How to polish the lights with their own hands

How to polish the lights with your own hands? Not so easy. But it is quite doable, if you have all the necessary materials and a place where to do it. You will not do polishing directly on the street. Still, the occupation is not pure. Dust flying in all directions, pieces of abrasive ... Plus, then for finishing one should completely eliminate dust particles in the air. Otherwise, all the work will be in vain. But first things first.

What is the need to polish headlights? A new car is completely unnecessary. But a typewriter that has already ridden on our roads for at least two years is necessary. Now most cars come with plastic headlights. Despite the protective coating, grains of sand and small pebbles flying from under the wheels do their insidious work. They leave microscratches on the surface of the plastic, which are imperceptible at first. But over time, the lights become matte.Troubles add chemicals on the roads and oil from the exhaust of other cars.

All anything, but defocusing occurs. That is, instead of a directional flow of light, a blurry spot is obtained. And this can lead to undesirable consequences. After all, such muddy headlights begin to glare. They catch the reflections of the light of oncoming cars and return them to the road in front of you. At some point this will be the cause of the accident.

How to find out if you need polishing headlights of your car? Very simple. At night, shine on a flat wall. It should make a clear circle or oval. If the edges of the spots are vague, then it's time to refresh the eyes of your car.

What ways can you polish the lights with your own hands? Without recourse to professionals there are only three:

• Small scratches. Polishing with a special agent or paste.
• Medium scratches. Hand grinding.
• Deep scratches. Polished using a special set.

All methods are equally well proven, provided proper performance, and allow you to save a significant amount. The main thing is not to rush and methodically implement the recommendations. Consider each option in detail.

Small scratches

If you do not run the lights to a strong turbidity, then it is quite possible to cope with manual polishing using special tools. These are pastes that can be bought at any parts store. By the way, the remedy with a bug on the label proved to be a good idea. The second most popular is GOI paste. Some literati write and speak OJT. Well, yes, all right - State Optical Institute. Okay, let's not portray Grammar-Nazi, it's not about that. The third tool is available to everyone and is available in any home. This is the usual toothpaste. Not powder! It also contains finely ground abrasives. But the powder abrasive krupnovat.

For polishing will require:

• selected agent
• soft rags
• non-woven cloth
• polish
• masking tape
• dishwashing liquid, water
• gloves

Getting started. To begin with, thoroughly wash the headlamp with water and dishwashing liquid. This will maximize degrease and clean the surface. The fact is that this method is gentle. It only polishes the tiny scratches on the surface of the protective varnish. We do not touch the plastic itself.

Wipe the spotlight dry with a nonwoven cloth. It leaves no fibers. Now we take masking tape and begin to glue. We glue everything where the product can go, and even more. Because swinging a rag, you can inadvertently scratch the paintwork of the grille, hood and bumper. Therefore, we close everything. Just do not take the usual tape, otherwise you will remove it with paint. Or then you have to tear off pieces of glue base.

So, everything is closed. Apply a little selected tool on the cloth and begin to polish the headlights in a circular motion. Do not push hard. You have to rub for a long time, for about 7 minutes. Some sources recommend taking a sponge. What for? All the paste is absorbed in this very sponge, what will stay in the spotlight? Others advise doing only reciprocating movements. No, have you ever seen how a polisher works? Only in a circular motion, otherwise there will be longitudinal and transverse bands.

How to understand what is already enough and you can finish the polishing? Purely visually. Dry cloth erase the remnants of the funds, then look at the headlamp. It is advisable to do this in natural light, but not in direct sunlight.Do you like the result? It means enough. Not? Three more for some time.

As soon as you start to like your spotlight, remove the excess paste. Then apply a polish on a clean cloth, rub the eye of the machine to shine. Now we depart, we admire the work. Then we repeat everything with a different headlamp.

Medium scratches

This refers to those that are of medium depth. That is, the lacquer coating is scratched through and slightly touched plastic. Here, just pasta is not enough. We'll have to pick up the sandpaper. Just not the one that you rub metal parts in the garage! A special fine grain. In this case, one can not do.

Take at least 4 types, ranging from 600 to 2,500, with approximately the same step. For example, another 1200 and 1800 grit. This is the most optimal and least traumatic for the surface of the headlights.

It is desirable that the sandpaper was on a fabric basis. It is much more convenient paper and less tears. Just do not soak it in water, as recommended by some advisers. What will it give? Will the fabric swell? Or grains of sandpaper will be better? Soaking gives nothing. But periodic washing off the dust with sandpaper gives a very high quality polishing result.

Preparatory procedures are exactly the same as in the first method.This washing, wiping dry and pasting adjacent surfaces with masking tape. But then the differences begin.

When using a sandpaper no polishing or abrasive paste is needed. Each type of skins work no more than 7 minutes. In this case, be sure to wash the resulting slurry from dust about once every 35-40 seconds of working with the paper used. The headlamp itself is washed with clean water after each change of skin into smaller ones.

After the final polishing again you need to take polish and soft rags. You can foam. Now finally polish the spotlight clean. From above it is desirable to cover with acrylic varnish, it is inert to plastic. True, you need to have the technology of coating, so as not to spoil all the beauty. Even the smallest particles of dust adhering to the surface of the varnish during drying will create a relief and haze. Therefore, it is desirable to entrust this procedure to a specialist, or to someone who already had a similar experience and is well aware of the entire technology of application.

Deep scratches

With them hand-polishing can not cope. It is necessary to take the grinding machine in hand. But it is not so easy for her to overcome the deep scratches on the headlamp.What to do? Today the industry offers special polishing kits. They are freely sold in parts stores. Includes several circles with stickies for easy attachment to the grinder. They have different grain sizes to achieve the best result. Some craftsmen manage to use an ordinary drill with a nozzle instead of a grinder.

Detailed instructions are always written on the kit packaging. We recommend to follow it for sure. It differs slightly from each manufacturer. The greatest number of positive reviews receive Abralon and repair kit from 3M. They are the most convenient to use.

In general, the meaning of the whole procedure is to gently polish the surface of the headlights with a special circle. Begin with the largest grain, finish small. Do not confuse! In numbers, it's the other way around. For example, start with 600 grit and end with 4000 grit.

The most important stage is the first sweep. You can not press on the grinder, the headlight may just burst. Smooth movements achieve the most even and matte surface. The final appearance of the headlamp depends on this. Because the rest of the circles no longer remove the irregularities.They polish what you did in the first round.

We recommend that you periodically wash off the dust from the surface of the circle and moisten it with water so as not to dust around. And yet, constantly check the plastic for heat. It is better to let it cool down a bit than to admire the crack. For the same reason, we advise you to work in one circle for no longer than three minutes in a row.

After grinding the last circle of the finest grain, you can proceed to the final polishing of headlights. But before that, it is necessary to wash the plastic with clean water and blot it with a non-woven cloth. By the way, the most common water will help determine the correctness of your actions. If you did everything right, the water will drain from the headlamp, as if it was greased.

Now you can finish. Polish does not necessarily apply with a grinder. It is enough to put it on a soft cloth or a piece of foam rubber. And handles polish headlights. It would seem that everything is ready. You can safely ride. But without a protective varnish coating, the plastic will soon become cloudy again.

No, it is of course, understandable: polishing wheels can be used up to 10-12 times, they are quite inexpensive.But after all they can be used 20 years for 10 polishes, and it is possible to shake them for a year. That is, if you do not cover the lights with a finishing varnish. Therefore, we recommend that you do not neglect this procedure. In addition, the lacquer prevents yellowing of plastic from sunlight.

Council To make your car's eyes always shine, polish them at least once every two years.

Some tips

1. If you are going to polish the headlights for the first time, then do not rush. Ask someone to help you. For example, a friend who has already conducted such a procedure independently. No such in the near circle? Surely in stocks there is an old headlight, which already seems to be unnecessary, but throw it away - the hand does not rise. Here on it and practice. It turns out - safely proceed to the headlights of the car.
2. All the above procedures apply to plastic headlights. In order to polish glass lights, slightly different materials are used. That is, you cannot cure them with toothpaste. But with GOI paste or abrasive compositions based on ceramics or diamond dust - completely.
3. When polishing glass lights with a grinder, you need to constantly water them.For example, with one hand you drive a tool, the second one constantly sprinkle out of a spray bottle Or ask someone to help you. Otherwise, swallow glass dust. Flies into the eyes - too little pleasant.

How to polish the lights with their own hands at home? And why at home? After all, these are specific odors, dust from grinding, particles of abrasive paste flying in all directions. Do you need it? Polish in the garage. There you can easily litter. Not confident in your abilities? Refer to the professionals. For a very affordable price, your car’s eyes will sparkle and shine with light.

Video: polishing headlights in 5 minutes with a toothpaste and brush