Ok, so over the weekend I bought the 3m Headlight restorer kit. Followed the directions pretty well, or so I thought, and my headlights are even more foggy.

Has anyone had any experience... good or bad... trying to restor their G35 headlights?

Thanks

 

Plenty - Search it up in the Detailing section. You should get very good results from that kit.

 

Make sure the problem isn't inside

 

you probably just need to sand with a higher grade now and polish it a couple more times. On rare occasions you will have a the problem on the inside of the lights.

 

Here's how I did mine:

1.) Clean with a good glass cleaner
2.) Buff with a foam pad and a good plastic polish.
3.) Wipe off excess polish and clean again with glass cleaner and make sure there is no more haze or yellowing on the lenses.
4.) Immediately put on a clear vinyl barrier.



The reason why these lights yellow and fog is because the lens's UV coating is failing. Polishing the plastic gets rid of the cloudiness, but removes even MORE of the UV coating.

Get a vinyl barrier from either 3M or Avery with a UV protector. Otherwise, you'll be buffing your headlights all over again in a matter of months.

 

And if you don't have a power polisher you will have to scrub like a **** with that 3M kit to get good results. Wipe on/wipe off won't cut it.

 

Plastix make save you from using sandpaper.

 

I use toothpaste and a power buffer, use whitening toothpaste its gritty, worked great for me, there are a bunch of DIY vids using toothpaste on youtube check them out

 

... you were spot on... I bought some Plastx last night with my power polisher... and was patient... had to do it for a while, and it finally looks awesome.

 

^^ Well post pics, dammit!! hahaha!

 

hmm, dude you use the Polishing pad with the 3m polish they had in there?

 

Gliptone 3 stage polish with a ball or pad on a drill. Put my terribly yellow hazed '04 lights to brand new. Are you located anywhere near Maryland? I could easily get it done for you for cheap. We've done about 4 sets of headlights with it, works great everytime.

 

how thick of a sheet of vinyl in mils?

 

PlastX + several coats of wax keeps my headlights looking crystal clear

 

I restored one of my old headlights in january. Here are the steps I took.

First, I tried the 3m kit you're using. Didn't work to my satisfaction.

first:
clean headlights w/ soap and water

wetsand with 1000 grit up and down, periodically cleaning and lubricating the surface with soapy water
1500 grit side to side
2000 grit up and down
2500 grit side to side
3000 grit up and down.

THEN use the 3m rubbing compound with the drill sponge attachment thing
THEN use Plastx with a random orbit rotary buffer.
THEN while you're waxing your car, throw some wax on the headlight.

hmm... i wonder which headlight was restored...