How to Do the Polishing of Car Headlights with Your Own Hands?

Often the look of the car significantly deteriorates because of not too pleasant visual condition of headlights. It can give out big age of a car or its too intensive operation. In that case the owner of the car can want to do polishing of automobile headlights by the hands using the available means and make them beautiful, without addressing to expensive services of auto repair shops.

For this process it is necessary to get the corresponding polish and to start process of restoration of pleasant appearance of headlights. It is necessary to take into account and some specific features of process. Work should be broken into some stages and to execute them according to important conditions and technical requirements.

Preparation of the car and choice of materials for polishing

For a start you should define damage rate of headlights and existence of certain splits and deep scratches. If any, polishing will have to postpone and be engaged in a grinding work of a plastic surface of a headlight to give it smooth structure. About a grinding work we will talk later, and now we pay attention directly to preparation of the car for work with headlights.

Before polishing and other works it is necessary to secure adjacent metal parts. They should be pasted over with a painting adhesive tape to avoid overwrites of a paint and varnish covering at careless movement of the tool. Work of all necessary actions requires a certain tool kit and materials:

• the tool for a grinding work (use of felt and other soft materials is possible);
• some types of a polish with different granularity;
• set of rags for headlight wiping at different stages of work;
• angle grinder with a polishing circle or a drill with a special nozzle.

One choose granularity of a polish on a condition of plastic part of a headlight. The more scratches and chips, the more largely abrasive granules are necessary. If there are no splits and deep damages of plastic, process of a grinding work it is possible to miss and be engaged directly in polishing. Also don't forget about obligatory cleaning of headlights before polishing. If particles of a dust and dirt remain on a plastic surface, they can completely spoil a headlight already in the course of a grinding work.

Grinding work of plastic part of headlights of the car by the hands

Pay attention that not all headlights give in to a grinding work. It is possible to grind only ideally equal surface without stamping and other technical roughnesses. And you also can't neutralize too deep scratches.

For grinding work performance you will need a small emery paper (with value of granularity from 800 to 2500). It is necessary to observe certain rules at a grinding work:

• it is impossible to allow ingress of an emery paper on a paint and varnish covering a car;
• grinding work is carried out by circular motions with weak pressure;
• it is admissible to remove about 0.1 mm of plastic, otherwise the headlight won't carry out the tasks;
• don't pay attention to change of color of a headlight during a grinding work.

After this process, plastic can take uneven color and darken in some places. You shouldn't be frightened, it is necessary to start only the following step - polishing of headlights by the hands.

If there are no special splits of a surface on plastic of a headlight, it is possible to pass procedure of a grinding work and start at once a final stage of reduction of a headlight in an order.

Headlight polishing at home - features of process

Special value for successful process of polishing has quality of used materials. You shouldn't use the cheapest polishes and old felt circles for work performance. Buy new expendables and get the necessary equipment. For example, it is possible to lease or borrow from the companion good angle grinder.

Process of polishing should be carried out as follows:

• put a small uniform layer of a polish on a headlight;
• execute the first stage of a grinding work by means of a circle;
• wipe a headlight with a soft rag and estimate results;
• put a polish on headlight corners which didn't give in to the first polishing;
• jam corners with a soft rag to reach uniform color of all headlight.

If similar actions were sufficient for giving to a headlight of primitive gloss and transparency, you can start operation of your car and rejoice to excellent work of optics. If finishing of some shortcomings is necessary, repeat procedure once again.

Pay attention that in the absence of result of polishing it is necessary to replace plastic panels of headlights on new ones; differently work of head light won't please you. By the way, similar process can be applied and with rear lights, after all features of plastic on them just the same, as at headlights.

Let's sum up the results

Each motorist can make polishing of headlights of the car by the hands. It isn't necessary to believe myths arising in a network that the toothpaste and a rigid brush will help to clean completely a raid from headlights and give them original state. It is necessary to fight against time trace on plastic with methods described above.

Certainly, there is another choice. It is possible to replace headlights and receive a beautiful and perfectly working element of light. Do you have experience to polish headlights, which you can share with the readers of the publication?