About a month or so ago I posted pics of the process, and one of the mods suggested I do a write up. So here it is.
Materials Needed:
-1 pack of 800, or 1000 (depends on how fubar the head lights are, the worse they are, get a lower grit. but be sure not to use a whole lot of pressure, the weight of your hand is plenty). grit wet or dry sandpaper.
-1 pack of 1500 grit wet or dry sandpaper
-1 pack of 2000 grit wet or dry sandpaper
-1 bottle of Meguire's Plastx
-1 Soft wax applicator pad
-A few soft, clean terry towels.
-Water hose or big spray bottle, just make sure the headlights STAYS WET.
-This process will take about 2 hours or so of your time if you want to do it right.
Steps:
-Clean them with soap and water.
-Wet headlight, making sure you KEEP IT SOAKING WET during the entire time.
-First start with the lower grit sandpaper, I found that it took about 30 minutes of good sanding per sandpaper grit. Once you start you'll notice that in the water on the light you immediately start to see the cloudiness and all start to come off of the headlight, this is supposed to happen.
-After about 30 minutes of sanding with the 800, or 1000 grit sandpaper, go ahead and grab the 1500 grit, and repeat the process. Do the same, and repeat process again until you're done with the 2000 grit. Just keep in mind that it is VERY important that you keep the surface wet the entire time that you're sanding the headlight. Also if you want, you can tape up the sides of the body around the headlight in case you're paranoid about running your hand off of the headlight and scratching your paint, I didn't do this but it's just a matter of if you want to or not, just be careful.
-Now it's time to apply the Plastx. I'd recommend only doing one at a time so you can compare, plus it's a lot less hassle.
After you're completely done wet sanding the head lights, wash it with soap and water to remove the rest of the loose dirt and residue from the surface, towel dry or let air dry, just make sure it's DRY.
-Shake the bottle of Plastx well, take your clean wax applicator pad, or terry towel and generously apply the substance onto it.
-This is the part that's important, nor do you want to skip applying the Plasix as it'll leave your headlight bare with no kind of protection. You can't just wipe it on in one motion and wipe it right back off.
-Evenly distribute the Plastx onto the headlight, applying in a circular motion. MAKE SURE that you keep rubbing the compound onto the light, once it's entirely covered, you're still not done. YOU MUST wipe the substance onto the headlight and BUFF IT INTO IT with your hand, not a buffer. You've got to fill in all fine scratches at this point, While I was doing this I spent about 10 minutes straight doing nothing but applying more and more Plastx onto the headlight.
-Once you're done applying the Plastx, let it sit for about 5 minutes or so before wiping off. Make sure you don't leave any residue behind while wiping the Plastx off. Now step back and admire what you've done. This is a very cheap way to make your headlights look brand new again without spending a couple hundred bucks just to replace them. Now just repeat the entire process on the next light. Also you can do the same thing for tail lights, corner lenses, parking lights, any type of hard plastic on your car. Even applying Plastx to your head unit face works well, but don't wet sand it.
Pics:
Before:
Dried the head light for pic purposes.
repped joo..props
it takes talent to be that stupid