successful headlight polishing
 

<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/84348/dsc00587.jpg"></center><p>before pic above


A few weeks ago there was a post regarding headlight polishing and various products/techniques out there. I took Audi-Sav's advice on a kit by Micro Surface polishing products and am very happy with the results. I had the typical sandblasted headlight lenses one would expect with a '98 with 115k, and was sure that replacement was in order. The pitting was deep, and polishing with typical plastic polish did nothing. I wasn't comfortable using rubbing compound on a buffing pad for fear of making things worse due to heat issues and such, so I opted for the kit that consisted of various grades of wet sandpaper bonded to a flexible foam base, ranging from 120 grit to 12,000 grit. The process was simple, a bucket of fresh water with a drop of liquid detergent, a towel for rinsing, and starting with 120 grit in one direction, then rinse bucket and sand with 220 in a perpendicular direction until the 120 grit lines are removed, rinse, sand with 400 grade perpendicular to 220 grade until 220 grade lines are removed...up to 12,000.
You commit yourself to the job once you hit the lense with 120 grit. I had a sick feeling inside until I started seeing results with the 1500 grade. It is very manual and repetative, and you have to be careful not to scratch the surrounding paint/trim (just use tape to cover it up), but the results are spectacular.
Check out the before/after. More pics are in my pic post. If anyone is interested I still have one headlight left to do (it's twenty degrees outside again, so it may take a while) and would write up a tech article.<ul><li><a href="https://www.micro-surface.com/default.cfm?page_id=90&amp;ID=3KHDLGT&amp;storeid= 1">https://www.micro-surface.com/default.cfm?page_id=90&amp;ID=3KHDLGT&amp;storeid= 1</a</li></ul>

After picture
 

<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/84348/dsc00586.jpg"></center><p>
2 more pics in my picture forum.<ul><li><a href="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/users/84348.phtml">http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/users/84348.phtml</a</li></ul>

looks good.....at least from the photos
 

i'm assuming that with the headlights on the light pattern is good....that would be an interesting photo to try, since one is before and the other after....

your light covers must not be coated....any idea how much material was removed....for example is the raised/imprinted wording all gone?

cheers

Looks like some elbow grease paid you some big dividends! ;-)

Looks great!

Re: amount of material removed
 

I sanded just enough to remove 99% of the pitting. There are a couple tiny pinhead size pits left that were deeper than the rest after I was done with the 120 grade, I just left them instead of taking off more material. I checked my work every 50 passes. My headlights had no coating, and suprisingly no raised lettering. I can't really estimate the amount of material removed, I can only say that it was negligible. You take off the most material with the 120 and 240 grade, subsequent grades bearly take anything off, and progress is not noticed until you get to 1600 or so. The only thing I noticed and used as a guide were the scratches left from the previous grade of sand paper. As the horizontal scratches from the 120 grade were replaced by vertical 240 grade scratches, I knew it was time to move on to the 400 grade to remove the vertical 240 grade scratches and replace them with horizontal 400 grade scratches, etc.

Looks great but
 

I would be tempted to use a power sander.

so the final stage was really 12000 grit?.....
 

i've used up to 2000 maybe 4000 but didn't know 12k was available. that no doubt is the key to a nice final outcome...along with sticking to the v/h pattern.

cheers

Re: Looks great but
 

Actually, after the first hour I was thinking about inventing a belt sander retrofitted to use wet sand paper. Kinda like a cross between a tile cutter and a belt sander. An untapped market perhaps? Probably not, I'd sell like 1, probably to myself.

Re: so the final stage was really 12000 grit?.....
 

Yep, but it skips from 4000 to 12000. I felt like I was rubbing a piece of ordinary paper on my lens.