frotiss

can anyone post picture or direction on how to remove the Headlight from 1998-2005 GS, thanks

Trippinond

I did this procedure this past week but the results werent as great as I had hoped for...They didnt have plastx at the auto parts store i went to...so i got the only one that they offered with the assumption that these things have more or less identical ingrediants. Can this be the problem with my sub par results? Has anyone else recieved better results for plastx than another product?

cliffud

iTrader: (3)

i've used plastx before and i used to swear by it until i found out that mother's billet/aluminum polish works a lot faster. now, that's all i use.

BCP43002

I saw once on "Two Guys Garage" that they used toothpaste. First wiped it on. Then buffed it off. It worked on the show.

zzzzdoc

I had some awful stuff on the headlights of my LS430. PlastX by itself didn't do a thing.

I wet sanded with 1500 then 2000, ALTERNATING DIRECTIONS when sanding with a block (and don't forget to tape off the car body around it.)

The wet sanding got rid of the crud, but now the headlights looked translucent. Small period of time spent freaking out, then on to the PlastX with a PC.

The results were great. Not 100/100, but 95/100. The crud is gone, the headlights are clear. Everyone amazed.

Like a dork, I forgot to take before pictures, but in my case the combo of wet-sanding plus PlastX was necessary and provided great results.

Toronto

I am also a big fan of Plastx for headlights -brings the dead back to life. A bike windscreen loves it. Here's my take on the best way to use it - but don't take me as any kind of authority.

Use very little. Rub it with your hand because your hand will provide just the right kind of buffing back-tension and degree of pressure against the glass micro-beads in Plastx that do the scrubbing; the glass micro-bead grit will just hide in the folds of a piece of cloth (maybe there's some flesh-like rubber that will work as well). Wipe till it is all but gone and then remove residue with a clean rag. Some say it really isn't going to do its scrubbing as long as the Plastx on the lens has much liquid content. So use very little and scrub it dry then wipe off residue.

hugo2648

I had great results using Novus #3 and then Novus # 2 scratch removers. Made my headlights look like new. Novus is available in Harley Davidson stores. I tried Novus polish but did not see that making any difference.

ben_r_

Huh, glad I glanced in this thread! I have used PlastX before with minimally good results. I never thought of wet sanding a headlight though. Nor did I try using PlastX with my PC. Ill have to try both of those now on a text car and see what I get. Thanks everyone!

orijinal

i tried wetsanding and using plastx with my porter cable, and also by hand... the headlights look clear in the sunlight but after turning on the headlights, there is a ton of micromarring all over!

i tried capturing this marring with the flash on my camera. i took them in my garage with the lights off. here are pics:





you can see in the first two pics, the headlights look pretty damn clear. on the third, or last one (the right headlight), you can still see the micro-marring.

i used meguiar's #83 first and then plastx after, but there is still this haze all over when the lights are on. it is annoying, and i don't know how to remove it!

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

DACP (#83) is best used by machine. It takes a long time for a polish to break down if you're doing it by hand. The abrasives in #83 are diminishing-abrasive. They break down into finer particles the longer you work it in (before drying up). Most likely they're not broken down enough. Either use some sort of machine, or give yourself a workout with your hands.

orijinal

i used #83 with a porter cable 7424 dual-action polisher. i worked it in until it almost became dust-like. repeated 4-5 times. i don't think they can break down anymore than that...

it looks clear and most of the scratches are gone, but it's just up close, and with the lights on there is this very very fine micromarring all over... do you have any other tips to get this out??? i think i just messed up my headlights and should have left them with the chips and pits and not wetsanded at all....

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

What pad did you use?

orijinal

W7006 with the 7424 DA polisher.

check my thread over at meguiarsonline:

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/thread/28997.aspx

it's pretty long as i wrote a lot in my replies to the guys there, because i wanted to be as specific as possible with my situation.

there are a lot of pics at the end of the post of my headlights, and it's not 56k friendly. if you or anyone has any tips i'd love to hear them! i'm getting desperate here.

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

What grit sandpaper are you finishing up with? And what did you use initially?

Mike philips has always preached about how he does not like using #83 with their light cutting pad on a PC because it can induced micro-marring. That probably holds true for paint, but I dont know about plastic.

orijinal

wetsanded with 1000>1500>3000 grit.

i only used #83 with the W7006 because that was what was suggested by the forum guys. i still had the same micro-marring by wetsanding the other day, and applying plastx by hand, after.

i only tried #83 with my plastx by hand was giving me the hairline scratches, but both ways gave me the same result.