So we're here with our Media Director's
Z4 convertible. He drives this to work every day
and it sits in the sun a LOT. The sun has completely deteriorated the headlights,
made it really foggy, and he's actually got a ticket from the police saying
he needs to get this fixed
or he's gonna have to pay a fine. So today I'm gonna show you how to remove
all the oxidation and faded plastic from the headlight
restoring the headlight to a crisp clear gloss. It's also gonna give him better
visibility at night,
it's gonna make the car look much, much better in the sun,
and it's gonna give an overall better appearance to the vehicle.
So let's get started! Today we're gonna be using a few tools here to get this done:
We're gonna be using our sanding block and our 2500 and our
3500 grit sandpaper. These sand papers are going to remove all the
faded plastic from the headlight, giving us a fresh clean surface which we are then going to
buff off using our V-Line of Polishes. It's real simple, we're gonna go through
a few techniques
to teach you how to do it at home using just a few products.
The first thing we're doing here is we're gonna clean the light using Glassworkz.
Glassworkz is gonna remove any type of material from the light that is going to interfere with
our sanding, such as
any dirt or debris on the light before we start the correction process.
So with just a few sprays to the headlight and a green microfiber towel,
we'll wipe it down. As you can see the headlight got better looking with just
the Glassworkz,
but once the water dries away, as you can see,
it's completely hazed up. So before we get started here we're gonna take some
green painter's tape
and we're gonna tape up the area.
Now that we got the entire headlight taped up, this is gonna give us
protection against sanding on the paint.
Since we're gonna be using sandpaper to remove the
oxidation and contamination from the surface, we want to protect
the painted area so does not get damaged in the process. This is an important key
factor to protect your vehicle.
To start the correction process on the headlights, we're gonna be using our
sanding block. The sanding block
gives us a nice material to grab to while we sand, nice control
of what we sand on the vehicle. We're gonna start out using our 2500 grit sandpaper.
These are a sandpaper with a
sticky backside to apply to the sanding block.
So let's put this on the sanding block, it's real easy...
So now the sandpaper is adhered to the sanding block and we can start the sanding process.
All we need to get the sanding process done is the sanding block,
and our water. We use our water as a lubricant and sand in one direction on the
headlight:
that's gonna remove any contamination from the surface. So, let's get started.
We saturate the headlight with some water and with our sandpaper we're gonna sand in
one direction. We also want to keep applying water
to keep the surface lubricated. As you can see from just sanding right here
the material that's coming off is the plastic clear coat to come from the
factory on the headlights. This clear coat has failed
so we're gonna go ahead and remove it.
So now we have our first
set of sanding marks placed on the surface, and we've removed a lot the
contamination
leaving the surface very smooth. We wanna make even smoother.
So we're gonna remove our old sandpaper which is our 2500 grit,
and we're gonna step it up to our 3500 sanding grit. This is an
extremely fine sandpaper designed specifically for color sanding
paint and headlights. So just like our first set of sandpaper, we're gonna place this
on the sanding block. So now we have our sanding block prepped and ready to go
let's start our standing again, same process as before
so let's get it done!
So now that we have for sanding process complete, we're ready for the polishing.
We've gone ahead and sanded the headlight with 2500 grit
followed by 3500 grit sandpaper to be able to remove
any deteriorated plastic or failed clear coat on the surface.
As you can see the headlight feels amazing.
It is completely smooth.
But if you look at the headlight, there are still scratches and haze left in the surface.
This haze is the result of the sanding process. It made the headlight plastic
extremely smooth, but
as a result you have these markings on the headlight. To remove those
markings,
you need to use a polishing process. Right here everything you need to remove
any sanding marks from the surface. We're gonna start out with our
V34. This is our hybrid compound, and we're gonna use this to remove any
deeper scratches from the surface using our orange hex-logic pad. This is
gonna give us that initial bite to make the plastic look crystal-clear.
We're gonna follow that up with V36. This is our medium polish
and we're gonna use that with our green hex-logic pad.
This is gonna restore the surface even more, bringing that crystal-clarity
to the plastic headlight. Next we're gonna follow that up
with our V38. This is our final polish
and its true jewelers polish designed to give
crystal-clarity to paint, or in this case plastic.
This is gonna give us the brand-new look that we're searching for
leaving us ready to seal up the headlight with some protection.
To use this whole process on the headlight gonna be using our Flex
polisher.
This is the brand new Flex polisher straight from Germany, the PE14.
As you can see it has no handle,
that's why we chose this machine to work on headlight: gives me great control
in a small area to remove any scratches without
letting the polisher lead me off the headlight.
To utilize our hex-logic pads, we're gonna us our brand new
Evolve 3 mini backing plate, and as you can see
this backing plate has a unique foam that bends and contours to the surface
making it great for the headlights, and it's gonna fit with our hex-logic pads
perfect! So once we get set up, we're gonna start buffing off these headlights!
We've got our machine all set up: we've got our backing plate installed on the machine with our orange hex-logic pad,
so we're ready to start polishing.
First we'll take our V34, give it a good shake,
and apply a few dots of polish to the pad.
This is a brand new pad, so we want to make sure it's properly primed.
This is gonna give us the initial bite once we start polishing.
Place a few dots on the surface...
give a nice spread, then start polishing.
So: Watch and learn!
We've finished polishing, let's go ahead and wipe and inspect the surface,
and as you can see that a huge dramatic improvement with just one polish.
We've still got two more passes to go. Let's move on to our green pad with V36.
This will brighten the finish and prep us for perfection with V38.
Let's grad our V36 polish, just like before place a few drops on the surface.
Spread the product.
We just finished the second pass with V36 on a green pad.
The light looks even better. It looks crystal-clear and we want to follow it up now with perfection and V38.
So we finished our middle stage of polishing
with the V36 and the green pad and now we're gonna move on to our final stage
which gonna leave headlight look looking even more crystal clear for improved visibility with V38.
This is gonna finish off the headlight and make it crystal clear.
So just like before, let's polish it out.
That was our final step, and as you can see
our headlight looks brand new!
This is close to 100% restoration on the headlight.
So now let's protect the headlight.
Now the headlight looks amazing! The owner is going to be very impressed.
This repair will improve his drivability by far!
We want to prevent any future fading on the headlight,
we don't want any deterioration returning, which can if it's exposed to the sun.
To prevent future damage, we're gonna use JetSeal.
JetSeal 109 has a unique UVA/UVB protection formula built in to the sealant,
so it will protect the light for months with proper application.
Let's go ahead and apply it to the headlight!
All we need is 3 drops spread evenly across the headlight.
That's it! One thin coat of JetSeal 109.
So, we have a 20 minute dry time, we'll see you in 20!
It's been 20 minutes, our JetSeal 109 is dried and cured and we're ready to remove it and expose our crystal-clear light!
There we go: our light looks crisp, bright, and brand new!
It's gonna give our driver increased visibility on the road,
it's also can increase the value of his car, making it look brand new.
If you have any more questions about headlight restoration, check out our YouTube tutorials,
and our website: ChemicalGuys.com