Pure Adrenaline

iTrader: (2)

When I read this thread and saw pictures of the refinished headlights here, I thought "man, that looks easy. Why did it take him hours?"

I had to do some sanding around the house today, and I saw that I had some 2000 grit sandpaper left over, so I got the brilliant idea to attempt this project. Mind you, this was an "of-the-moment" thing, and without thinking any further, I just grabbed a hose and started sanding away.

After about 20 minutes, I realized that it was harder than I thought... much harder. My fingers were hurting, and the thought of the possibility of screwing up the expensive headlight housing started setting in. That's a scary thought, by the way. I'm confident when it comes to mechanical stuff, but I had a renewed experience of the newbie feeling... ya know "Am I doing this right? I hope I'm not fucking this up."

I thought it was enough sanding for that, and grabbed the Turtle Wax Rubbing Compound. I grabbed a towel and started rubbing it in. My fingers were still hurting, well, even worse now.

"WTF, how did mr.motoring do this?" So I ran back into the house and looked it up. "orbital buffer" he said. "WTF, he didn't say that last time I read the thread!!"

Run a quick search online and found out that a Mother's PowerBall and 3M Plastic Polish are pretty effective when it comes to recondition plastic stuff like the headlight housing.

Run to the local auto parts store, spend 30 bucks and run back. Bottom out on a raised manhole on the way back, uttering curse words.

Long story short, it still didn't work out too well. There was a few spots where I rubbed/scratched it with my fingernails, and I guess the Plastic Polish just covered over that. At that point, I just said screw it and put it off 'til tomorrow. I'm gonna redo it with the rubbing compound and the Powerball to clean up the surface a little better, then finish off with the Plastic Polish.

So that was my day... hopefully I will have some pictures of clean, refinished housings tomorrow.

PenancE

ur lucky, last time i bottomed out on a raised man hole i had a hole in my header downpipe, and frame damage lol

Rpappi

sorry to hear that. good luck tommorrow.

derrick

PA -- you're almost as bad as I am ... READ the whole thread! Good luck on the headlights. Were they really that cloudy? Last time I saw them in April, they looked fine.

Pure Adrenaline

iTrader: (2)

Well, they are okay. It's just that they are pitted. It feels rough when you slide your hand over the surface. That bothered me.

Lawaia

Save yourself from those hurting fingers and give THIS a try. I've been using this for years and have never been disappointed with the results.

fsttyms1

Im sorry rob that sounds like something that would happen to me. Let me know if you get it polished out or not. I can send you or recomend you some stuff that ive used in the past that works really well.