I just took the time to wetsand my headlights and thought I'd share the results. I highly recommend this process for anyone! I had a buddy help me out and we knocked it out in a little over an hour. I just used the DIY in the CL Info Link.

 

Great job on the wetsanding! Looks great.

 

Much better!

 

Thanks!! It was well worth the time!

 

Haha, I was just about to make this same thread since I wetsanded my headlights today also.

Before:



After:



And yes, my car needs a wash.

 

wet sanding works great. hopefully u guys didnt buff it too much because heat from that will create micro cracks in the plastic.

 

this would bring a tear in his eye if the resident hazy plastic enthusiast (noah aka ner aka hey-suse aka nf3 etc etc etc) would see this

 

You guys don't forget to put a sealant or wax over your headlights cause in the top parts of the plastic there is a UV protectant. If you don't protect the plastic the haze is just gonna come back over time.

 

Rubbing compound
2 coats of polish
2 coats of wax

 

Just needs some polish to make it really clear, and protectant as someone mentioned

 

those look phenomenal. i can haz link to process write-up?

 

Looks great man! I guess great minds think alike! LOL!


https://acurazine.com/forums/2g-cl-2001-2003-50/fresh-wash-wax-wetsanded-headlight-pics-484296/


I buffed them with Meguiar's Plast - X... Should I hit em with some wax?

 

good job...

Which UV protectant is best...?

 

I tried this, Made a total mess of EVERYTHING!!! I just bought a new headlight. I scuffed my bumper as well. I used the 3m kit that has the different grits & the pads you put in a drill.

I had white slurry all over the engine & fenders & hood cause the stuff flew EVERYWHERE when the drill hit it.

 

OUCH!! We did the sanding by hand. Used an orbital buffer to apply the Plast-X, but I did get a few scuffs on the bumper... hopefully I can buff that off.

 

Thanks for using the 'ol writeup!
Every time I wetsand my CL-s, I mask the headlights all the way around to provide atleast a 5-inch border with masking/painter's tape. Looks good, by the way!

 

Yea i used 3M Plastic Polish and then some wax. They ended up looking like new

 

I did this before, but must have been too scared to sand hard and only used a 2000 grit. This time I hand sanded w/ 1000 then 2000, and an orbital buffer for the Plast-X. And to finish I used Menzerna Final Touch Glaze and a couple coats of Blackfire Wet Diamond for protection.
Did this on my '96 TL w/ the peeling/yellow headlights and now they look new from 3 ft. away. The forum saved me some bucks again as I was just looking on Ebay for headlight covers. Will do the CL-S tomorrow.

 

wow...

 

 

In case anyone who doesn't know how to remove bumper and headlights to wetsand or clear them. Here is the most complete DIY write up on this site.

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...dlight+removal

When searching you get like 20 different threads, most have old or no pics. But reading this thread again has inspired me to finally do this. I want to remove the orange diffuser and clean up this haze that is starting to form on the top of my headlights. Good Luck to anyone else doing this it doesn't seem hard just time consuming.

 

Because of my accident, they only replaced 1 headlight. The other didn't match now. I tried to wetsand it & made complete mess, It did look better but still didn't match the new headlight on the other side. So I just bought a new headlight & replaced it myself.

 

How much is a new headlight online?

 

Oh, that's right.

Makes sense.

 

Yeah nice job....

 

dam that looks clean was grit did u use to wet sand them...?

 

x2

 

Thanks! I just used the DIY from the info post. https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=484296

Bhurlbut posted it. Read through it, but basically you use 800 grit, move up to 1000 grit then to 2000 grit. Then you need to polish it (I used Meguiar's PlastX). He's right when he says it's scary as hell at first, but it comes out fine.

Good luck!

 

I used the DIY from the TL side and just used 1000 and 2000 grit.

 

dam i never thought you would use sand paper to fix the head light..lol.. Great amazeing job you guys did..lol... so how long does this stay..? when do they get nasty lookinig again..? i was useing mothers alumium polish and that would work for a good while like 2 weeks then they head lights started to get yellow again..lol..

 

Nice job fellas!

 

yeah. i did mine and a friends. back to yellow i want to spray something on it but i don't know what.

 

from what i can see to fix that is to do the wet sading and after your done shoot some clear coat to keep them shinyy.... i think that would work. how long did they last befor they turned yellow again...?

 

So im in the middle of doing this right now... Took headlights apart to clear orange diffuser and retro fit projectors. So now im wet-sanding them and would love to know if there is any uv protectant, clear coat or whatever to help keep the lights looking new for longer after I polish and wax.
Plus all I had around was 1000 and 2000 grit, is 600 really necessary. I did have a couple of dings, chips left after hitting the first headlight with the 1000 grit. anyway just looking for some feedback.

 

dont spray clearcoat/semi-permanent protectants over the way or it will just slide/wear off eventually.

always wax last