Headlight restoration

[Aroberts]

When I bought the car, the headlights had a darker shade of tint film. The tint was already getting old, bubbling up and pealing off on some places, this weekend had some spare time and the weather was amazing, so decided to remove the film and restore it.


I used Autoglym headlight restoration kit, the instructions were pretty straight forward. Start with 800 sanding paper, and go down all the way to 3000 (everything was included in the kit). Took me around 30-45 mins per headlight.

Looks better than before, and definitely recommend it as a cheap mod / fix up. However, be aware it doesn't make your headlights all brand new shiny. With the lights on, you can still see some haziness in plastic.

The headlights were in pretty descent condition after removing the tints, so for me I only saw 30% to 40% improvement in terms of colour, but the blemishes/chips on the plastic were all gone - 90% improvement.

Some photos attached:

• the cloudy headlight is sanded down. I didn't take before photos unfortunately

 

[Delmonte]

Nice work. I just bought a 3.0 E85 and the lights need doing so I have been looking for a product to use

 

[eddiemunster]

I used Autoglym headlight restoration kit, the instructions were pretty straight forward.

I read the title of this thread, and before I read the thread I thought "Just use the Autoglym set!"; it's about £20, more expensive than most of the others, but having tried them all it's about the only one that's consistently good.

A cloudy set of headlamps always seems to turn a nice car into not such a nice car, I always make sure mine are sparkling!

 

[Aroberts]

Nice work. I just bought a 3.0 E85 and the lights need doing so I have been looking for a product to use

It makes such a difference and only costs £26 + 2h of your time.

 

[AntonK]

This is really good advice, because I was already thinking about replacing this part of the headlamp

 

[MKZ4000]

I've done a few myself with best results the first time.

The other times, although a great improvement, I could see the sanding marks upclose. I did mine by hand. Is it better to do the sanding process using a drill attachment ?

 

[Chris_D]

If you still see any haze in the plastic then you did something wrong.

Also consider giving a coat of Spraymax 2K hard clearcoat to increase longevity of the refurb...

https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=125218&hilit=headlight

 

[Aroberts]

Drill makes thing quicker Just gotta be careful you do not put too much pressure.

 

[smorris_12]

I've just done the X5 lights in a flaming hurry to get it through the MoT using what I had to hand. Rubbed them down with 320, 800, 1500, 2000 grit sandpaper using small squares and a block. Don't see what people are getting caught up with sanding using a drill; it is only plastic. Followed up with 2k lacquer applied as a mist coat followed by a wet coat in entirely inappropriate conditions (barely 2 celcius) and, bang, they look clear as glass (although not quite as smooth and one with a run in it, but I'm blaming the weather.)

Lacquer was £17 at my paint place IIRC and, I suppose, a few quid of sandpaper from my collection. Quickly did one of the E46 ones before the can hardened itself too as that'll be a fail this year when it goes back on the road. Got the other to do and one of the Zed's, but that'll wait until the summer.

 

[3gGT01]

I have a couple of kits and clear coating, but seem to always be saving the kits and just wet sanding with 400,600,800,1000,1200,1500,2000,3000 3M pad and then buffing with the 3 grits that 3M makes for paint and body work.

Was looking for some pics, didn't find them...

~Tom