Polishing Headlights and Glass

[Dub_Star_V6]

Finally got some 'Before & Afters' boys...

Before: You can see the cloudy discolouration and pitting across the top of the plastic lens



After: not a bad effort considering it was just WD sandpaper and polish

[Dub_Star_V6]

OK, just to show you what a bit of patience and hard work can achieve, I did the headlight lenses on my Dad's Bora 2.0 today.

If I can get these results on a lens this badly weathered and discoloured, then anything's possible!

Dad's Bora. Shiny.



The Bora's headlights. Not so shiny.

Driver's side:



Passenger side:



I went for pretty much the same method, using 220 > 360 > 800 WD sandpaper, with the final pass using superfine 1500 WD emery paper.




Washed and dried, finished off with #2 cutting compound on an open weave cloth, followed by Plast-X then some light liquid polish.

Although they're not perfect, transformation would be an understatement.

[jayjay]

niiiiiiiiiiice!!! top work

[Golf Houso]

Fantastic job, I just got some Mother's plastic polish, I'll try it out on a B5 Passat over the holidays...

[DaveMack]

That's a pretty stunning achievement ... looks great.

Dave

[rayray086]

Woww!! That looks MUCH better than the before. Just wondering, can you wetsand with emery sandpaper?

[Dub_Star_V6]

Woww!! That looks MUCH better than the before. Just wondering, can you wetsand with emery sandpaper?

I did?

I actually did a very gentle first pass with 60 grit sandpaper just to loosen everything and get all the crap off the lenses. That stuff is hardcore so be careful if you intend to do it, because it'll take chunks out of the paint.

I wrapped the emery paper around a sanding block because it is so fine, and just started dry sanding. But I found that if I wet the lens (as opposed to the paper) it worked just as well. So yes, the emery paper became wet so technically I wasn't WD sanding, but still... the results speak for themselves.

I didn't think lenses that bad would turn out as well as they did?

Fantastic job, I just got some Mother's plastic polish, I'll try it out on a B5 Passat over the holidays...

Plastic polish is pretty good for any light marks or small scratches you may have, but something this caked needed some heavy duty treatment.

I found that Plast-X was great for finishing it off and buffing the lighter swirls once I'd finished sanding the h3ll out of those lenses

[rayray086]

Sorry, I only assumed you wetsanded with emery sandpaper cos of the soapy water in the pics!

[Dub_Star_V6]

You make a good point, as I actually soaked the other papers in the soapy bucket, whereas I didn't soak the emery paper.

Getting the emery paper wet didn't seem to effect the result in any way, although I'm not sure if keeping it completely dry may have made for a better result?

[DMS_Dan]

may i ask why 1500 emery paper and not say 2000 wet/dry?