Headlight restoration

Old Jul 25, 2010 | 01:51 AM
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Headlight restoration

I restored my girlfriend's headlights this afternoon using the turtle wax headlight lens restorer. This kit works great and the headlights look way better than before. Just wanted to post this to let everyone know that the $8 turtle wax kit works just as well as the $20 meguiars kit.

before:

after lens restoring compound:

after sanding and second coat of lens restoring compound:

after:
 
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Old Jul 25, 2010 | 02:12 AM
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Damn looks good
 
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Old Jul 25, 2010 | 03:26 AM
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Nice job. The kits that include sanding as a step are the ones that will work. Sanding is what does the work.
 
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Old Jul 25, 2010 | 10:12 AM
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yeah i was surprised. it really looks better in person
 
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Old Jul 25, 2010 | 11:29 AM
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wow nice job
 
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Old Jul 27, 2010 | 04:59 PM
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I used the Meguiar's kit a couple of weeks ago on my niece's '97 Acura Integra after the Turtle Wax kit didn't work as well.

The Turtle Wax kit cleared them up somewhat, but the Meguiars kit literally made them look like new, minus a few small cracks in the passenger side low-beam. I would recommend the Meguiars kit just because it is quicker/easier to use.

If you want to save money, just buy your own polishing tip for a drill and a bottle of Meguiar's Plast-X polish. The kit consists of a tip, bottle of Plast-X, and a Microfiber cloth. It's overpriced as a kit, no doubt.
 
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Old Jul 27, 2010 | 05:35 PM
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Originally Posted by Frank S
I used the Meguiar's kit a couple of weeks ago on my niece's '97 Acura Integra after the Turtle Wax kit didn't work as well.

The Turtle Wax kit cleared them up somewhat, but the Meguiars kit literally made them look like new, minus a few small cracks in the passenger side low-beam. I would recommend the Meguiars kit just because it is quicker/easier to use.

If you want to save money, just buy your own polishing tip for a drill and a bottle of Meguiar's Plast-X polish. The kit consists of a tip, bottle of Plast-X, and a Microfiber cloth. It's overpriced as a kit, no doubt.
thats what i was planning on doing except i don't have a drill and i didn't want to buy one right now. plus anything was better than they were before lol
 
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Old Jul 27, 2010 | 08:35 PM
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That's the light duty Megs kit. The heavy duty kit that ADS puts together is much better. To do it the same way, you need sandpaper, M105 with a wool pad, PlastX with a foam pad, and a drill or rotary buffer - a DA will work too.

You can buy a usable 18 volt drill at Harbor Freight for about 25 bucks.
 
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Old Jul 30, 2010 | 01:37 PM
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Drew
thats what i was planning on doing except i don't have a drill
You don't have a drill ? I should have guessed that their was at least "1" American male out there somewhere, who didn't own a drill So now we found him

If you lived any closer, I would let you borrow one. I think we have 3 or 4 of them laying around over here

Peace,
Fish
 
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Old Jul 30, 2010 | 01:41 PM
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Hey, about head light restoration...

My original set of Hella Blackout headlights failed (surface started peeling off / crazing, after barely 1 year. I sent some photos to Hella, and they actually sent me a brand new set for free. That was cool.

So then, I decided to see if I could fix the old ones. I wet sanded them first, then used Megs 105 / 205 polish, and they came out pretty good (got rid of all of the peeling / crazing) but I did end up with some of those little grindy, swirley looking scratches where the sand paper got clogged ? Yes, I was wet sanding it too ?

I still have them laying around, and could use them in a pinch, but the replacements that Hella sent me are doing just fine a year later.

Hmmmm,
Fish
 
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Old Jul 30, 2010 | 09:44 PM
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haha yeah its on a list of things i need lol
 
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Old Jul 31, 2010 | 04:16 PM
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I have seen toothpaste and a buffer work well on headlights as well. Plus they also smell minty fresh.
 
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Old Jul 31, 2010 | 05:56 PM
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i've seen toothpaste used on scratched dvds and cds, but never on headlights. if you only had scratches and didn't have all the cloudy crap, i see no reason why it wouldn't work though
 
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Old Jul 31, 2010 | 06:54 PM
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PlastX works just as good as toothpaste - YES, on CD's/DVD's too!
 
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Old Jul 31, 2010 | 07:02 PM
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that Turtle Wax kit is pretty decent. those square scrub pads seem to do alot. worth the 8 bucks
 
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