Tried Removing The Haze From My Headlights

[carter1551]

I bought a kit from kragen that has a few different grit sandpapers ranging from 1000 going up to 2500 in incrememnts of 500. I used the 2000 and 2500 as the haze didnt seem to bad and now my light looks even more hazy and crappy than it did before. Anyone have any solutions? Pleasseeee I need to fix this asap, it looks stupid!

 

[BlueWolfCry]

did you wet sand or dry sand?

 

[JOMO]

wetsand and rubbing compound=all better.

 

[orlandomsp]

wetsand and rubbing compound=all better.

Yup, wetsand with 2000 grit paper then move on to polishing compound and maybe headlight restorer. I did this two or three weeks ago, there's a how to on here somewhere.

 

[carter1551]

wet sand and I used a polishing compound that came with it, what does it sound like I did wrong? Do you think I should try again starting with maybe 1500 grit paper?

 

[orlandomsp]

No no no, don't go down in number, you'll make it worse. The kit you bought is probably crap. I did my lights with 2000 grit, turtle wax polishing compound, and then finished it up with blue magic headlight restorer. Really you should see a huge improvement after you go at it with polishing compound.

 

[orlandomsp]

I'll try to find my camera tomorrow and post some pics.

 

[Demoniam]

yeah start with the low number and go up. and for gods sake make sure you keep the headlight and the paper wet at all times!

I think I'm going to order some clear rock blockers and install them after I clean my headlights up.

 

[importcrazy]

anyone else hear of using toothpaste with flouride? i cant remember where i heard it but its supposed to work pretty well

 

[kudakev615]

^is that kinda like using pam cookin spray so bugs dont stick to the front of your car? but really, i need to do this myself...anybody find that link to the how-to??

 

[importcrazy]

i dont know about pam, that might eat through the paint. i think the flouride removes that layer film and also fills in some of the scratches. i believe it was on autoweek, on the goss's garage segment.

 

[carter1551]

yeah start with the low number and go up. and for gods sake make sure you keep the headlight and the paper wet at all times!

I think I'm going to order some clear rock blockers and install them after I clean my headlights up.

no i understand that I dont go down in number as i go along. Im saying maybe i should start with a lower number to begin with. Like start at 1500 instead of 2000 and then move upwards.

 

[MPMatt]

I actually tried toothpaste (non-gel) to buff out a scratch mark on my yellow P5, it was a pretty easy way to find out that it doesn't have a clear coat on it, but it actually worked alright. Toothpaste contains silica particles, just like the polishing paste but probably not a easy on the car.
To do the job right on my lights I used Meguiar's Mirror Glaze Clear Plastic Cleaner and Polish.

 

[Demoniam]

yeah, you could start at a lower grit. I personally would use nothing lower than 1000. 1000 would be for very badly scratched lenses only. going lower is just more time consuming, and risky (of putting heavier scratches on the lense.. Good Luck

 

[carter1551]

well i tried it again, doing a much more thourough job and they might look a tad bit better but no where near what i was hoping. At best it looks like it did before I started