DC5 Headlight restoration

[SevenDust]

Hello everyone. Just thought of sharing my headlight restoration work with you guys. Inspired to share by our brother Veloc who did the restoration on his future father-in-law's ride hehe.

Enough with the talking and on to the show :)
Over the weekend i got a call from a friend who needed help in clearing up his headlights. So i packed my stuff and headed over to see the condition that is was in. This was how it looked like when i arrived. As mentioned by the others, these JDM and UDM headlights are not able to endure our harsh weather conditions. And this was no walk in the park. The once clear headlights had turned yellow and cloudy.


Upon closer inspection, one side of the headlights had been opened before and perhaps the previous owner had coated the inner side of the lamp.




There were many micro-cracks on the lamp. Couldn't capture those with my camera. I didn't manage to take photos at each stage of the fix as i was pressed for time. I initially started wetsanding with the 800 grit sandpaper but noticed that it wasnt removing enough of the old yellowish plastic. So i moved to the 600 grit and it was much much better. Be careful not to get carried away in sanding too much than what is needed. So i moved up from 600 > 800 > 1000 > 1500 > 2000. After all that, let the compounding begin!

remember before?




After





Passenger side before:



After






One more from the front before:





After




Finished up with a round of M205 and OPC to remove any polish residue. The final step was applying the Opti-Coat 2.0.



From this:


To this :)


The tools used:
- Washed with ONR
- Clayed with ONR as the lube
- Wet sanded with 600, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000 grit with ONR as lube
- Compound with Megs M105 with LC purple wool pad
- Polished and finished with Megs M205 with LC white polishing pad
- Washed/Rinsed with OPC
- Coated with Opti-Coat 2.0

Thanks for looking! Special thanks to KC, Seech and muyo too for their pointers and guidance :)

[kc2]

Originally Posted by SevenDust

Hello everyone. Just thought of sharing my headlight restoration work with you guys. Inspired to share by our brother Veloc who did the restoration on his future father-in-law's ride hehe.

Thanks for looking! Special thanks to KC, Seech and muyo too for their pointers and guidance :)

CONGRATS BUDDY
you make it & needn;t to thank us

its your passion who led your there


now lets look for a jumbo jet to detail


Cheerio

I am glad u pushes yr limit & Proud of your achievement


keep them coming

[seech]

Nice job bro!!! The OC2 should provide a permanent barrier to prevent the headlights from fading again.

[SevenDust]

Originally Posted by kc2

CONGRATS BUDDY
you make it & needn;t to thank us

its your passion who led your there


now lets look for a jumbo jet to detail


Cheerio

I am glad u pushes yr limit & Proud of your achievement


keep them coming

Thanks for your words of encouragement KC! haha count me in on the jumbo jet detailing session :D

---------- Post added at 12:52 PM ---------- 6 hour anti-bump limit - Previous post was at 12:51 PM ----------

Originally Posted by seech

Nice job bro!!! The OC2 should provide a permanent barrier to prevent the headlights from fading again.

Thanks Seech! yeah, took your advice and that's why i picked up the OC2 from you that night :)

[kimoka]

Great job!

[nocturnal]

totally agree with KC2..." its ur passion that lead you there"..good job btw dude...

[s1tl]

wow is that ur car!?

[kc2]

Originally Posted by s1tl

wow is that ur car!?

nope..its mine......u know who is it or not buddy..... we all met.....!!!!!!

[s1tl]

ya meh!! who is it!!

[Veloc]

Wow very nice work on a very nice car man! And it's so nice so have it opti-coated after the restoration. I myself haven't got that yet... Keep it up!

By the way, have we met? Are you from one of KC's detailing clinic as well?

[muyo]

i assume this detailer must be eric btw, two thumbs up for the restoration!

[rabakshoe]

wow nice !!

[SevenDust]

Originally Posted by muyo

i assume this detailer must be eric btw, two thumbs up for the restoration!

Haha bingo! You guessed right bro! Thanks btw!

---------- Post added at 02:13 PM ---------- 6 hour anti-bump limit - Previous post was at 01:55 PM ----------

Originally Posted by nocturnal

totally agree with KC2..." its ur passion that lead you there"..good job btw dude...

Thanks very much for the compliments :)

---------- Post added at 02:14 PM ---------- 6 hour anti-bump limit - Previous post was at 02:13 PM ----------

Originally Posted by nocturnal

totally agree with KC2..." its ur passion that lead you there"..good job btw dude...

Thanks very much for the compliments :)

---------- Post added at 02:15 PM ---------- 6 hour anti-bump limit - Previous post was at 02:14 PM ----------

Originally Posted by nocturnal

totally agree with KC2..." its ur passion that lead you there"..good job btw dude...

Thanks very much for the compliments :)

[s1tl]

wow eric good job yo! keep the post coming!!

[fizdetail]

great work buddy....