matt491

Anyone have any experience with headlight lens restoration kits? My head light lens' are both fogged to hell and back. I'm looking at these two products from canadian tire.
Headlight Lens Restoration Kit | Canadian Tire

And

Bluemagic Headlight Lens Restorer | Canadian Tire

Anyone know if they're actually worth the money or should I do something else?

Thanks

_andross_

I actually didn't use one of those kits to fix my headlights. I already had some wetsand paper from when I refinished my rims. I used 600, 800, 1000 then 2000. Then I bought PlastX by Meguiars and put a couple coats of that stuff on. Lights turned out awesome.

gavin.p89

I used this one Headlight Lens Restoration Kit | Canadian Tire
Worked really well!

orthow

3m makes a kickass kit I just don't know where to get it.

Me I just used sandpaper and wetsanded from 800-2000 and topped it off with Aluminum polish.. brand new lens FTW haha

_andross_

aluminum polish? That works?

Clean95d16

agred with PlastX did my gf's Neon and does my moms contour no problem... stays for a long while too..

matt491

Okay, forgive me for being a car noob...but how exactly does one "wet sand". Is it a special sand paper? Do you have to continuously wet the surface and the sand paper? Or just dip the sand paper in a bucket of water every so often and keep it wet?

Based on what I've read and heard from people, I'll be buying that Meguiars plastx stuff tomorrow and 1500 and 2000 grit sand paper. Sand away, then plastx away.

So my two questions are how easy it is to remove the headlight housing to wet sand it (or easier to leave it in?) and how do I wet sand it.

Thanks!

31dev31

Work your way up from 400 to 1200 then 2000. Wet sanding is basically using standard sandpaper and sanding the surface with everything wet. I did headlight restoration on a Windstar headlights i had in the past, basically i had a spray bottle/garden hose and basically ran water on it while sanding it.

matt491

Really? I've spoken to quite a few people who've all said don't go below 1500 grit...

So just keep water running over the headlights and sand away? Any idea how long?

And how easy are the headlight housings to remove?

Clean95d16

wonder if wet sanding WITH plastX would work... *hm.....* im so trying that today...! ! !! ! *

Clean95d16

personally i like to use 600+ ive used 400 and its taken a bit off my light the first time... altho the first time i wasnt wetting it every 5 seconds hah. wet sanding works amazing but so does PlastX...

matt491

I will be using both tomorrow. Wet sand with 1500 and 2000 grit then using the plastx.
Only reason I probably WOULD wet sand with the plastx is because it's a thick liquid, not really watery enough to work, I would think. Besides, you'd waste SO much of it..

orthow

Wow apparently no one knows how to wetsand.. a bunch of people guessing is what we got going on in here.

To properly wetsand:

- SOAK the paper in a bucket of water for 24hrs before you start the process
- Depending on the level of pitting you might want to start lower then 1500. Mine were brutal so I started at 800 then did 1000 ->1500 -> 2000
- Use a spray bottle to constantly soak the surface you are wetsanding AND rinse your sheet of sandpaper in a bucket of clean water (lessens contamination)
- last step apply some sort of polishing agent. Everyone and there mother is going on about PlasticX stuff.. great you can pull out the obvious but if you REALLY want those soab's to be crystal clear you use an Aluminum polish. I'm not going to get into the science of it but basically I own every chemical mentioned in this thread plus some and yea BLUE MAGIC metal polish has by far been the best!
- Use a power buffer to get them really nice if you have one..next
- If you wanna retain that clear you got a couple options. You can wax the headlights and that will last a couple weeks or you can spray them with clear coat, wetsand and buff the clear coat and you will be set for a minimum of a year!

If I need to I can take pics as I put together a detailed DIY for another forum.

matt491

Don't worry about it....wouldn't want the forum to evolve anymore backwards than it already has or waste your previous time...