Anyone ever had Plastic headlights polished ??

[JH23JOB]

Anyone ever had Plastic headlights polished ??
I've run into a small snag........... There's a guy that's polishing my headlights from my '96 GTS, and He called me to tell me that these headlights have somekind of a clear coat on'em, and polishing these would take literally forever.
The crappy part of it is that he's already started on BOTH of'em, and now I need someone to finish the job.

Do you know of ANYONE who does this sort of work professionally ??

If all fails, I might be in the market for a pair of Lenses for my Viper...

Any help would be appreciated..... Thanks

 

[Bandit3]

My son's 96 avenger had a similar problem with the hazing over the headlights. His also had a film/coating. I used very very fine wet sandpaper--600grit I think. After sanding, I used a buffer with a glaze and buffed them. They both looked perfect, that is until the pine tree jumped into the road! Car is gone, but the headlights looked as good as new. John

 

[JH23JOB]

You mean an electric buffer ??

 

[Anthony - 98 GTS]

I am almost positive that you can't buy the lenses seperately.

Good luck and keep us posted on what you end up doing.

 

[KenH]

I have heard that the lights have a UV coating on them. That may be what the guy is referring to. A hardcoat UV film is pretty tought stuff. As noted above, a little fine sandpaper should take care of any film, them buff them. When I have buffed out acrylic (not headlights), I have used 600 grit, 800 grit, 1200 grit and then 2000 grit wet/dry and them polished with one of the acrylic polishing compounds. I was doing it by hand. With an electric polisher, the finer sandpaper grades may not be necessary.

--- Ken

 

[onerareviper]

Not saying wet-sanding wouldn't work, but I wouldn't want to be the first too try... Unless you don't mind replacing them if things go south... Have you tried a search on the site? Someone must have a great technique to accomplish this goal. Keep us posted.

Later

P.S. - Zaino gives them a nice shine, although doesn't remove any imperfections, nicks, road rash, etc...

 

[Ron]

They are UV coated as are all plastic headlight lenses.

Since you're this far into it, you might as well continue though. I'd skip the paper and go to polishing compound followed by plastic polish. You can find this at most electronics retailers as it's used to polish projection TV screen shields.

I've used it for 30 year old hazed up tail light lenses with great results. Obviously works only if the hazes is superficial. Internal clouding (which you'll get eventually with the UV coat removed) can not be repaired.

 

[Vip-RT10]

I noticed the UV protection bubling on mine and it flaked off. I removed as much as I could and put on the headlight protective film (sorry, I forgot who makes it) It looks perfect still with the covers on.