I love your process but I would recommend that during the first sanding stage that you drop down to a much more aggressive grit sandpaper than 600. That's why you were not able to get those imperfections out of the plastic because they were much deeper than your 600 grit could remove. I've used 220 and worked all the way up to 1000 grit before shooting the clear. Hope it helps.
Beautifully done. Just one concern. Clear may flake off after a while because of being on plastic. I will add a thin coat off plastic primer just before the Clear. Plastic primer is also transparent.
That looks awesome! That was a quick turnaround time from receiving it and using it. Also thank you for pronouncing my screen name correctly. You'd be surprise how many people have trouble with it
@@JamesDguy I have a bag of that pearl I bought previously im going to use on my motorcycle when I get the time to tear it down and repaint.it. going over petty blue if I haven't commented it before
Great video. The pearl was an awesome touch to it. I would of gone over it with 2k grit. And always go in one direction. That's what worked the best for me.
ReggaeDubSoundSystem I usually do 2k grit if ima buff them out without the clear the reason I stop at 1000 is so it has something to bite when I clear.
Great job I gotta say I am impressed I was kinda sketch about spraying outside I figured you would get a lot of dirt or misc crap but nope they came out super sweet! God bless brother keep up the great work
Your content never seems to disappoint us! The videos keep getting better and better! What clear would you recommend that’s in a can to do this if you don’t have a gun???And are the methods the same with the rattle can as it would be with the gun?
James! Good vid; I usually just use tape for the sanding and change that out and clean/tape/paper again for clear; cool idea using the pearl in the clear; with several colored pearls available, some cool effects could be had. With that run, you could have tried the air only from the gun to spread it out before more clear. Keep up the creative work my man.
Headlights came out nice man! I tried clear coat on mine and it did not came out nowhere near yours. I’ll definitely try it again following your tips. I’ll let you know when I try it.
A lot of these vehicles that's 2012 or newer will have that factory clear coat on it. It looks like they've decided to use acrylic plastic for the headlights. They don't yellow but it gets all those tiny little cracks you see in them. The Poly carbonate plastics prior to 2012 just turns yellow without all those little cracks. Those are the easiest and nicest headlights to do and they always turn out gorgeous when you finish doing them. These acrylic clear coated headlights are a total dog fight to remove the clear coat. They take 3 times longer to repair than poly carbonate plastic. The clear coat is thicker and harder than the typical UV coat that the poly carbonate plastic has on them.
@@JamesDguy Would love it if you did a follow up video with a junk-yard light housing or two that has the same flaw, see if the heat gun does work, or not.
U need a spray bottle with dawn dishwsoap and water to wet ur area when wet sanding. Another great tool is a ordinary water bottle drill a hole in the cap and fill it the water will trickle out perfectly.
Hey bro did you know a Mr.Clean magic eraser will take out the yellow hew in you head light housing to and then use a really good wax behind it . Cheap and easy works great to . I use them all the time on car's . It also takes off old condensation . 💯😁
You can stop at 800 and clear. I would be worried about delamination in the long run as 2000 wet sand is not much bite. An adhesion promoter mist coat would probably help, too.
Jeremiah Gaskins Yes that’s usually why I stop at 1000 grit. I have done the 2000 grit in the past and clear coated and never had a issue but to be safe I did this 1000 grit so others don’t have a issue.
The only thing you missed is plastic adhesion promoter, you really want to put a 1k plastic primer on before the clear coat........ another one that people miss is you can cover 800 wet/dry scratches with clear easy giving a perfect key, if you take the scratches down to 3000 for example you will run into adhesion issues after a few heat cycles (you should never apply paint to anything shiny as it won't key especially if it's not self etching)
I find it funny that you kinda look like hawkeye and have a shield truck in your driveway. This is what hawkeye does during the off season, paints rad cars.
Awesome video man! I just painted my car using your guidance. Thanks a million! One question - can I use the Ultra Cover 2K gloss clear in a can instead of what you used in the video? New to this whole thing
Daniel Kudrinsky Ultra cover 2X not 2k because they don’t make a 2K you can buy at Walmart. Keep in mind there is a big difference in the paint. One paint is a 2 part one part paint 2nd part catalyst which hardens up the paint and makes it Uv resistant. The 2X paint don’t work or last nearly as good as the 2K in the spray can or the spray gun. 2k is where it’s at.
@@JamesDguy your headlights were pretty oxidized to begin with so it may have been helpful just cleaning up the lens like that even if it distorted it. Haha. Looks great.
Sprayway customs RU-vid channel, added black to the clear to tint the headlights, that turns out really well too. I'm sure you could use a touch of color as well, hint hint 😉😉
Can you give a guestimate on how long you spent on ALL of the sanding stage? I think the key with this work, is how much patience you have to put in the time to sand. That crazing, I found on some of my spare headlights I was sanding to recondition -- sometimes it's IN the plastic. Sometimes it's a surface layer crazing that can be cut through. I've gone as low as 400 grit when there is that surface crazing, to cut through it, or when there's a deeper rock chip or deeper scratch to rehab. You pay for it in the time you spend stepping up to 600 grit, removing the 400 grit sanding marks.
chrstphrr I spent roughly an hour total on both head lights in sanding but could have spent more if it wasn’t 100 degrees and humid as could be outside. I was kinda ready to just get it done lol. I did work for awhile on the passenger headlight trying to get that crack look out.
@@JamesDguy Seems like dealing with headlights with flaws is a bit of an art more than a science... I guess trying enough of them, one gets a better idea of what can be corrected, and what you have to give up on. Not that I'm suggesting you sand for 20 hours on dozens of headlights, to then edit footage for a short video. Totally understand not wanting to spend hours on end in the heat and humidity. I've done any headlights usually in the shade, which well, is conducive to sanding for more than an hour, but not so good for capturing footage to show the rest of us. Much appreciated that you replied, and the video itself.
U should have used the (SPRAY MAX) 2K aerosol clearcoat. Its just as good as the kind u put in a paint gun . Great for folks who dont have a gun and compressor.
deadbugdoug Nope the buffing process is the method used by most people after sanding but I prefer the clear coat method using 2K clear it fills in sand scratches pretty well
Don't do this unless the headlights are so hammered that nothing else will work. The clear doesn't stick well to the plastic, will chip quickly and will yellow differently depending on the angle the light hits it. The heat from the bulb also hits it and makes it brittle making all of that worse. Finally, in a year or 2 they will look worse than they did before you started (actually, the ones you started with look like they may have been clear-coated, the part that you said "plastic that's actually destroyed" looks like what you get, the upper surfaces didn't bake as badly and you sanded through it easily, that area in the middle looked like old clear that has hardened and become difficult to deal with), and if you try to fix they correctly they are MUCH harder to do because if you used urethane clear it will cure harder than the plastic making it MUCH more difficult to sand evenly without putting facets in the face of the plastic that will mess up the light pattern. This is coming from someone that has fixed a few sets that were done like that, including my Dodge Ram headlights that I just did which the dealer cleared to make it look good to sell it. If they were mine I would strip them and do them right now, while the clear is still soft, or just resign myself that I will be buying new ones in a couple of years, you have to sand like 5x as much and more carefully to fix clear coated ones. The right way is to wet sand them using something like a sponge for a backer (your hands will leave finger width grooves in it, a harder block won't conform to the curves). Mother's makes a VERY nice kit that works in a drill (or even better, the air random orbit sander that HF sells), but doesn't come with enough grades of sandpaper. You can get away with what is in the kit if the lenses are just lightly scratched/discolored. More than that, you can save yourself a lot of time by getting as many grits as possible. Start with something between 320 and 600 depending on how bad they are. You can skip grits, but that just means you'll have to work 2-3x as much with the next one to get the same results. I'll have 320, 400, 600, 1000, 1500, 2000, 3000 (trizact, it's already attached to some foam). Always WET with a little dish soap in it for lube (I work over a bucket, throw the pieces of paper that I will use in the bucket to soften the backer, I also keep a spray bottle full of the water/soap to keep what I'm working on soaked). The 2000 saves a lot of time polishing. Go over it with 3000 and you can almost just wipe the polish around by hand and get a decent finish (the Mother's powerball is better). There is also 5000 trizact out there but I've never tried it, I suspect it will make the procedure better. I've never regretted adding a sandpaper step, the more you use the faster it goes and better it comes out. When I finish I give it a coat of some very hard natural wax and then cover that with a coat of synthetic and it's bulletproof for years after that.
Mark Pikas The yellowing people talk about it’s from crappy clear coat such as a 1 part not a 2k or 2 part clear. I never had issues doing this out of the many many I have done. The yellowing happened on 1 set due to the clear being cheap $5 clear rustoleum from Walmart. It’s it touchy subject to some but for me this method is tried and true and last many years without flaking or chipping (if you do it right of course). The coating and buffing method works good for awhile but as seems to dull over time matter of 3-6 months. In the end it’s up to the owner of the vehicle.
@@JamesDguy Thanks for the input there, it gives me more confidence to give it a go. As after reading this post, I was worried about making it a lot worse, rather than just leaving them be.
actually clear coating it is not the best way of restoring headlights. over time, it will start chipping/peeling no matter how many coat of clear you apply. also the clear will cause the lighting on your headlight to not be as bright because of the coating you applied on there. the best way to properly restore your headlight is to sand them down like you did then apply headlight restore polish on there then after you get a nice and clear you apply a clear protector film on the headlight.
OnTheRun I never had any issues doing it his way. There are big debates on this and I’ll just agree to disagree to save arguing lol. I do what gets results and don’t cause issues. It’s tried and true for me. I have done both ways. The painting method and the buffing/polishing method. Honestly either is good for me. To each their own.
I need to get a compressor and a better sprayer. The sprayer that I have is an electric one and it's great for painting walls but not for painting cars.
Ezequiel Palma I don’t like projects style headlights. Never had good visibility with them no matter how high dollar they were either. Must just doing it wrong or just don’t prefer them idk
@@JamesDguy oh! The job you done was great!. I recommend you doing it because I retrofited my corolla headlights and they changed completely the light output. It was like day and night difference. And with the morimotos it's very easy because they are designed to be mounted on the bulb hole. Either way job looks very good.
It's not oxidization, it's UV damage from the sun........ the coating that fails and goes yellow is the UV protection, if you flat it off and polish it back you will find a year or so later that those cracks start to appear. If you Clear coat a headlight make sure the paint you use has UV protection in it!! allot of aerosol 1k clear doesn't. Regarding the cracks in the lens you can make it look better but there is no way of fixing it.
Bro I was cleaning it And then i remove the headlights to do the black housing My little brother accidently sanded the interior off the plastic cover headlights idk how to call thatt I've already sanded the exterior but my lil brother tryna help he did know which so he accidently sanded the interior It's staying blurry😭😭 Even im polishing it Is clear coat will help? Sorry for my English
Sounds like the best approach with a 2k clear aerosol, is to prep a bunch of things to paint - trim and parts you have off the car loose, then sand the headlights last, spray them all at one go.
Black T Built There is a paint supply place here in Texas that has them but haven’t found them anywhere else. And the 2X isn’t the same as 2K nowhere near the same.
He will link you anything under the sun and tell you it is the best thing since sliced bread with butter as long as it will make him money. Way too much opinion never backed up by fact. 😂
If the headlights have already been sprayed with a 'non 2k' clear that has cracked and crazed can they be sanded and cleared with the 2k clear without any problems?
It's only 2k that's caused the polycarbonate to have micro cracking, No other certified clearcoat will will do this as 2k bonds to hard!! And not ment for headlights? Only car bodies, Rule of thumb if it's not written on the can don't use it!! 🤔🤣💩
@@keithroberts5611 interesting..since these headlights have never been cleared with 2k clear. And, I work in a collision shop (48 years). We've cleared headlights with 2k clear for years, never had any cracking problems. And we've done several hundred sets too. These on my personal car were cleared with spray can clear, and it cracked. "Certified clear coats"? To my knowledge there is only one clear coat that is specifically "certified" to use on headlights. Spraymax 2k in a can (which is not what I used on mine). You know any others that are specifically certified for headlights?
@@bondoman2k There are many Certified Clearcoats on the market right now!! Megiurs,Sylvania,3M, Dupli-Color,These are just a few there's a lot more!! All the above have Sun Blockers uv protection,For durability, All made for polycarbonate headlights!!!🤔
You said there's a little damage inside the polycarbonate lens that can't be repaired!!! I just hope you keep this vehicle long enough to find out for yourself they you should never ever put 2k on your headlights,Its far to hard and can permanently damage your headlights, 🤔 😢😮
