too afraid to take sandpaper and a drill to my headlights, I finally jumped in. I took my time and they came out AWESOME. I can't believe the difference.

I didn't even read the directions. Instead I went to 3M's website and watched the YouTube video which demonstrates the process, start to finish. www.3mcarcare.com.

I snapped some pics during the process.

The kit I used:


First tape off the area around the headlight to keep from damaging the paint while sanding and buffing.


Stage One...sanding w/ the orange P500 grit disks.


End of Stage One Sanding


Stage two sanding...white P800 sanding disks


End of Stage Two Sanding


Stage three sanding...grey foam Trazact 3000 disk


End of Stage Three Sanding


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I didn't snap a pic of Stage four sanding...the orange foam buffing disk with the buffing compound.
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The headlight after all sanding and buffing are complete.


The headlight after polishing it w/ Plexus (which I use on my motorcycle windscreen).


A couple of comparison shots.





When you are done, you need to seal the headlight, and keep it sealed, with a good wax afterward to keep the headlight from hazing with time.

And I can't stress enough looking at the Youtube video for helping with the process.

 

wow night and day!

 

Looks good man I just did that for a frinds wife on a old honda.

 

I think I'm gonna try this on the windshield on my Goldwing... it's not cloudy,
but it's got a lot of very fine scratch / swirl marks.

 

Awesome. You can use this kit to restore a ton of stuff like IPhone. I used it on the dash board of an old BMW once. Worked great.

 

Huge improvement and a solid write up too. Good work bro!

 

nice work!!!!

 

+1 man great job!

 

great work!

 

that looks awesome,great write up, i have the same kit sitting in my garage for my wifes yota,guess i will get on it 2day or 2morrow. Thanks

 

Where did you get the kit at?

 

I got the kit at Autozone...but I imagine it's widely available.

 

i used a sealer from www.autogeek.com to seal the lense after polishing. supposed to be great suff! isn't it always?

 

How long did this take you to do? Awesome job!

 

For me one headlight = 2 hrs.

I'm sure I could have done it quicker...but I was being very methodical.

 

Looks great. I like to go higher on the wet sand up to as high as 2000 grit. This helps with getting out all of the deeper scratches and making the polishing that much easier.

 

$9

http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/72280/amazon.com-3m-headlight-lens-restoration-system-39008

 

how many passes with each of the disks?

 

The wet sand is higher...it's 3000 grit. You can't even feel the grit it's so fine. It seems as though it's polishing the headlight as it works.