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tegboy
09-05-2005, 05:03 PM
Disclaimer: The following is provided as a GUIDE ONLY, and neither myself nor Ozhonda take any responsibility for the outcomes of someone else doing the following. You follow these steps at your own risk!

Opening remarks:
This practice can be used on pretty much any plastic surface, headlights, taillights..

Aim: To remove the clear coat on the OEM plastic headlights and to remove the yellowing on my beloved 1 piece headlights

Required:
Before you start make sure you have:

1. 10 mm socket-- to remove head-lights
2. Various grades of wet and dry, from 400 grade to 2000, 2 sheets of each
3. Sanding block
4. Bucket with water and a small amount of quality car wash disolved in it
5. A swirl removing car polish-- Meguairs, Mothers, 3m etc.
6. Plastic polish
7. Mothers metal polish (yes really!!)
7b. Meguairs Plastx
8. A power buffer (if you have one, save mondo time)
9. Microfibre cloths
10. Very good lighting
11. Patience
12. I added a Corona with Lime here, choice is yours.

Ok, firstly remove your headlights, I won't go into, because I have a custom front bar, so my lights have been modded slightly. But basically there is 3 10mm bolts on top, and 2 10mm behind bumper bar.

Remember to unplug headlights of course, and then remove them.

Once they are out, examine how bad they really are. Mine were all yellowed.

I placed my headlight in a bench vice, simply to hold it, made life much easier to work on... OK, lets begin.

Cut your wet and dry into the correct sizes for your sanding block, once done, put them into the bucket of water and let sit for 20 mins or so, this makes them less likely to scratch. After 20 mins, remove your first piece of wet and dry the 400 grit.

Use the 400 grit sandpaper and start sanding the surface of the lights lengthwise in only a side to side motion. DON'T CHANGE DIRECTIONS (ie..up/down or circles). I sprayed the surface of the headlights water to lube them, and started to sand, you don't have to push hard, soon you will notice the clear coat starts to come off. You'll be able to tell where it is and isn't coming off.

Repeat above procedure with the 600 grit sandpaper after all of the clearcoat is removed (use water).
(inspect to see, how the clear coat or yellowing is coming off)

Repeat using 1000 grit sandpaper with water.
(inspect to see, how the clear coat or yellowing is coming off)

Repeat using 1500 grit sandpaper with water.
(inspect to see, how the clear coat or yellowing is coming off)

Repeat using 2000 grit sandpaper with water.

By now they should be smooth and flat, there will be some micro marring, but this is where the polishes come into play to remove all this.

Firstly, hold them up to the light to inspect, you cannot do this too often to see where more sanding or work is needed to get them perfect.

I first covered them in the Mother metal polish and buffed them from right to left etc, to remove most marks, then wiped with the microfibre cloth to remove the excess.

Then, hit them with your favorite swirl removing polish, buff this until it hazes, and leave for 20 mins or so. (crack a beer at this point :) ) Then come back and buff off all the polish. Once cleared, inspect again (give yourself a pat on the back, they will be looking awesome at this point)

But more polish is involved, to get them super shiny and add a protective layer, grab the Plastx and follow the directions and applied as instructed.

I used my trusted Random Orbit Buffer for all the polishing steps, you can work by hands, its just more effort and time intensive.

Pics:

http://www.planetspeedy.com/tegboy/lights_b4.jpg

http://www.planetspeedy.com/tegboy/image%28071%29txt.jpg

I haven't reinstalled them yet, as I am waiting on my Raybrig globes to arrive, but looking at the headlights now, my night vision should be much better..

I think that's about it, any questions??
Excuse the dead grass-- damn drought :)

dc2dc2dc2
09-05-2005, 05:56 PM
OMG~ that is good, im gonna try it on weekend if its not raining. when using the sandpaper, dones't it scratch the plastic surface of the headlights?

tegboy
09-05-2005, 06:13 PM
OMG~ that is good, im gonna try it on weekend if its not raining. when using the sandpaper, dones't it scratch the plastic surface of the headlights?

It scratches kinda, but the polishes will remove most of them.

Paul1985
09-05-2005, 06:34 PM
that came up really good tegboy, top idea :)

Boost Cruisin
11-05-2005, 07:53 PM
damn i definately must do that! good write up tegboy

r`Geno
11-05-2005, 08:27 PM
Great write up buddy!

egSi
12-05-2005, 06:27 AM
very nice write up mate. this will work on most faded old school lights yeah?

tegboy
12-05-2005, 06:40 AM
Trav, it should work with any plastic headlight or taillight or the indicators

tegboy
04-06-2005, 12:47 PM
I did a set of DC2 tail-lights and the same proceedure, worked perfectly

TYPE-ONE
10-06-2005, 04:15 AM
how does the yellow shit get there. ?

Redteg
14-06-2005, 09:52 PM
how does the yellow shit get there. ?

From factory, the one pieces have some form of clear-coat on them which yellows over time.

Good write-up tegboy!

joyride
18-06-2005, 04:37 PM
mate, i just have to say that is some fricken awesome work. :thumbup:

Bensarus
13-07-2006, 10:42 PM
Just did mine today.. had trouble finding the bolts to take off the bumper first to take the lights out, didnt take the lights out in the end, did it on the car itself without the bumper... worked out really really fine!!! AWESOME TIP!

http://www.geocities.com/loyalionel/IMG_0115.JPG
that's after using 800grit

http://www.geocities.com/loyalionel/IMG_0121.JPG
Final product after using Mother's Plastic Polish

http://www.geocities.com/loyalionel/IMG_0123.JPG
With lights on... power increase when travelling without front bumper... strange...

http://www.geocities.com/loyalionel/IMG_0125.JPG
everything fixed up and ready to see the world...

cheers tegboy.. next is air filter...

crispy
15-07-2006, 10:43 AM
Bensarus, you gotta do a photo shoot and post it, cos i wanna see more of your car.. Looks hot

INTEGGRA
15-07-2006, 11:28 AM
That tip is off www.g2ic.com unless you came up with the whole thing on your own id suggest in giving them the credit.
http://www.g2ic.com/tegtips/lighting/12.html
i did it off the site and here before and after
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/INTEGGRA/lights.jpg

as for the sand paper scratching it yeh it does but you sand them out when you start using the wet 1200grit.Best thing to do is sand it for with the wet 1200 then dry it,and then polish it back in the sunlight so you can see if there is any scratches there still.

tegboy
19-07-2006, 05:56 PM
Integrra- yes, I have read the G2ic way, but my way, was exactly that. I used slightly different methods and different products, taht I found worked better, hell there only so many ways to buff plastic.

Bensarus
23-07-2006, 03:00 AM
Bensarus, you gotta do a photo shoot and post it, cos i wanna see more of your car.. Looks hot

lol.. thanks man... but nothing much is actually done to the car.. just some really good lighting and great clear headlights that makes the whole thing nice... original bodykit, nothing else.... tints are peeling and tyres/rims are dull looking.. hahah!!! but i'm thinking of restoring the car soon... bring it to a really nice colour... recommendations? and change the rims...

thanks for the compliments though... thumbs up to tegboy for the tip... really makes the car look 10 times nicer....

iket
31-07-2006, 11:43 PM
That tip is off www.g2ic.com unless you came up with the whole thing on your own id suggest in giving them the credit.
Mate there are many sites out there that tell you how to do this, but it's the same for many of the DIY's on this site! If tegboy claims it as his works, let him claim it! No one else on ozhonda seems to be complaining.

By the way tegboy, nice write up... I need to get this done on my ride too... my lenses are all yellow :(

Cr@ckerJ@ck
03-08-2006, 10:49 PM
Awesome guys, when I had my 89 LS my headlights looked like shite!
How long dose the whole process take?

loyalionel
04-08-2006, 01:19 AM
Awesome guys, when I had my 89 LS my headlights looked like shite!
How long dose the whole process take?


it took me a total of about 3-4 hrs including a break or two... it was a combined effort between me and my brother. had probs trying to find the bumper nut to remove it, so that adds up to the 3-4 hrs too... haha.. but if u know wat u're doing, should take about 2-3 hrs max...

iket
07-08-2006, 03:23 PM
Where abouts can you buy plastic polish and that plastx stuff from? I went to repco today and they didn't have either in store. All they had were metal polishes.

loyalionel
08-08-2006, 12:30 AM
Where abouts can you buy plastic polish and that plastx stuff from? I went to repco today and they didn't have either in store. All they had were metal polishes.

try Mother's plastic polish from Super Cheap Auto... (i think that's where i got mine...) or the place which TEGBOY recommended... and try to get it... it works wonders on the headlights man...

have fun and all the best...

loyal

turtleEK1
08-08-2006, 11:14 AM
i did my EK headlights as well a while ago for it seems to be a common thing for them! and i used meguiers metal polish along with 600grit, 1200grit and 2000grit!! came out fine!! just need patience, won't come out straight away!!

top DIY:thumbsup:

FR33K
08-08-2006, 11:20 AM
Bensarus do you have an imported LS or just JDM headlights ?

loyalionel
19-08-2006, 01:24 PM
Bensarus do you have an imported LS or just JDM headlights ?


Hey FR33K, i seriously think it's Imported... because i only can put h4h into it... not australian compliance h4's in them... but ether way, if i'm wrong.. i think it should be imported...

looking for JDM headlights... and lightbulbs... any info on it?

but yea.. wat made u ask this qn? haha!

cheers though,
Ben

Mr_will
19-08-2006, 03:22 PM
Hey FR33K, i seriously think it's Imported... because i only can put h4h into it... not australian compliance h4's in them... but ether way, if i'm wrong.. i think it should be imported...

looking for JDM headlights... and lightbulbs... any info on it?

but yea.. wat made u ask this qn? haha!

cheers though,
Ben


h4h are in standard OBDO LS integras. i have one, it is AUDM, and it has h4h.

FR33K
19-08-2006, 03:53 PM
yes all LS's are H4H..
but the reason i ask is coz you have foglights (replacing the highbeam) but you have a b18a (not making it an XSi)..

loyalionel
22-08-2006, 12:29 AM
yes all LS's are H4H..
but the reason i ask is coz you have foglights (replacing the highbeam) but you have a b18a (not making it an XSi)..

so wat u're saying is there's a chance it might be imported from japan?.. i was thinking no wonder my high beams aren't white but yellow...

is there a difference between imported and not imported LS?

plus.. where do u get headlights? i want h4h's 4500k ones... or at least some kinda h4h lights to replace my current ones...

FR33K
22-08-2006, 07:41 PM
your car looks dark/navy blue (a colour not offered in Australia)..

dont think theres any difference between AUDM LS and JDM LS..

loyalionel
23-08-2006, 12:18 PM
your car looks dark/navy blue (a colour not offered in Australia)..

dont think theres any difference between AUDM LS and JDM LS..

haha.. mate.. sorry man.. my car's metallic grey... kinda gunsilver or something...

but thaanks for the interest... :thumbsup:
saw a couple of nice LS's aruond... for for a car with 270K+++ kms on it.. not worth to mod.. probably just make it look nice...

ani info to getting H4H's around perth or sydney.. let me in on it.. wanna get blubs... :cool:

tegboy
23-08-2006, 02:58 PM
www.ozeparts.com.au

Got my last set for me. They were good to deal with.

FR33K
23-08-2006, 07:24 PM
oh ok maybe ur car has been in a crash and the lights were replaced with JDM ones then.

loyalionel
31-08-2006, 11:28 AM
oh ok maybe ur car has been in a crash and the lights were replaced with JDM ones then.


haha.. well, it hasn't been in an accident yet.. but yea.. i dun see ani further point in pushing this topic.. thanks for the interest though.. and Tegboy, thanksf or the site, how much did u pay for yrs including delivery?

:cool:

iket
07-03-2007, 03:30 PM
Hey guys, I know I'm bringing up an old thread, but I did a sand down and polish of my headlights about 6 months ago and now they are slowly turning yellow again!
Is there something I was meant to apply like a clear coat to prevent this happening again? or is it normal?

wkdteg
10-03-2007, 04:40 PM
wat products did u use?

FR33K
10-03-2007, 04:48 PM
Hey guys, I know I'm bringing up an old thread, but I did a sand down and polish of my headlights about 6 months ago and now they are slowly turning yellow again!
Is there something I was meant to apply like a clear coat to prevent this happening again? or is it normal?

yes i believe so

Mr_will
11-03-2007, 09:26 AM
yes you were meant to apply a clear coat.
i did 4 or 5 because i really didnt want to be doing this again.

your best bet is to start again, and make sure you apply the clear coat this time

iket
11-03-2007, 09:49 PM
:( gee I was hoping I didn't miss something

Looks like I'll have to do it all again
Thanks anyway guys

sikisdr69
11-03-2007, 10:04 PM
would this work on angel eyes

Mr_will
11-03-2007, 10:17 PM
if they are housed in similar plastic yes.

sikisdr69
15-03-2007, 06:25 PM
hey guys where can i get the clear coat from, is it just normal car body clear coat

FR33K
15-03-2007, 08:51 PM
id assume any car shop would have them ??

IZY-10
15-03-2007, 08:59 PM
i wouldnt reccomend it to angel lights. the plastic is clear so any mistakes/gouges in the plastic is going to stand out. With the oem lights it is different you can get away with a mistake or two

sikisdr69
15-03-2007, 09:27 PM
is it possible to get a glass set made up i wonder has anyone heard of anyone doing it or know if it can be done

URBAN4
22-03-2007, 03:48 PM
It would be quite expensive because of the way they curve around.

90ls
22-05-2007, 06:36 PM
ey guys. i just got myself a first car a 1990 integra LS, and i just cant seen to find these 2 10mm bolts at the back of the lights. could somebody pm me with location or actual pictures of the location???

would be good...thanx :)

wkdteg
22-05-2007, 06:41 PM
im not 100%, but i think u need 2 take off the front bar?
can any1 confirm

FR33K
03-06-2007, 05:49 PM
3 bolts up the top
2 underneath when you remove the front bar