"foggy" headlight covers
"foggy" headlight covers My recently acquired '00 B4C has the dreaded opaque headlight cover problem that can develop with high mileage cars that are also parked outside (not sure which factor is more important).
Anyway, I want to restore the headlight covers and I'm sure this topic has been covered before. I have heard there is a solution , but don't know the details. Someone please post a link to the thread. I did a search and did not find quite what I was looking for.
TIA.
Anyway, I want to restore the headlight covers and I'm sure this topic has been covered before. I have heard there is a solution , but don't know the details. Someone please post a link to the thread. I did a search and did not find quite what I was looking for.
TIA.
Wet sand with 1500 grit. Do a search for a post LS1 Sounds made about this subject. He used a stepped process. Starting with some rougher stuff and moving onto the finer grit followed by a polish. Takes a bit of work to get them right. I worked on mine for a little bit and they still look like ****. Best of luck.
Justin
Justin
On The Tree
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 108
Likes: 0
From: Ft.Lauderdale,Fl
I had this problem with my '98. I sanded the down and polished them like you will read in other post's. Like many other people I still could not get them clear enough and it annoyed me like crazy. so I went to a local auto supply store ( Bennett Auto supply) and they had a kit that they said would fix the problem. It was $28 and I was worried it wasnt going to work. I got it home and followed the three step instuctions. Basicly clean with alcohol,wet sand with 1500 grit,then apply what I think was clear coat. It was a liquid it a bottle that came with the kit...they called it something else but I cannot remember. My lights are now as clear as they ever were. I was amazed.They are like new. So go to a couple auto supply places and ask them about it. I am sure you can find it. If you have problems finding it send me a PM.....I still have some left at home and i can get the name of it for you......It's $28 but it works.
Originally Posted by My'98-Z
I had this problem with my '98. I sanded the down and polished them like you will read in other post's. Like many other people I still could not get them clear enough and it annoyed me like crazy. so I went to a local auto supply store ( Bennett Auto supply) and they had a kit that they said would fix the problem. It was $28 and I was worried it wasnt going to work. I got it home and followed the three step instuctions. Basicly clean with alcohol,wet sand with 1500 grit,then apply what I think was clear coat. It was a liquid it a bottle that came with the kit...they called it something else but I cannot remember. My lights are now as clear as they ever were. I was amazed.They are like new. So go to a couple auto supply places and ask them about it. I am sure you can find it. If you have problems finding it send me a PM.....I still have some left at home and i can get the name of it for you......It's $28 but it works.
Dude,
please respond with the name, etc. of the kit. I spent about 30 mins doing 4 repetitions of: wet sanding by hand on cover with 1500 grit, pause, clean off, polish, wipe the polish off, and then check.... it's better, but nowhere near completely clear. It either takes a lot of time or there is a better technique.
Thanks,
Todd
Chop-Foo Director
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 4,709
Likes: 0
From: Haymarket, Virginia
Originally Posted by Unforgiven1
Wet sand with 1500 grit. Do a search for a post LS1 Sounds made about this subject. He used a stepped process. Starting with some rougher stuff and moving onto the finer grit followed by a polish. Takes a bit of work to get them right. I worked on mine for a little bit and they still look like ****. Best of luck.
Justin
Justin
If you're looking for the post by Chad (ls1sounds), I think he made this post back when his name was Chili Pepper.
Here's the write-up I did on my yellow headlights...
https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearance-detailing/157192-fixed-my-yellow-cracked-headlight-today-pics.html
https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearance-detailing/157192-fixed-my-yellow-cracked-headlight-today-pics.html
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Originally Posted by LS1 Sounds
Here's the write-up I did on my yellow headlights...
https://ls1tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=157192
https://ls1tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=157192
TIA,
Justin
I actually had the same problems monitoring my progress. I took the headlight and sandpaper into the kitchen sink and kept a constant, small stream of water running over it. This kept the lens clean of debris.
My lenses were not only foggy and yellow, but they also had small cracks in the surface too. They looked almost like dry-rotting... I started off with 400 grit if I remember right since I had to level the plastic to the deepest part of the cracks that were in there. I actually had to take off quite a bit of material to get this done, but then I was left with the scratches that the 400 grit paper left behind. I then had to remove these scratches by stepping up to 800 grit, then 1500 grit, etc. This all had to be done to get the lenses smooth enough for the plastic polish to work.
If you don't have these spiderweb cracks, I would suggest starting with 800 grit paper at the most. It's coarse enough to remove the fog but not leave deeper scratches like the 400 grit did. Start with it to remove the damage, then smooth it out with progressively finer grits of sandpaper until you get to 1500 or 2000 grit. That should get the plastic surface ready for polishing.
The kit that I provided the link for does come with instructions on how to use it. If your lenses are in bad enough condition, the polish alone may not be enough to fix them without doing some sanding too..
My lenses were not only foggy and yellow, but they also had small cracks in the surface too. They looked almost like dry-rotting... I started off with 400 grit if I remember right since I had to level the plastic to the deepest part of the cracks that were in there. I actually had to take off quite a bit of material to get this done, but then I was left with the scratches that the 400 grit paper left behind. I then had to remove these scratches by stepping up to 800 grit, then 1500 grit, etc. This all had to be done to get the lenses smooth enough for the plastic polish to work.
If you don't have these spiderweb cracks, I would suggest starting with 800 grit paper at the most. It's coarse enough to remove the fog but not leave deeper scratches like the 400 grit did. Start with it to remove the damage, then smooth it out with progressively finer grits of sandpaper until you get to 1500 or 2000 grit. That should get the plastic surface ready for polishing.
The kit that I provided the link for does come with instructions on how to use it. If your lenses are in bad enough condition, the polish alone may not be enough to fix them without doing some sanding too..
mine were starting to look hazy so my brother told me about a friend of his that has a headlamp refinishing shop in Brownsville, Tx called KRYSTAL CLEAR. I called him and about 30 minutes later he showed up at my house with several different packs of sandpaper of different grits and started to work on my car. For the final step he applied two different types of paste polish on the headlamps and polished them with a Porter Cable. An hour and a half later and $60 poorer my headlamps looked like new.