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<p>anyone can polish...what OP is doing is going above and beyond by preventing it happening again...</p>
I didn't seal mine when I did it earlier today. I have a friend who did his car like a year ago and the lights are still clear. If after a year I gotta do it again then maybe I'll get a sheet of clear bra and cut it out - but then without wrapping the corners that will peel too. So I think I'm ok with polishing every other year unless they get super gross super quickly.
I will warn that I do think that over time, the more you polish, the heat will degrade the plastic to the point of being so thin it'll get the little cracks. I would seal them permanently ASAP. In South Florida, sanded/polished and unprotected will be yellow again within 3 months.
Also...wetsanding/polishing TOTALLY removes the oem uv coating that got sprayed on at the factory so if you've buffed, you've removed everything that was helping the cause. OP shows just the start of the wearing of the UV coat in front of the DRL bulb...once you even that out, it's totally exposed plastic.
I've researched and tested this ad nauseum because it's a big problem here and a personal pet peeve.
Hmmm...supposedly opti-seal will do the job...but I'm leery of long term, probably will slow it down to the point of not coming back if you reapply though...about $70 for that.
I'm sure the 3M stuff is great, but over the years, that'll yellow too. I did clear over the lens and didn't like how it looked, maybe I didn't buy the good stuff...who knows.
I do this blue magic headlight lens protectant...but I don't think it'll stop it forever either...I reapply every time I put tire shine on...let it bubble up while I do the tire shine, buff off.
I do this blue magic headlight lens protectant...but I don't think it'll stop it forever either...I reapply every time I put tire shine on...let it bubble up while I do the tire shine, buff off.
Oh ok! That is doable. I'll sneak it past the wife in with the rest of my car care chemicals then.
I ended up working on my girlfriends 07 TSX today. I did driver's side and here are the results:
Before:
After sanding:
After wet sanding:
After polishing:
Comparison (Sorry for blurry pic):
As you can see the left side got its pure white color back. You can clearly see the cutoff line and light is not diffused compare to the right one:
Before and after:
I will do passenger's side tomorrow. My girlfriend is currently in Europe visiting her family so I thought that I will detail her car and make it look and feel brand new :-)
Don't forget to use some kind of sealant after you wet-sand and polish it. I used Meguiar's Headlight Protectant after restoring my headlights although I just used the Meguiar's PlastX Cleaner & Polish by hand instead of wet-sanding it and there was only a slight haze a little over a year so I just cleaned and polished it by hand again but I'll have to try my DA polisher on it next time.
Did another restoration. This time it was my neighbour's car. Left one is after restoration with 3m hood bra film on it. It was as bad as the right one:
Let me know if anyone in Chicago area needs to get it done. I do this for free (you just cover the material cost - $15 for the kit and $19 for the 3m hood bra).
Hi, wanted to ask how hard is it to do the 3M clear bra after the wet sanding and polishing? Since the 3M is not precut, is it hard to do? Was thinking of Lamin-X but the 3M stuff is a lot cheaper and you get a big roll.
09-24-2015, 01:35 PM
