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My wife and I have owned our TL-S since 2010 or so. It's FINALLY now my daily driver, so now I have to correct the years of neglect my wife put her through! I've been a member here for years but have financially had to sit and watch the poor car get beat to death.
First up is to restore the headlights. I also got some Nokya yellow DRL bulbs that I am having a hard time installing. Anyway, I bought the 3M red kit on Amazon (red is the most hardcore but without wax) for $13. It contains a drill pad, 500/800/3000 grit sandpaper a foam pad, and a baggy of rubbing compound.
Next, the notorious center console trim. I entertained wrapping. For years I thought about how I'd wrap it in 3M Carbon. I just couldn't justify what I would do with the cheesy stock fake carbon. Wrap everything? Take all four door cards out and disassemble them to keep it all matching? This was all way too crazy for me now, so I decided to follow in rockstar143's footprints and have them color matched. I popped out the trim pieces and took them to a local body shop on Tuesday. Thursday morning and here is the beautiful result.
Next up on the list is fixing my de-chromed steering wheel emblem since milky yellow plastic is ugly. After that, my plan (whether it will happen or not) is some beefy manmeat tires and Motegi TrakLites.
Hey man...thanks for the shout!
I'm on my work laptop so I can't see imgur but I do look forward to seeing the progress you make.
I would highly recommend taking the car to the same body shop and see how much they would charge you to put a few coats of quality clear coat over the headlights now that they are cleared. Otherwise, the sun will beat the bare plastic now that you've sanded all the ugly yellow failed UV protection they came with.
lol. When you sand your headlights, you use abrasive material to take off any defects and whatever else that is on your headlights. What you have now after using an abrasive material is very fine scratches on your plastic headlights. These fine scracthes actually cloud your headlights, its because you applied some type of film over it that it looks clear. Now just because it looks clear doesn't mean the microscopic scratches arnt there. You'll be able to see the clarity difference next to a new headlight. You've also taken off the factory uv protectant layer.
Its impossible to restore headlights in my opinion. The best you can do is to take any contaminants off. But any rock dings or swirl marks, you'll just have to live with.
With my car, I ordered new headlights and apply a good uv protectant film over it so that it will never turn yellow nor will any physical damage happen. Im pretty anal with my car though.
That's actually not true at all, my friend. You so wetsand, but you progressively eliminate the scratches and swirls you introduced by sanding with the first and more aggressive paper. Then you compound it and polish and end up with bare beautiful clear perfectly smooth UNPROTECTED plastic. THEN you can decide how you keep it from ever turning yellow again.
I always thought the headlights had some magical UV protection that was part of the process of making them and once it was gone it was screwed. That's not true at all which I discovered after watching an episode of "how it's made" where I saw the manufacture process and all it was was a robotic arm that sprays clear over the lens to protect it from the sun. In my opinion, that is the best approach...sand/polish it back to beautiful, then have someone tape up and professionally put some nice thick coats of quality non fading no uv yellowing clear coat over them (not all clear coat is created equally) and you will enjoy many more years of perfect headlights. You can of course opti-seal, put 3M film over them and other different things, but you're just trying to protect that clear that's on the plastic, that's it. It's not magic, it's science.
That said...I will concede that if you go hard on them the heat from buffing and polishing and sanding too much will eventually show up in the forum of micro cracks internal to the plastic that you won't be able to disappear.
Trust me, I've been toiling over this issue for a long time and trying all sorts of different approaches that have not worked. Now, I bought a car with professionally cleared headlights that I could not tell were not brand new headlights (I thought they were, the guy I bought it from told me what they were).
welp, looks like your gonna need to order some new headlights off of ebay or something because sanding is the best way to fk up your headlights lol.
Uhhh no..
You're incorrect, I see you're new. Go around the forum and see how many members have wetsanded, polished etc etc their headlights. I've done mine when I had my TL and they come out looking new.
I still disagree. You can definitely tell a new headlight from a polished headlight especially when you use the low beams. With a polished headlight, you'll get a lite haze because of the fine layer of scratches that is on outermost layer of your headlight. With a NEW NEW headlight, there is no haze at all, the low beam comes through very cleanly.
The only way you can fix surface damage of a headlight is by melting that thing without burning and letting surface tension do the leveling.
Last edited by Steven Bell; Sep 25, 2015 at 08:51 PM.
Reason: Merge Posts
naw Tuan, you wrong player. I just think you or whoever you've had polish your headlights didn't do a good job. The process I'm describing is exactly the same idea as color sanding a fresh high end paint job properly vs a production line machine paint job coming off the assembly line. There's no magic here...it's polished down to a level where it's perfect and glistening and glossy.
Now, would I PREFER a new headlight...why yes...of course I would. But for a negligible difference or the inability to tell the difference, I wouldn't pay that much more for it.
Thanks y'all...yeah, painted interior pieces are still holding up really really well thanks to Wacker (member). I was originally afraid of hitting them with the seatbelt buckle, but so far, so good.
I will say this...maybe you just are more anal than most and only a brand new light will make you happy. That's fine and dandy...I only take exception to you coming on a forum and giving someone bad advice that is only applicable to your personal preference.
this is about as close up a high res as I have but no low beam... DSC_9542 by rock star, on Flickr
I mean, if you have to get super close and inspect for imperfections, then in my opinion...that's a bit much. I'm fine with it looking as good as it does. My S2000 is why I became a believer because I really couldn't believe they weren't new lights.
Thanks y'all...yeah, painted interior pieces are still holding up really really well thanks to Wacker (member). I was originally afraid of hitting them with the seatbelt buckle, but so far, so good.
Thanks man...and I just realized this is your build thread, I'm a total asshole for getting into the headlight debate and posting all those pictures in here. I'm sorry.
all good, man...like I said, prior to this experience, I think I might have agreed with you that a new headlight was the only way to get a nice looking front end again. I'm considering getting the TL ones cleared now because one set keeps getting foggy...and the other, I have sanded/polished to the point that they have developed those little cracks.
l Its impossible to restore headlights in my opinion. The best you can do is to take any contaminants off. But any rock dings or swirl marks, you'll just have to live with.
Anyway, update time! First off - an update photo to my headlights. Rockstar - I bought that protectant stuff to apply to the lenses each time I wash it and so far so good! Also, I'm loving the yellow DRLs.
Next - I started saving for tires and wheels. My tires are extremely bald and I have been putting off buying replacements because I planned on lowering the car and getting aftermarket wheels anyway. But with winter looming it is getting dangerous driving around on "slicks through tread wear." Here is my plan:
18x9 +35 Motegi TrakLite wheels (black)
265/35-18 tires
XLR8 ICS coilovers (street/sport) - lowered about 1.5"F 1.0"R
SPC camber kit - planning on -1.25° all around
Roll fenders if necessary.
Then I will plastidip my front grill, the lower air dam slats, and the trunk trim. I am leaving the front "A" and all rear emblems chrome.
Any opinions on my wheel size choice? I hope to be able to stuff 265s with minimal fender modification (if any at all!). I don't plan on slamming the car (only 1.5" in front) and I want a bit of camber to add better initial turn-in and go for the "functional race car" sort of look... no stance here.
Thoughts?
Last edited by LogicWavelength; Oct 30, 2015 at 07:23 AM.
naw Tuan, you wrong player. I just think you or whoever you've had polish your headlights didn't do a good job. The process I'm describing is exactly the same idea as color sanding a fresh high end paint job properly vs a production line machine paint job coming off the assembly line. There's no magic here...it's polished down to a level where it's perfect and glistening and glossy. 
DSC_9784 by rock star, on Flickr
DSC_9542 by rock star, on Flickr
DSC_8644 by rock star, on Flickr
DSC_8169 by rock star, on Flickr
