Plastx Made A Mess on My Headlights
#17
FYI... Headlights are not just plastic, they have a coating on them. If you sand off that coating you will have issues. It is possible polish the under layers of plastic but it wont ever look as good as having that original coating on your lenses.
About all i will ever do to my headlights is use scratchx as directed. Taking a buffer or trying to wetsand them is very risky and will be almost impossible to get them looking like new.
i have seen some of the re manufactured headlights. I had to reject about 3 of them. They have lots of small scratches on the inner lense where they try to buff them and clear them up.. it never looks as good as the originals.
They looked 'ok' just in normal light in a room.. but if you turn the headlights on and step back so that they are pointed at you.. their is a huge difference between buffed/sanded and new lenses.
About all i will ever do to my headlights is use scratchx as directed. Taking a buffer or trying to wetsand them is very risky and will be almost impossible to get them looking like new.
i have seen some of the re manufactured headlights. I had to reject about 3 of them. They have lots of small scratches on the inner lense where they try to buff them and clear them up.. it never looks as good as the originals.
They looked 'ok' just in normal light in a room.. but if you turn the headlights on and step back so that they are pointed at you.. their is a huge difference between buffed/sanded and new lenses.
#18
Originally Posted by Konsole
FYI... Headlights are not just plastic, they have a coating on them. If you sand off that coating you will have issues. It is possible polish the under layers of plastic but it wont ever look as good as having that original coating on your lenses.
About all i will ever do to my headlights is use scratchx as directed. Taking a buffer or trying to wetsand them is very risky and will be almost impossible to get them looking like new.
i have seen some of the re manufactured headlights. I had to reject about 3 of them. They have lots of small scratches on the inner lense where they try to buff them and clear them up.. it never looks as good as the originals.
They looked 'ok' just in normal light in a room.. but if you turn the headlights on and step back so that they are pointed at you.. their is a huge difference between buffed/sanded and new lenses.
About all i will ever do to my headlights is use scratchx as directed. Taking a buffer or trying to wetsand them is very risky and will be almost impossible to get them looking like new.
i have seen some of the re manufactured headlights. I had to reject about 3 of them. They have lots of small scratches on the inner lense where they try to buff them and clear them up.. it never looks as good as the originals.
They looked 'ok' just in normal light in a room.. but if you turn the headlights on and step back so that they are pointed at you.. their is a huge difference between buffed/sanded and new lenses.
#20
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Originally Posted by Konsole
FYI... Headlights are not just plastic, they have a coating on them. If you sand off that coating you will have issues. It is possible polish the under layers of plastic but it wont ever look as good as having that original coating on your lenses.
About all i will ever do to my headlights is use scratchx as directed. Taking a buffer or trying to wetsand them is very risky and will be almost impossible to get them looking like new.
i have seen some of the re manufactured headlights. I had to reject about 3 of them. They have lots of small scratches on the inner lense where they try to buff them and clear them up.. it never looks as good as the originals.
They looked 'ok' just in normal light in a room.. but if you turn the headlights on and step back so that they are pointed at you.. their is a huge difference between buffed/sanded and new lenses.
About all i will ever do to my headlights is use scratchx as directed. Taking a buffer or trying to wetsand them is very risky and will be almost impossible to get them looking like new.
i have seen some of the re manufactured headlights. I had to reject about 3 of them. They have lots of small scratches on the inner lense where they try to buff them and clear them up.. it never looks as good as the originals.
They looked 'ok' just in normal light in a room.. but if you turn the headlights on and step back so that they are pointed at you.. their is a huge difference between buffed/sanded and new lenses.
#22
Originally Posted by mchamps
new headlights (non projector) aren't that much. you should look into it.
I have a bumper to bumper warranty you hear of anyone tryna get the dealer to replace them.
#24
#25
#26
Fellaz PROBLEM SOLVED!!!
SO I'm driving my G tonight on my way to pick up my new fling, which by the way is an older woman and I am loving it, anyways, I see a detail shop waxing a minivan, bear in mind it's like 8:30pm, so anyways I pull up to the garage entrance just to ask the guy some advice on getting this gunk off, he says gimme a sec, he pulls out a mustard squeeze bottle(literally) puts yellow stuff all over my headlights, grabs a buffer and goes at it, MY LIGHTS ARE FREACKING CRYSTAL CLEAR.
Also note, he said that he's done so many G's and that were all better off paying like 10-15 bucks to have this done, he didn't even charge me, but said sanding headlights is not the best idea, he said chemicals and mixtures plus some buffing can rid of any scratches mildew, or fog. Just a word of advice so others can avoid this situation, I know I probably made a lot of mistakes in the way I did it, but doesnt this seem so much easier, I mean it's cheaper then buying Plastx and sand paper, and microfiber paper.
ANyways, thanks a lot guys for all the advice, this was a close one.
SO I'm driving my G tonight on my way to pick up my new fling, which by the way is an older woman and I am loving it, anyways, I see a detail shop waxing a minivan, bear in mind it's like 8:30pm, so anyways I pull up to the garage entrance just to ask the guy some advice on getting this gunk off, he says gimme a sec, he pulls out a mustard squeeze bottle(literally) puts yellow stuff all over my headlights, grabs a buffer and goes at it, MY LIGHTS ARE FREACKING CRYSTAL CLEAR.
Also note, he said that he's done so many G's and that were all better off paying like 10-15 bucks to have this done, he didn't even charge me, but said sanding headlights is not the best idea, he said chemicals and mixtures plus some buffing can rid of any scratches mildew, or fog. Just a word of advice so others can avoid this situation, I know I probably made a lot of mistakes in the way I did it, but doesnt this seem so much easier, I mean it's cheaper then buying Plastx and sand paper, and microfiber paper.
ANyways, thanks a lot guys for all the advice, this was a close one.
Last edited by 3Point5Sedan; 03-25-2008 at 12:32 AM.
#28
Originally Posted by X-Vert
Uhhh... I think your first mistake was to use 1000 grid sandpaper, thats wayyyy to rough. I use 2000 grid, it frosts the hell out of the headlight, then use polishing compound to get rid of it. Take some pictures...
The product in the mustard bottle was probably just any abrasive clear coat polish that could remove 1000 grit sand paper marks, nothing special. A skilled detailer who knows the proper technique with a buffer and has the proper polish shouldn't have any problem removing the marks.
#29
Originally Posted by Detailed Image
This hit the nail on the head. PlasticX certainly cannot remove 1000 grit sand paper marks. It's a pretty mild polish and 1000 grit is way too aggressive to remove with that product. You should have followed up with 1500 grit, then 2000 grit, then 2500 if you had that available, then polish with PlasticX or even another more aggressive polish and finish with PlasticX.
The product in the mustard bottle was probably just any abrasive clear coat polish that could remove 1000 grit sand paper marks, nothing special. A skilled detailer who knows the proper technique with a buffer and has the proper polish shouldn't have any problem removing the marks.
The product in the mustard bottle was probably just any abrasive clear coat polish that could remove 1000 grit sand paper marks, nothing special. A skilled detailer who knows the proper technique with a buffer and has the proper polish shouldn't have any problem removing the marks.
#30
Originally Posted by 3Point5Sedan
Yeah I know I screwed up, lol, now my question is, can they get even clearer?? Should I start thinking about taking them off to polish them from the inside?