Head Lamp Housing Clear Coat Issue

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Eurythmian

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Just wondering... has anyone had a problem with the clear coat on the upper part of their head lamp housing - peeling off? I keep them polished and very clean but no matter what I do, this problem seems to be getting worse.

Is there a way to have them completely recoated? I have seen and used the head light kits sold at all the auto parts stores. They do an OK job but after a week or so, I'm back applying plastic polish and buffing them out to help hide the peeling clear coat. I'm just tired of this and want a permanent solution. I can't be the only frustrated LS owner with this problem. :cool:
 
I don't recommend using the Spar Urethane. I went out and bought all the supplies - watch the YouTube videos on how to do all of this and was getting excited because every step I did looked exactly like the links and the videos I watched.

When I sprayed on the Spar Urethane my hopes when in the toilet. I have destroyed my headlamps. They now look like shower glass and yellow. I bought the Clear Gloss MinWax Helmsman Spar Urethane Spray. I didn't think I was to wipe it on from a can. Is this what I did wrong?

How can I save my headlamps at this point? I figure I have to sand them all the way down removing this sh!t!!! But once I do this, what do I apply to make them glossy and clear again? And how do I go about applying it?
 
Well if you dont want to mess with them again, you can take them to a shop to get sprayed, or wait for the guy who did it on here to chime in.
 
Eurythmian said:
I don't recommend using the Spar Urethane. I went out and bought all the supplies - watch the YouTube videos on how to do all of this and was getting excited because every step I did looked exactly like the links and the videos I watched.

When I sprayed on the Spar Urethane my hopes when in the toilet. I have destroyed my headlamps. They now look like shower glass and yellow. I bought the Clear Gloss MinWax Helmsman Spar Urethane Spray. I didn't think I was to wipe it on from a can. Is this what I did wrong?

How can I save my headlamps at this point? I figure I have to sand them all the way down removing this sh!t!!! But once I do this, what do I apply to make them glossy and clear again? And how do I go about applying it?
Click to expand...

Damn!!! I just used the 3m sanding kit for my wifes car and they came out geat, If I were you I would take them in to get done right before theres no going back.
 
To say the least I am p!ssed!

Mad at myself and discussed at the result. I'm going to sand them all the way back down removing all of this yellow Spar Urethane and try Clear Coat on them. It can't be any worse. I've got orange peel housings now... I don't even want to drive the car they look so bad.

This sucks! :eek:
 
Sprayed? Perhaps that's the problem. You are to do a 1:1 mix of the spar + mineral spirits, and apply it specifically with a blue shop towel.

I would sand it off and try again as per the autogeek forum link, it is a proven method from what I can tell.
 
+1,000 NO CLEAR-COAT! Thats why I had to re-do my wifes headlights.
 
Alax7 said:
Well if you dont want to mess with them again, you can take them to a shop to get sprayed, or wait for the guy who did it on here to chime in.
Click to expand...

I am that guy!! Clear coated mine about 4 years ago and again recently with great results. I had to recoat because of road damage (I drive 20K/year). I have not had any problems with the clear coat being affected by heat. None at all. You have to sand the crap out of the lights, I cant remember what grit I finished on, but when you are done sanding the lights will look very foggy and scratched (DO NOT POLISH!!). The scuffed crappy looking plastic will look great because the clear coat fills the scratches in. If you try to clear the lenses after sanding smooth and polishing the clear will not have anything to hang on to. It will fall off..... I used NAPA medium clear coat, not spray can but actual gun paint clear. I dont know if the can stuff works the same, but maybe that is the stuff that peels off from heat.


sandlight1.jpg


Above is after sanding but before clearing.

clearlight1.jpg


This is after clearing (sorry phone pic this time). The clear also sealed the tiny cracks in the lens.
 
rwurst918 said:
http://www.doublehornproducts.com/headlightlensrestorationkit.html

Do not clear coat the headlight housings. Clear coat is not heat resistant like headlight sealer. It is also not UV resistant. The clear coat will bubble and yellow within a month.
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Again no problems with heat from the light damaging the clear coat. Fogs are done too and no problems. The clear coat has also never yellowed. I live in Key West FL, so the sun is at its worst down here and plastic headlight housings look crappy on 3 year old cars. This is my origonal headlight the car was in Texas origonally and I have had it since 2005 down here.
 
I used to share an office with an engineer who worked for DuPont for a number of years in the auto paint research group. He stated time and time again that any aerosol is NOT the same paint as a gun paint. The chemical composition has to be completely different.

If you really have to use an aerosol then I would suggest an auto point supplier that will load 1K or 2k gun paint into an aerosol powered can at the store.

I do a lot of woodworking and any Minwax product has some degree of yellowing. It just doesn't show that much on a wood or stained wood product.
 
Ok guys... I spent about 4 hours cleaning up my mess with pretty good results. I think I am going to sand them down again to get rid as as much lens modeling as possible. The clear coat I used is heat tolerant (engine paint). It doesn’t say it’s UV protective or anything like that... But it is clear. NOT YELLOW at all. The reason I feel like I want to do it over again is because I don’t think I got off all the Minwax crap I used the first time around. And once I was finished clear coating them I was please with the result until I turned on the headlamps. You can see ghosted areas where that Minwax sh!t left modeled areas and it looks pretty bad when lit.

I am happy with the clear coat... Went on super easy and looks like new. Just wish I would have never used the Minwax spar urethane.

I may just go get a couple 3M kits as long as it actually works. From what I have seen and read – it does.
 
Eurythmian said:
I may just go get a couple 3M kits as long as it actually works. From what I have seen and read – it does.
Click to expand...

the 3m kits work great, there is just not enough to go around if your lights are bad, i had to use one whole kit for each headlight (and i actually wish there was a little more) its much cheaper just to go out and buy the sand paper, also sanding by hand will yield much better results than using the drill adapter.

i will be doing my cousins LS in a couple of months when i go down there, and i plan on using an orbital sander for the first two grits since his lights are possibly the worse i've ever seen, but then hand sanding everything from there.
 
Thanks, it didnt really take long i did both of them in my room on a towel in about an hour. It made so much of a difference the pics dont really do justice.
 
Used the 3M kit on both and the fogs and it does work great. I still have strange ghosted patterns on my drivers side lens but I think after going over this once again it will all come out.

The 3M kits do work well. I went back and polished them with Meguire's PlastX and it really put a nice finish on them. I will post pics eventually.
 
What really made a difference on mine was the minwax/mineral spirits mixture.. Also i started with 400 grit sand paper.
 
It's a proven method! Glad it worked out for you, Iceberg.
 
Would you guys know if the ghosted modeling I am seeing in my lenses would be left over clear from before and I just need to take them down further to get rid of it?

After 10 hours of working on these lenses... I'm sick of sanding them. If you need a pic, I will take one and post it.
 
Pics would be good so we can know exactly what your talking about. Mine had weird white patterns on it from buffing it, but a little more polishing with the 3m pad took care of it.
 
OK guys... did some more work on my lenses. Sanded them down again using 800 grit then 3000 grit. Then I tried wiping the 1 to 1 mixture of Spar Urethane and Mineral Spirits on with a miro fiber towel.

OMG!!! They look AMAZING!!! Like New!

So I did my fogs - and they look even better!

It's a lot of work but it has been worth every hour of sanding I put into it.

The great thing is - if I get a chip or scuff... just lightly sand it out and apply new urethane mixture to the lens.

This is amazing! I will have to post pics!:)

I'm so happy now!!!:):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)
 
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