[Trills]

Hello All. Hope this comes in handy for some of you trying to remove that nasty Oxidation that can hinder the look of your rides. This is my Frist DIY so please ask me any questions that you may have when you read this.

I'm starting this from the point where the headlights are off the car. I wanted to black out the housing and pluse it makes it alot easier to do.

First I'll start with the tools:
600 sandpaper
2000 sandpaper
spray bottle w/dishsoap and water mix
Microfiber cloth
Oven
Meguiar's PlastX (Clear Plastic & Polish)
and lastly a lil bit of mucle for sanding.

First start out with preheating your oven to about 250*F.

After Preheated you are going to put your healight in for 6 min's.

with the headlight freshly hot and out of the oven trake a flat head screwdriver and slowly pry away at the pressure clips and the backhousing will start to seperate from the clearfront. ***BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL NOT TO GET THE SEALING GLUE ON ANY OTHER PART OF THE HEAD LIGHT*** it is extremely hard to remove and may cuase you more work. That Goop is pretty darn sticky.

Now you can begin with removing the Oxidation from the Clear Lense.

With your spray bottle of Soap/water solution spray the lense and 600 grit sandpaper.

Then as if you where waxing a car use a circular motion and make sure to throghly sand the front, nice and even. Make sure to keep the sanding area and sand paper wet the whole time you are sanding.

It took me about 15mins of sanding to remove all the Oxidation with the 600 grit, leaving a nice smooth fogged finish.

After you have removed the oxidation repeat this step again with the 2000 Grit sandpaper. A good rule of thumb for sanding is if you think your done keep going for about 5 more mins. After done with the 2000 grit the surface of the cover will be realy nice and smooth with a frosted finish.

Now is the time for polishing out the frosted layer. Apply the Meguiar's shine and polish to the surface and leave and even coat across the surface. Take your drill with the polishing pad that came with the Polish and buff in the polish. I used the fastest speed on my drill but make sure that your not leaving it in one place, you may leave an undesired mark and you'll have to repeat the sanding steps over agian. After the first coat is buffed in take your Microfiber cloth and remove and leftover residue.

Do this step with the Polish and the drill about Two more times.

For the Final step take the Microfiber cloth and spread a thin coat on the lense and let stand for about 5 mins. Then lightly buff the polish out until the clear finish apears:wave:.

step back and rejoice because you just saved yourself alot of money from buying a new headlight!!!!!!!!:dance::dance:

Before:

After:

Now if you have been thinking about Blakening out your Head lights, this is now the time!!! Just put a few coats of color paint of your choosing on that Chrome housing and your good!!!

When putting the Headlights back together reverse the steps of taking them apart. ***MAKE SURE YOU USE ALITTLE CLEAR SILICONE AROUND THE EDGES ARE SO YOU LIGHT SEAL PROPERLY*** otherwise you'll be driving around with condensation built up inside the lense and you have to take them apart again and dry them out. SUCK FEST:wtc:!!!!

Here are some more before and after Shots:

 

[Blue_em2]

Nice DIY :tup:
I'm gonna try it, just wish I woulda known how to do this 3 months ago when I blacked mine out. lol

 

[Maximized4Door]

:tup:Needed to see this on something other then a prelude!

 

[Kyle]

can we use wax on our headlights to prevent oxidation?

 

[1SickEs1]

^^^^^

Yes u can use wax its fine

and u forgot the powerdrill and the Buffing pad in ur tools where did u get that buffing pad for the drill at been looking for one??

 

[Personality]

^^^^^

Yes u can use wax its fine

and u forgot the powerdrill and the Buffing pad in ur tools where did u get that buffing pad for the drill at been looking for one??

I've seen these at alot of autopart stores, 3m has one out that goes onto a powerdrill.

 

[lowlife9]

there is a product that removes oxidation without the need for sandind i believe its made by wolfgang.

 

[medlin]

Very Nice DIY and works great to. I have previously tried alot of the "kits" that are sold at autoparts stores with no luck whatsoever in getting my lense's clean and clear.

 

[fanger]

Nice write up :tup:

 

[frankentein01ex]

one other way to remove oxidation, at least temporarily, is to polish with ATF

 

[Rmend888]

Any specific paint? Such as high temp? Glossy or Flat?

 

[madscihighpsi]

I am going to have to try this out I wish I knew this before I blacked out my headlights...

 

[madscihighpsi]

Tried using rubbing compound, polishing, sealer, and wax. Some of it came of but a majority of it is still messed up. I think the sandpaper is very necessary in making it perfectly clear.

 

[kevin12]

found this useful! Well the clear silicon part lol, theres a little fogging action going on now

 

[itsmekippy]

yeah so i followed all the steps, and use the same materials, and mine came out worse than they started...

 

[Trills]

There should be no issues if you take your time with the sand paper. If you go to fast it will look like crap....

 

[frankentein01ex]

just like painting anything else, it only comes out as good as you make it, take your time and remember taht you are looking for a perfectly clear finish, i suggest sanding it with the highest possible grit and then buffing with either plast-x like was used here or rubbing compound and i will be clear coating mine as well so i dont have to do this again for a few years:werd:

 

[JDMPLEASE]

good write up. Im gonna have to try this myself soon!! :tup:

 

[armyhooker22]

looks awesome, im just wondering how long the finish will last. im sure that clear coating will help a lot thought.

 

[Z-money]

I heard you can use 600 grit and clear over them and it will last longer than the polish.