Restoring headlights off the car

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Since it only takes 15 seconds each to remove these headlights vs. 15+ minutes of fiddly taping and masking them on the car and fitting towels over the engine, I'm doing them off the car with a 3M kit. Any suggestions how to secure them while doing the work? Holding with one hand is too awkward and getting someone else to hold them isn't an option.
 
They are awkward things, aren't they?

The only thing I can think of is something like the packaging new ones come in. A cardboard box. Inside is another tight-fitting cardboard box of about half height, and that has a headlight-shaped hole in the top. Put a blanket in the bottom.
 
Maybe it's easier to leave them in place on the vehicle and tape them off?
 
It shouldn't be all that hard to rig up a little jig to support them. Lots of possibilities if you spend a minute or two thinking about it. Heck, with all those empty boxes you have around you should just be able to cut up a couple of those and rig something up.
 
If you have them off, have you considered new headlight covers? What car is it? Even on my Mercedes, the headlight covers can be bought for around $50 on eBay or Aliexpress. You just stick them in the oven the soften the glue holding them on. Then they're brand new. Of course if you're going to flip the car, then it doesn't matter as much.
 
Just rigged this up.

[Linked Image from fototime.com]
 
Originally Posted by grampi
Maybe it's easier to leave them in place on the vehicle and tape them off?




This would be the simplest and easiest way to do it. Why complicate matters?
 
Originally Posted by PimTac
Originally Posted by grampi
Maybe it's easier to leave them in place on the vehicle and tape them off?




This would be the simplest and easiest way to do it. Why complicate matters?


Well, I'll repeat what I said in the first post, it only takes 15 seconds each to remove these headlights vs. 15+ minutes of fiddly taping and masking them on the car and fitting towels over the engine,
 
Sanded with the 500 and 800 discs followed by 1000 and 3000 foam pads. Looks hazy but that gives the clearcoat a better bite. Usually you would use polishing compound next as a final step but that would make it too smooth for the clearcoat to adhere well.

[Linked Image from fototime.com]
 
^ Okay, maybe you have an unusual car, but the majority take a lot longer to remove, reinstall, and re-aim, than the 2 minutes it takes to tape them off and throw a piece of cardboard or a tarp over the engine bay.

How long did it take to post this topic and devise a way to hold them down? Why do you even need to hold them down? They don't wiggle around much while you're polishing. They even seem to like it, like petting a dog.
grin2.gif


Be careful, if you go at them very aggressively with a power tool they can end up with a hazy surface from heat, then you'll have to start over to remove that. Otherwise, you could have just put on an old pair of pants and held them in your lap.
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
Sanded with the 500 and 800 discs followed by 1000 and 3000 foam pads. Looks hazy but that gives the clearcoat a better bite. Usually you would use polishing compound next as a final step but that would make it too smooth for the clearcoat to adhere well.

[Linked Image from fototime.com]



Thanks for sharing. You're choice but I would vote for the polishing compound, such as this.

F6661FEF-A5A8-46CA-A58B-7353DABA7FD7.jpeg
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
Sanded with the 500 and 800 discs followed by 1000 and 3000 foam pads. Looks hazy but that gives the clearcoat a better bite. Usually you would use polishing compound next as a final step but that would make it too smooth for the clearcoat to adhere well.


This is just Wrong Information.

They are supposed to be polished as clear as possible and a clear coat, while a bad idea to begin with, is only supposed to preserve that highest level of polish you can achieve.

There is no problem getting a proper clear coat to adhere, rather it just doesn't block all UV so you end up back to where you started eventually.

Clear coat is a bad idea because it's not a permanent solution. Yes it will make it take longer till you need to re-do them, but then you have to strip the clear coat off which takes many more minutes of "precious" time than just a touch-up polish occasionally.

If you don't clear coat then you can just polish them briefly every time you wash the vehicle, or every third time or whatever (depends on amount of UV exposure, where it's parked, etc, yearly can work fine if it's not parked outdoors).

Once you get them to a very high state of polish, you don't even need plastic polish to keep them that way, can use plain old toothpaste, but of course you are convinced in weird ways that this is some great ordeal that involves removing them instead of the 2 minutes it takes everyone else, so do it any way that works for you!
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by atikovi
Originally Posted by PimTac
Originally Posted by grampi
Maybe it's easier to leave them in place on the vehicle and tape them off?




This would be the simplest and easiest way to do it. Why complicate matters?


Well, I'll repeat what I said in the first post, it only takes 15 seconds each to remove these headlights vs. 15+ minutes of fiddly taping and masking them on the car and fitting towels over the engine,
But it's taken you 2 hours to figure out how to keep them from moving while being off the vehicle...
 
Originally Posted by Dave9
Originally Posted by atikovi
Sanded with the 500 and 800 discs followed by 1000 and 3000 foam pads. Looks hazy but that gives the clearcoat a better bite. Usually you would use polishing compound next as a final step but that would make it too smooth for the clearcoat to adhere well.


This is just Wrong Information.

They are supposed to be polished as clear as possible and a clear coat, while a bad idea to begin with, is only supposed to preserve that highest level of polish you can achieve.

There is no problem getting a proper clear coat to adhere, rather it just doesn't block all UV so you end up back to where you started eventually.

Clear coat is a bad idea because it's not a permanent solution. Yes it will make it take longer till you need to re-do them, but then you have to strip the clear coat off which takes many more minutes of "precious" time than just a touch-up polish occasionally.

If you don't clear coat then you can just polish them briefly every time you wash the vehicle, or every third time or whatever (depends on amount of UV exposure, where it's parked, etc, yearly can work fine if it's not parked outdoors).

Once you get them to a very high state of polish, you don't even need plastic polish to keep them that way, can use plain old toothpaste, but of course you are convinced in weird ways that this is some great ordeal that involves removing them instead of the 2 minutes it takes everyone else, so do it any way that works for you!


Says right on the instructions, Each box contains two Clear Coat Wipes and one 3Mâ„¢ Trizactâ„¢ 3000-grit abrasive disc. Use this disc by hand, with water to lightly clean the lens surface. Wipe on the coating immediately after. The disc will create very tiny, light scratches in the lens which the coating fills in to increase adhesion and lengthen its effectiveness. But if you prefer homebrew Jethro solutions like toothpaste over the chemical engineers at at multi-billion dollar company, knock yourself out.
 
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