Cleaning Headlamps

[wbuxton]

Can't type dew to the dew spew!

[mopwrforme]

hell i havent seen my wifes headlights in 6 month. all togeather know aaaaaaa,

[mopwrforme]

wow maybe i should look at the dates on the posts before i reply just a tad bit late.

[liljoe]

hell i havent seen my wifes headlights in 6 month. all togeather know aaaaaaa,

I ordered a new set of lamps for the bosses wifes van and when they came in I texted him that I had his wifes headlights in my hands, he texted back, "have fun"

[mopwrforme]

o boy

[jbadenoch]

thinking about getting into cleaning here but see nothing in these posts about the clear coat. Is this the same clear coat for paint or is there a special one for plastic? 3m kit says nothing about clear coat. Curious in sc

[jbadenoch]

just found out napa has same 600 dollar kit for 300 dollars. same 3m part #

[steven kiser]

i got mine through car quest. there is nothing said about clear coating. one of my tenants in a body shop and he had mentioned about the clear coat. he claims he just sands them by hand and clear coat them. well, i clear coated a set when i was finished polishing them. i almost died right there. they fogged right out. it reminded me of spraying carb cleaner on plastic. i freaked out, they went right to gray. after a while it started to fade away and after about a 1/2 hour looked like glass, best i had seen. i do it all the time now. a rattle can works just fine. it's kind of funny that this post was made active again. i had a jeep in here yesterday and the head lamps looked like they were sand blasted. i read in a previous post about before and after lamps. about a month ago we shipped a jeep to the great beyond and i took out the head lamps. i was going to do a one to one comparison but i did a 1/2 polished and the other side left alone. i sold the job.

[jbadenoch]

Hmmmm. Ok playing with test lens and it looked great after cleaning. Used spray can of clear acrylic laquer for a clear coat. No fogging when applied but now it looks like the surface of the moon. A nice clean moon mind you but there is no way I would send this out my door. I either need to figure out the clear coating issue or not clear coat and I would like it as an option. Help? Different clear coat? Better job of working the lens?

[ricmorin]

Sounds like fish-eye. Did you clean the polish off real good with some kind of paint prep?

[jbadenoch]

No, not really. Just washed pretty well with windex. It is more cracked than fish eye. I have done some antiquing paint at home that looked similar.

[jbadenoch]

Ok re did the clearcoat after cleaning first with paint prep.... Duhhhh Looks much better but still not satisfied. I think it is just a matter of doing a better job working the lens at this point. Will do it again. Thanks for the help folks. My receptionest has promised to let me play with her headlights when I get it down to a science.
Still trying to figure out how to get the old lady to agree to it

[steven kiser]

Still trying to figure out how to get the old lady to agree to it

who said she has to know. make sure you don't leave any greasy hand prints on her head lights. this will cause the clear coat to fish eye. like all painting, the prep is the most important issue. if you look at angles you may see the flaws that the clear coat will accentuate when applied. i find that if i spend a longer time grinding with the first disc it makes a better job. i grind until there is no longer any dust coming off. sometimes i've used two or three discs on each lens. if it's not all ground off when you clear coat the lens it will granulate and all sorts of distortions will occur. the other issue is grind slowly. i watched a tech wind up the air grinder and it melted the powder like happens when some one gets the paint to hot when polishing a fender. some lenses i can knock out in 1/2 an hour a pair while others take 45 minutes each. i do a lot of jeeps and subaru's so i have a few sets on the shelf that i have already prepped. i looked up by f5 / vehicle and had my primary salvage yard cross the vehicles to see the most common application and send me a set. i use them as a sale point display and can swap them out in 10 minutes and during a slack time prep them.