Toyota Corolla Headlight Restoration by The Gloss Boss, LLC

[The Gloss Boss]

Here is a set of headlights on a Toyota Corolla I restored for a customer. This is only the second time I have done this. I used the following process.

-Cleaned headlights with Meg's APC+
-Clayed with Detailed Image clay using ONR at QD ratio as lube
-Wet sanded with 3M 1000 grit (by hand)
-Wet sanded with 3M 2000 grit (by hand)
-Wet sanded with 3M 3000 grit (by hand)
-Compounded with M105, orange pad, rotary
-Polished with PB's SSR2, white pad, rotary
-Finished with PlastX, white pad, rotary
-Protected with Detailer's Pro Series Poli-Coat Sealant

Total time: 90 minutes (includes prep and letting papers soak for 15 mins)

Here are some photos for your enjoyment. Thanks for looking!


This is what we're dealing with. I could make so much money off this in my town. Every other vehicle has headlights like this.

The tools and products I used.

The headlights after sanding.

Here is the finished product.

 

[Old Pirate]

Thank you for sharing, and yes with so many vehicles headlights looking like this one can make extra money on the side and be busy too.

 

[mrclean81]

Turned out really good. Nice job

 

[The Gloss Boss]

Thank you for sharing, and yes with so many vehicles headlights looking like this one can make extra money on the side and be busy too.

Thanks for taking a look. I totally agree. I wonder if people in my area just don't know about this option or what. I'm on a mission to make people aware.

 

[The Gloss Boss]

Turned out really good. Nice job

Thanks buddy. I order a backing plate and some 1000, 1500, and 3000 grit 3M discs to use with my PC so I can do this work quicker and better and finally get around to sanding my entire car.

 

[Rocket]

Good job

 

[mrclean81]

Thanks buddy. I order a backing plate and some 1000, 1500, and 3000 grit 3M discs to use with my PC so I can do this work quicker and better and finally get around to sanding my entire car.

Cool good luck with it. Be damn careful with the 1000 and 1500 by machine. Test a spot with the 3000 first for 2 reasons. To get a feel for the machine with the paper and new plate (its going to be alot different than using a pad), and to see how the 3000 does by itself. You may not even need much more. You done the right thing though by buying multiple grits. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best :bigups

 

[BIOLINK]

Nice work! Love it!

I just did a similar job on a TSX. Used 2000, polished, sealed with opti coat 2.0. I am anxious to see how opti coat holds up on the headlights.

 

[Garry Dean]

Very nice work. Thanks for sharing!

 

[The Gloss Boss]

Cool good luck with it. Be damn careful with the 1000 and 1500 by machine. Test a spot with the 3000 first for 2 reasons. To get a feel for the machine with the paper and new plate (its going to be alot different than using a pad), and to see how the 3000 does by itself. You may not even need much more. You done the right thing though by buying multiple grits. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best :bigups

I'll probably be visiting a salvage yard to pick up some panels to practice machine sanding. I've been pretty ballsy with trying these "aggressive" and "dangerous" correction methods, but I'm actually kind of nervous about going right on to my car or someone elses without testing it on something I don't care about first. I know that 1500 grit will level my orange peel by hand. Does sanding by machine increase the aggressiveness to where I may only need to do 3000 and get the same results?

 

[The Gloss Boss]

Very nice work. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks man!

 

[The Gloss Boss]

Good job

Thanks!

 

[The Gloss Boss]

Nice work! Love it!

I just did a similar job on a TSX. Used 2000, polished, sealed with opti coat 2.0. I am anxious to see how opti coat holds up on the headlights.

Thanks! Opti-Coat has to be better than the crummy UV "protection" that today's plastic headlights have. I'm wanting to coat my paint in it as soon as I get it wet sanded.

 

[mrclean81]

I'll probably be visiting a salvage yard to pick up some panels to practice machine sanding. I've been pretty ballsy with trying these "aggressive" and "dangerous" correction methods, but I'm actually kind of nervous about going right on to my car or someone elses without testing it on something I don't care about first. I know that 1500 grit will level my orange peel by hand. Does sanding by machine increase the aggressiveness to where I may only need to do 3000 and get the same results?

Its not that its more aggressive, but its moving a whole lot faster than it would be by hand. You can hit a high body line just for a second and be in trouble. The junk panels are a good idea. Try to find stuff thats going to give you different situations. Flat sections, curves, sharp body lines, etc.

 

[Todd@RUPES]

Great job Gloss Boss! I also love the Rosso Ferro font in your water marks, very Ferrari!

 

[Todd@RUPES]

Does sanding by machine increase the aggressiveness to where I may only need to do 3000 and get the same results?

Okay bare with me.

If the question is will 3000 grit on a machine (DA) remove as much material as 1500 grit by hand, with all relative variables being as equal as possible, the answer is no. Most DA sanding disks (particularly 3M Trizact, Meguiar's UniGrit, and Mirka 'net') are not rated like a traditional abrasive hand papers. Traditional hand papers are made by filtering particular sized abrasives through a strainer (each hole in the strainer being a uniform 'grit' size) then gluing the abrasives to a paper. With more uniform DA and hand papers the 'grit' rating is more of an approximation of how much material would be removed compared to traditional papers. I hope that makes sense.

So when you rub your hand over a traditional piece of sandpaper rated at 1500 grit you can feel tiny little abrasive grains (each one roughly the size of a 2000 grit abrasive). If you rub your hand over 1500 grit Trizact it will feel more like a puppy tongue. There are no particular sized abrasives and surface is much more uniform, but it should perform similar (in terms of material removal).

Now that I have confused everybody (including myself) let me take this a step further... Strap in.

There is a difference between cut and leveling ability. Cut is how much material is removed in a given time frame. Leveling ability is the ability to take the high spots and remove them in order to create a level surface. Let me explain.

Imagine your paint (in cross section) is like a mountain range with numerous peaks and valleys. Depending on your scale this could be applicable for swirl marks, scratches, or orange peel (which would be more like rolling hills). Since cut only defines the ability to remove material, lets place a bunch of bull dozers all over our imaginary landscape. We place them both in the peaks and valley of the mountain range. While the bulldozers are removing Earth (cutting) they are doing so equally. While the alltitude of the land is reduced, it is reduced evenly, so the terrain is unchanged. Scratches and orange peel still remain if you will.

Alternatively, lets place the bulldozers at just the peaks of the mountains. As they working downward the begin to creater a flatter, more level terrain. Scratches and orange peel are removed. Since we are using the same amount of bulldozers in each situation, we can place more on the peaks of the mountains at a give time, which causes use to not only focus all over cutting ability on just the peaks, but to focus more cutting ability as well. This is leveling.

Generally we select the cut when we select the abrasive 'grit'. It is everything else we do and all the other variables that affect leveling.

With hand sanding, using a firm sanding block will increase leveling, as the paper is less likely to contour to the 'terrain' of the paint. If you are going to remove orange peel with sanding you are going to want to use a firm sanding block and firm (not hard) pressure. Using a soft sanding block or a spongy foam interface will reduce leveling, which is benificial if you are trying to remove scratches while better preserving the finish. (Think of an OEM paint job with deep scratches, were you don't want to remove the orange peel and create a flat spot in the paint).

With DA sanding, using a hard backing plate with no interface will better level the surface. Meguiar's 1500 grit Sanding Discs are very thin and have no soft backing. However Meguiar's 1500 grit Finishing Discs have a soft backing between the abrasive material and the hook n' loop. Both discs product 1500 grit of 'cut' but the Sanding Discs are better at leveling paint quickly. Do reduce leveling with while maintaining cut, you can switch to a softer paper (like above) as well as add a foam interface pad.

I hope this helps!

:bigups

 

[The Gloss Boss]

Okay bare with me.

If the question is will 3000 grit on a machine (DA) remove as much material as 1500 grit by hand, with all relative variables being as equal as possible, the answer is no. Most DA sanding disks (particularly 3M Trizact, Meguiar's UniGrit, and Mirka 'net') are not rated like a traditional abrasive hand papers. Traditional hand papers are made by filtering particular sized abrasives through a strainer (each hole in the strainer being a uniform 'grit' size) then gluing the abrasives to a paper. With more uniform DA and hand papers the 'grit' rating is more of an approximation of how much material would be removed compared to traditional papers. I hope that makes sense.

So when you rub your hand over a traditional piece of sandpaper rated at 1500 grit you can feel tiny little abrasive grains (each one roughly the size of a 2000 grit abrasive). If you rub your hand over 1500 grit Trizact it will feel more like a puppy tongue. There are no particular sized abrasives and surface is much more uniform, but it should perform similar (in terms of material removal).

Now that I have confused everybody (including myself) let me take this a step further... Strap in.

There is a difference between cut and leveling ability. Cut is how much material is removed in a given time frame. Leveling ability is the ability to take the high spots and remove them in order to create a level surface. Let me explain.

Imagine your paint (in cross section) is like a mountain range with numerous peaks and valleys. Depending on your scale this could be applicable for swirl marks, scratches, or orange peel (which would be more like rolling hills). Since cut only defines the ability to remove material, lets place a bunch of bull dozers all over our imaginary landscape. We place them both in the peaks and valley of the mountain range. While the bulldozers are removing Earth (cutting) they are doing so equally. While the alltitude of the land is reduced, it is reduced evenly, so the terrain is unchanged. Scratches and orange peel still remain if you will.

Alternatively, lets place the bulldozers at just the peaks of the mountains. As they working downward the begin to creater a flatter, more level terrain. Scratches and orange peel are removed. Since we are using the same amount of bulldozers in each situation, we can place more on the peaks of the mountains at a give time, which causes use to not only focus all over cutting ability on just the peaks, but to focus more cutting ability as well. This is leveling.

Generally we select the cut when we select the abrasive 'grit'. It is everything else we do and all the other variables that affect leveling.

With hand sanding, using a firm sanding block will increase leveling, as the paper is less likely to contour to the 'terrain' of the paint. If you are going to remove orange peel with sanding you are going to want to use a firm sanding block and firm (not hard) pressure. Using a soft sanding block or a spongy foam interface will reduce leveling, which is benificial if you are trying to remove scratches while better preserving the finish. (Think of an OEM paint job with deep scratches, were you don't want to remove the orange peel and create a flat spot in the paint).

With DA sanding, using a hard backing plate with no interface will better level the surface. Meguiar's 1500 grit Sanding Discs are very thin and have no soft backing. However Meguiar's 1500 grit Finishing Discs have a soft backing between the abrasive material and the hook n' loop. Both discs product 1500 grit of 'cut' but the Sanding Discs are better at leveling paint quickly. Do reduce leveling with while maintaining cut, you can switch to a softer paper (like above) as well as add a foam interface pad.

I hope this helps!

:bigups

You must be a detailer based on your very thorough explanation :rofl
Thanks a lot for the insight. Nice of you to take the time to look at the work of lowly detailer like myself and then help me out with a question. It's much appreciated .

 

[Todd@RUPES]

You must be a detailer based on your very thorough explanation :rofl
Thanks a lot for the insight. Nice of you to take the time to look at the work of lowly detailer like myself and then help me out with a question. It's much appreciated .

I think I'm just extremely long winded, ask my wife...

Did my answer help or was it just mumbo-jumbo? I really need to learn how to say what I am trying to say with out stringing together random, run-on paragraphs.

We are lowly detailers with the same obsessive sickness.

 

[The Gloss Boss]

I think I'm just extremely long winded, ask my wife...

Did my answer help or was it just mumbo-jumbo? I really need to learn how to say what I am trying to say with out stringing together random, run-on paragraphs.

We are lowly detailers with the same obsessive sickness.

Yes, your answer really did help a lot in my ability to realize differences in cutting and levelling and how you get more or less of each ability. I'm in school for engineering so I appreciate these in depth explanations of how things work.:bigups