The Headlight Restoration
If you’ve ever been frustrated with the light output from your headlights, I’m sure you’ve done what many have in hopes of getting some improvement. You headed to your local parts store and picked up an expensive set of bulbs in an attempt to remedy the situation only to be disappointed with the results. Or maybe you did some googling and found some (mis-)information about using toothpaste or DEET bug spray to clear up the lenses and while that may have helped, the results were not satisfying or long lasting. Or possibly you just assumed that nothing could be done aside from replacing the lenses or the headlight itself and you’re not about to spend that kind of money on something that isn’t exactly broken. Well do I have some good news for YOU! Those headlights can be repaired and restored.
Would you believe that these headlights were once considered by the owner the be “beyond repair”?
How about these?? Well, read on and you’ll see how the process of completing a proper headlight restoration can restore the clarity of your lenses and increase the light output.
This is a before photo of the lens. This vehicle is 2007 with roughly 160,000km on the clock. It doesn’t take long for the factory UV protective coating on headlights to become cloudy. Correcting this problem is a 7 step process that involves sanding, polishing, and protecting the lens in order to clarify it and protect it from future damage.
The Process – Sanding
Step 1: Sanding the headlight dry with low grit sandpaper, 600 grit or so. This step removes heavy oxidation as well as eliminating minor pitting but leaves visibly deep sanding marks. As you can see, the headlight looks worse than before.
Step 2: Westanding the headlight with mid-low grit sandpaper, 800 grit. This stage of the process removes the previous sanding marks, smooths and evens the surface of the lens. Clearly, the headlight looks like it’s in worse shape than when we began, but trust me, this is an improvement as you will see in the next step.
Step 3: Wetsanding with high grit sandpaper, 1500 grit. This step begins the refining process for the headlight restoration as we start to build clarity back in the lens. Here, I remove the 800 grit sanding marks in preparation for the final sanding step coming up next.
Step 4: The final sanding step, ultra high 3000 grit – wet. This step removes the 1500 grit marks and finalized the smoothing and leveling of the lens’ surface. as you can see, I am building further clarity in the lens but the big difference will be seen in the next step as these still appear worse than when we started.
The Process – Polishing
Step 5: Heavy correcting polish to remove sanding marks. This step gives you the WOW! factor as it cleans up the sanding marks and leaves you with a nearly flawless finish. The lenses are clear and could be left like this but one final polishing step will leave them sparkling.
Step 6: Finishing/jeweling polish, the final step of refinishing! The headlights are complete at this point and look amazing. I have removed all of the oxidation and restored the clarity of the lens which will allow the headlight to do its job, lighting the road. One final step after this is required if you don’t want to do this every 6 months, protection.
The Results
Step 7: Protection! This is arguably the most important step in the process as it seals in the results we just spent the last hour obtaining. This can be accomplished with wax, sealant, ceramic coating, or clear coat. Here at Detail Fanatics, we use CQuartz ceramic coating for our headlight restorations as it provides a durable finish.
If you’re interested in having your headlight lenses corrected, head over to the Contact Us page and send us a message including some information about your car and I’ll get back to you with a quote for this service that takes roughly an hour to complete.
Oh, and before I forget, remember that first image of the crystal clear Honda Civic Si headlight, here are the before pictures…