HELP!!! Stupid Mistake I made........

[lazykhoe]

I was very naive and young. I decided to paint my headlights with a high heat engine enamel with a pattern of ovals for the light to come out of. (I did this 4 years ago) Now that i'm not a rice rocket boy i've realized my stupidity and want to remove the paint. Anybody have advice on the best way to remove this kind of paint off my headlights?

 

[dsm4life]

sell them

 

[Lunch_Box]

People wet sand there head lights with like 1500 grit to get the straches out so you can try this. Or start rougher and work your way to 1500 then use a pollish.

 

[lazykhoe]

i'm going to try that out, going to the ace hardware to pick up some 400, 600, 1000, and 1500 grit sandpaper. Along with some plastic cleaner and polisher. Hope it goes ok. Just concerned though that i might damage the plastic.......

 

[curtisimo]

you should be able to sand them. I have a headlight refinishing kit that starts at 150 grit and ends up with 2400 grit. i works great. Just make sure you get all of the paint off with the first paper you use or it wont work so good.

 

[lazykhoe]

So last night i bought some sand paper and started sanding off. I successfully got all the paint off the headlight!! YAY! I had my girlfriend help me out, best date ever. Took a few hours but got if off. Wasn't able to get any grit higher than 600 so i'll have to go to pep boys to get some finer grit. One question, will it shine and look less hazy when i move it up grit by grit, all the way up to 1400 grit? Or will it still look dull until i polish it up?

 

[silvercoupe97]

One question, will it shine and look less hazy when i move it up grit by grit, all the way up to 1400 grit? Or will it still look dull until i polish it up?

Yes, it will remove the haze. Don't stop at 1400 though, go up to 2000 and keep the paper wet. The plastic polish will get the really fine haze out.

 

[Lzybum06]

Another option may have been some paint/lacquer thinner or something that the paint says for cleanup. But since it's too late for that, a lot of people also use a metal polish for headlights and it works good. It gets more of the haze then a plastic polish will. I have used both from Mother's and the metal got a lot more off, then you could hit it with the plastic for finishing.

 

[Wicked96GS-T]

After wet sanding the lenses up to 2000 grit, use either Meguier's Scratch-X or Mothers mag/aluminum polish. It will take some elbow grease, and maybe a couple of applications to completely remove the haze. It will all be worth it in the end.

 

[Defiant]

I think there's five or six Tech Articles about "headlight clearing", and at least twenty threads about it.

Refer to any of those.