How do you polish headlights?

[san rensho]

Don't think you need to go all the way down to 5k grit. If you are painting the lights (Sylvania clear or Minwax spar varnish gloss). All you need is 400 then 800 and paint. About a 1/2 hour job.

[Jamesp]

I've done mine 3 times now, and I think I have a working solution that I will use next time.

400 grit wet/dry paper - wet sand with lots of water
then
1500 grit wet sand - lots of water
then
2000 grit wet sand- lots of water
then
plastic polish (from a turtle wax polishing kit)
then
toothpaste
then
prime with turtle wax polishing kit primer
then
seal with turtle wax polishing kit sealer

The sandpaper greatly speeds things up.

I did one headlight with the toothpaste and frankly did it half a$$ed as it didn't seem to be doing much of anything.

Skipped the toothpaste on the other. The result is they look the same, and quite good in the daylight.

At night with the lights on it is strikingly evident where the toothpaste was used or not. With toothpaste the lens is clear with the lights on, without toothpaste there are so many micro scratches the lens looks frosted at night with the lights on. Oh well, I'll get it next time.

[slogans7]

Originally Posted by san rensho

Don't think you need to go all the way down to 5k grit. If you are painting the lights (Sylvania clear or Minwax spar varnish gloss). All you need is 400 then 800 and paint. About a 1/2 hour job.

I know I'm very late to the thread, but I just cleaned the headlamp covers on my 2002 986, which had gotten pretty ugly.

I tried just using 600 and 800 grit, and found that while I got rid of the crud, the plastic looked very dull and cloudy even after using PlastX. It was only when I then used 2000 and 2500 grit that the lenses cleared up entirely, and now (with another coat of PlastX) look brand new. I'll add the paint tomorrow.