Archive for September, 2008

How To Polish Headlights on a 5th Gen Honda Prelude .

WRITE UP: How to polish headlights

:BEFORE PICTURES:

*** STEP 1 ***

Clean the headlights with water and soap.
Then, turn the hose down so it’s just barely flowing. Place it over the headlights and with some 2000 grit wet sandpaper start to rub the damaged area.

Only take off only a small layer of the plastic off the headlights. With a harsher sandpaper, it will dig into the plastic further will be harder to polish it crystal clear.

The key (I believe) is NOT to press down with the wet sandpaper. Just let the weight of your hand apply the pressure to the surface. Make sure to keep the water flowing over the rubbed area to clean off the removed plastic particles. Be patient. It will take awhile, but worth it in the end.
By doing the step above, it will make polishing much easier.

NOTE: I did not remove my headlights from the car. Just watch out and don’t sand your paint. I used sloooow circular motions.
Feel free to remove the headlights if you wish to do so.

*** STEP 2 ***

After the area is sanded down smooth, wash it one last time and dry it with a towel.

Next, take your polish and apply it directly to the headlights on a SMALL area. Take your finger and rub it a little to spread it out.
With a dremel and polishing wheel, go ahead and start polishing the area.

The key is to adjust the dremel speed so it’s not too fast. Plus, you want to keep the polishing wheel moving. You don’t want to leave it too long in one area because it will burn or warp the plastic….especially if you’re using a small polishing wheel like I was.

After you finishing polishing that small area, go ahead and buff it clear with a clean towel. You may have to polish it again, depending on how bad the damage is.

Now it’s time to move on to the next small area. Continue with the same steps as above. The reasons for polishing in small areas is to ensure the polish doesn’t dry up before you get a chance to get to it and so you don’t loose track of what has and hasn’t been polished. It’s BEST to polish the headlight evenly over the whole surface. That way you don’t get light or high and low spots.

Ideally, you would want to use a larger wheel to ensure an even polished surface.