I've been to hell and back over the last few days with my headlights. Mine have a lacquer layer from the previous owner, which is scratched and yellow. I've previously used a headlight restoration kit on them, which helped a bit, but they were still pretty rubbish and I got very jealous of everyone's crystal clear headlights on here.
Decided last week to attack the lights with a solvent lacquer remover (I know!!) and very quickly regretted my life decisions. It made a complete and utter mess of the light, which after the first full can had less lacquer on it, but it was all spread around and gathered in lumps. The headlight was completely opaque and I was panicking about what to do. I figured I was already committed, so I bought more solvent spray and attacked it again today. Bear in mind it involves spraying a small section and using a scraper to scrape a tiny layer at a time. I got it to the point where there were only a few stubborn patches left and then I started with the sanding....with 60 grit wet and dry paper! I went all the way to 5000 grit and then a quick polish.
It's by no means perfect and I do have to go back over again to remove some sanding scratches, but overall I'm bloody pleased that I don't have to drop £300 on a new headlight!
Just need to pluck up the energy and courage to start the other one now. No pics of the interim, complete mess stage as I was too depressed to capture that particular memory. Maybe I'll take one of the second light when I do that.
If anyone would like detailed instructions for my patented method then I suggest you save up and buy yourself some nice new lights!
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