Headlight Restoration: A diary (photos)

T

turbovation

New member
If the mods will permit, I will periodically update this thread with before and after photos of my headlight restorations.



Updated today (5/24) with a 2000 Mercury Cougar. What I thought was going to be a simple restoration turned out to be a real bear. The plastic on this car was so hard to sand that I had to start with 600 grit. Then I worked my way all the way up to 2500 before polishing. The "bubbles" that make up the shape of the headlight only added to the technicality of the job. Overall I am satisfied with how it came out but there were a few parts that, no matter how much elbow grease and time I used, I could just not seem to sand out. I wonder if a powersander would have been a better choice? Dunno. Regardless, here are the photos. Enjoy!



Oh yah and don't forget to check out my new website



-2000 Mercury Cougar V6-



Before (passenger)

PassengerBefore.jpg




After (passenger)

PassengerAfter.jpg




Before (driver)

DriverBefore.jpg




After (driver)

DriverAfter.jpg




-2002 Mercedes ML320-



Before (passenger)

PassengerBefore-1.jpg




After (passenger)

PassengerAfter-1.jpg




Before (driver)

DriverBefore.jpg




After (driver)

DriverAfter-1.jpg




-1999 Toyota Camry-



Before (passenger)

CamryPassengerBefore.jpg




After (passenger)

CamryPassengerAfter.jpg




Before (driver)

CamryDriverBefore.jpg




After (driver)

CamryDriverAfter.jpg




-2003 Jeep Grand Cherokee-



Before (passenger)

JeepPassengerBefore.jpg




After (passenger)

JeepPassengerAfter.jpg




Before (driver)

JeepDriverBefore.jpg




After (driver)

JeepDriverAfter.jpg




-2004 Toyota Corolla SE-



Before (passenger)

CorollaPassengerBefore.jpg




After (passenger)

CorollaPassengerAfter-1.jpg




Before (driver)

CorollaDriverBefore.jpg




After (driver)

CarollaDriverAfter.jpg




-2004 Subaru WRX-



Before (passenger)

kaser035-1.jpg




After (passenger)

kaser037.jpg




Before (driver)

kaser034.jpg




After (driver)

kaser036.jpg




-1999 BMW 740IL-



Before (passenger)

CIMG2794.jpg




After (passenger)

CIMG2797.jpg




Before (driver)

CIMG2793.jpg




After (driver)

CIMG2796.jpg




-2002 Mercedes CLK320-(This vehicle was in an accident and the passenger light has a little dust on the inside that I could not fix)



Car Before

CarBefore.jpg




Car After

CarAfter.jpg




Before (passenger)

PassengerBefore.jpg




After (passenger)

PassengerAfter.jpg




Before (driver)

CIMG2800.jpg




After (driver)

DriverAfter.jpg




Thanks for looking!
 
I have a 2000 740 and yep, that is what mine look like. Tssdetailing is doing mine next month. Can't wait!
 
I'm gonna knock out the taillights on the bimmer next weekend.



In the next month I will have pictures posted of a Jeep Grand Cherokee with some serious headlight issues, a Subaru WRX with severe oxidation and one headlight of a Toyota Tacoma truck.



I will post before and after pictures of them on here and on my website.
 
Thanks Jonnyboy. Make sure you pay close attention to your sanding scratches--it's easy to overlook a few lower grit scratches that the polish and buffer won't take out.
 
good work some cars do have a softer plastic.

i did my buddys 05 altima and they where about the same as the subie and i went there with all my sand papers and before i started i tryed some megs plastix on a 4in yellow polishing pad and they came out looking perfect.

i tryed that same process on my e500 benz and i did nothing at all lol so i guess there is a big difference in the plastics.

did you find the benz harder to do?
 
So all you did was use meguiars plastix on the pad and that's all it took? How long did it take you to finish? The benz was pretty difficult. It seems like chrysler uses harder plastic than toyota. The camry I did yesterday took me an hour and was a very easy job.
 
yep just the plastix and an yellow 4in pad on my pc set to 5.

it took about 2-3 min a side.

like i said before i tryed the same thing with my benz and it did almost nothing.

and benz plastic is not chrysler its mercedes my car was made in germany well almost shure lol.

even my camaro lights(98 year) where harder to polish and when i got the camaro(5 years ago)they where really foged up and i had to wet sand those first.
 
ya ya I know it's made in Germany..at least mostly. Hey the Chrysler crossfire uses a large amount of Mercedes parts! Anyways I'm sure some lights would be easy to fix with Plastx, while some will definitely require more work.



Someone asked what I use to seal them, I have been using Klasse AIO followed by Klasse sealant glaze with a blow-dryer. I always inform my customers to wax their headlights every 4-6 months or when they have their cars detailed to prolong the life of the restoration. I don't want to get into the spray-on UV sealant until I'm out of the red.
 
I wasn't able to take pictures of the Lexus SC400 that I restored recently because I did it in a garage and the flash is screwy on my camera. It came out great though! He ended up purchasing a used driver side light off e-bay for ~200 bucks shipped...or half the cost of a new one. So in the mean time I shined up the passenger side light real nice, both interior high-beam lights and both foglights. Then the driver side light arrived so I installed it via instructions sent to me by an awesome fellow member. Then I shined it up. He said it makes his car look 10 years younger, and I agree. Because it was garaged for its whole life the paint is dang near new looking, and it's a 1992! With shiny headlights it really does make it look like a different car. I am glad it came out so good but I am bummed I could not document the progress for ya'll to see..
 
Night and day difference! I have a 2004 Chrysler Pacifica dd with headlights that are in need of some attention. Turbovation, the lights on the Jeep, was there any spider web like cracks towards the top of the lense before you refinished them? With mine, the top part of the lense looks yellowish from far away, but up close there are many of these spiderweb like scratches. I have seen the term "crazing" used to describe this. I was leaning toward replacing both of the headlights, hopefully it does not come down to that.
 
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