What's up everyone. I need some help on a car that I'm working on right now. What grit(s) of sandpaper do you suggest and what polish should I finish off with? I've only got the 6.5" inch pads in every color and 105/205. Thanks for the help.
I've never used coarser than 1000 grit on any paint or plastic. But my experience with wetsanding headlights is very limited. I've only done 3 sets.
On my personal car they were so bad I started with 400, 600, 1500, 2000, and then 1z IP.... but that was only because they were really bad... I did a repair on a friends where I started with 320 on a DA to get them level... so really you can't go too course..
Depends on how bad they are really. Sometimes you can get away with just compounding them and then polishing them up. But if you think you have to sand them I usually go 2500 then step in down to 1500 then compound and polish.
Sorry guys, I guess it would have helped you more if you had a picture to look at. This is the way they currently are. This car was pretty bad. I spent most of the day just cleaning the inside and engine bay! She's going to bring the car back so that I can finish it. I'll tackle the headlights then.
Well, here is the finished product. I started off with 800, then 1500 and then 2000 grit sand paper. After sanding they were then polished using an orange pad/105 and then white/205. She was pretty happy with them.
nice work! Somebody today just asked to do a set that looks as bad as those did. Will have to try the 105 on them for sure! Thanks for posting this up! Any tips on wetsanding? I have never wetsanded before!
Came out looking great. This is one reason I put Venture Shield PPF on my headlights the day I brought my car home so the headlights would not pit. Its been 3 years and I just recently replaced the PPF just because I had some left and wanted to clean it up. Headlights still look new. I would advice anyone who gets a new car or after buffing the lights to apply PPF to them to protect them from further oxidation and pitting.
This was my first time wetsanding and no matter how many times I've seen videos of it being done and telling myself that it couldn't be that hard, I was extremely nervous. There were several things that I found that helped me alot. One was to use lots and lots of water as I sanded. Two, was to tape of the painted areas around the lights. One discovery I made was that the green low tack tape I used came off because of all the water that got under it. Next time I'll use something with more tack. Another thing I found useful was to use a backing pad for the sandpaper and keep my strokes in a horizontal direction. Oh, and last, not to use 3M sandpaper. Not because it was a bad brand, but because it did not fit well with my Meguiar's backing pad. Next time I'll get some Meg's sandpaper. All in all, it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. Thanks for the compliments, everyone. After seeing some of the work posted on this site I was a little nervous posting mine. Thanks for taking it easy on me.
You can get paint protection film from many places that is sutable to be placed on headlights. You have two basic options: 1. Pre-cut film that you just have to place on the lens. Pretty basic, start at one end and stretch the film to fit the headlight shape 2. Bulk sheet were you place the film over the light and trim to fit Depending on how good you are is what you will pick. I have found that pre-cut works pretty well for headlights, at least the ones I have worked on and done. If you can find a place that is local that does paint protection film they should do it for pretty cheap, ~$30-40. You can do it yourself by buying bulk or pre cut film. Let me know which type of application you would rather do and I can suggest some sites.
I want to buy some bulk film.... I want to use some on some other spots on my car and a few other cars in the family.
