My Headlight Restoration

H

Hawk

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One of my headlamps had moisture inside and the top of the lens were weathered on both of the lamps + The black bezel was starting to look dull from being 12 years old so I decided to do a complete restoration.

Here are 2 photos I captured of the process.

Before

After
 
Question on the headlamp restoration process. If done to a brand new housing will it dull it up a little to match a restored older housing? Mine looked fine until after the fender dinging it just took, but the new headlight makes the old one look like dog doo and seeing as it's an HID car the new housing is 1800 bucks. I'd rather have both look the same if possible, but I don't want it 1800 bucks worth.
 
Telco said:
Question on the headlamp restoration process. If done to a brand new housing will it dull it up a little to match a restored older housing? Mine looked fine until after the fender dinging it just took, but the new headlight makes the old one look like dog doo and seeing as it's an HID car the new housing is 1800 bucks. I'd rather have both look the same if possible, but I don't want it 1800 bucks worth.
Click to expand...

WHAT!?!?! are you saying even a restored light doesn't look as nice as your new one and you want to "scuff the new one to make them look the same???

If thats the case your not restoring correctly...
 
G-RELL said:
looks like you tried to clean the chrome inside
Click to expand...

I actually sanded the OEM chrome, then repainted with a can of Spray Chrome (crap I got from hardware store).
Only the left headlights chrome needed to be repainted. The other was fine because it had no moisture.
I wasn't happy with it after a few coats so I returned the paint and got my money back.
There's a blotch where the paint blobbed up that I did not bother sanding out, I think that is what you noticed.

Ideally what I would like to do is get them re-dipped in the factory chrome.
Has anyone done this themselves?? I want to get it as close to possible as to what it was like before (mirrored look) Unfortunately the store I went to buy the paint they only carried one chrome.
Should I try to find a better brand of paint??
 
G-RELL said:
WHAT!?!?! are you saying even a restored light doesn't look as nice as your new one and you want to "scuff the new one to make them look the same???

If thats the case your not restoring correctly...
Click to expand...

Essentially, yes. The body shop tried to clean up the driver side light, but there's an obvious difference between the two. If I were planning to keep the car past next spring then I'd spring for a new one (I'd have also just had the whole car repainted too) but since I'm not I just want both lights to look the same. I'm leaving work early today, I'll try to snap a pic of the front end when I get home.
 
its possible, you can (or I) refinish the headlight and make it look new again al least new enough to match the newer lamp.
 
If you refinish a headlight properly, it should look as close to new as possible. Be sure to use the urethane + mineral spirits method.
 
always available to do anyone's willing to ship on here...well, almost anyone's (sorry jrocc)
 
Cool, and when you mix up the spirits/wax. you only need a little bit. probably only a coulpe tbs... just fyi
 
Is there a good place to have my headlights restored in the Kansas City area? I'm not to good at stuff like that I'm afraid I'll f them up....lol
They are HID's and I really can't afford to replace them at $600.00 or more a pop.
Thanks
 
Not going to answer your question because the only way you can make these things FUBAR is if you wet-sand a hole through them. The process can be knocked out in an afternoon then cure overnight. I was hesitant to do anything like this but the write ups by Alax and Myfirstlincoln, a cavemand could install angel eyes and make 'em look like new again.
 
waggs said:
Is there a good place to have my headlights restored in the Kansas City area? I'm not to good at stuff like that I'm afraid I'll f them up....lol
They are HID's and I really can't afford to replace them at $600.00 or more a pop.
Thanks
Click to expand...

Try ~$1900 list and ~$1200 from Tasca!
 
My pleasure... Glad to rescue a pair of 2ng Gen HID's. no since letting those go to waist!!!

Before:

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After (sorry it was late when we got the back on):

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Hopefully waggs will post up some good shots during the day
 
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