The headlights are called the eyes of the car. The life of the driver sometimes depends on how well they shine. The new car always looks attractive shining, polished to a shine headlights. This gives the vehicle brightness and presentability. But their appearance does not last long. During the operation of the car, the headlights dim. Why this happens, and how to deal with it, our article tells.
Why car headlights lose their attractive appearance
Regardless of how well the car enthusiast cares and protects the headlight glass, they can often be damaged by abrasive substances such as sand and small objects. This happens especially often when the car is moving at high speed.
The appearance of microscopic scratches helps to gradually reduce the transparency of the glass. Its recovery when using rags or by washing is not observed.
If you wipe the surface of the car with coarse and dry varieties of fabric, damage can only increase, and the headlights will not perform their functions of lighting the road with high quality.
Correction Options
For some car owners, the way out of this situation is to buy new windows or headlights, which are quite expensive. You can save your money if you study the methods of how to polish your headlights with your own hands.
Expected results
In the dark, a car that does not have good headlights can be at risk. It is uncomfortable to drive such a vehicle, especially if there are passengers in the cabin.
As soon as you notice that the work of the headlights has become not so high-quality, and their function of lighting the road has begun to decline, do not try to immediately replace the lamps, because they are not always the cause of a lack of light.
The case may be in glass, which poorly transmits light due to the appearance of scratched surface areas on it.
Please note, with insufficiently transparent headlight glasses, light transmission can decrease by 70%.
We polish the lights ourselves
A feature of the polishing process is the cleaning of the headlights from damage, which is represented by numerous small chips and scratches.
To polish your headlights with your own hands means to perform work in the course of which the surface of the upper layer of material will be removed, which will effectively eliminate the existing defects.
This procedure does not require a long study of special literature and a special set of tools. Such work can be successfully done independently, without the need to take the car to the service.
Cooking Tools
To polish your headlights with your own hands, you need to prepare:
- Grinding machine.
- Abrasive polishing compound.
- Materials to protect adjacent parts.
- Masking tape.
- Special shampoo.
- Protective varnish for fixing results.
A number of alternative tools in the headlight polishing kit may be required:
- Grinding wheels and holders to them.
- Abrasive paste.
- Foam polisher.
- Masking tape.
If you are a beginner car enthusiast, do not strive to purchase a minimum set for polishing headlights, so as not to be disappointed in the results. You should have all the items that may come in handy. For some experienced craftsmen, it is not difficult to work without the use of a polishing compound. They can use only one grinding machine and a set of nozzles on which sandpaper is mounted to polish the headlight glass .
At the beginning of the preparatory work, keep in mind that the first time you purchase a complete set of tools for polishing headlights, its cost will not differ much from the price of budget headlights. Let this not bother you.
How to polish glass and plastic?
How to polish the headlights at home? The material from which the transparent side of the headlights is made may be plastic or glass. Moreover, the structure of the glass is more fragile and solid. Appeared deep chips are completely eliminated not only by grinding methods, since these procedures will not be enough to bring a badly damaged surface into proper shape.
In such cases, the use of special sets is practiced, but they are expensive, and therefore it is more economical to purchase new headlights.
The plastic texture is softer compared to glass, which contributes to the quick mashing of such headlights and the appearance of opacities.
You can often polish your car’s plastic headlights yourself. Such procedures will not harm their surface. It is important to consider that plastic does not tolerate exposure to high temperatures. The fact is that the effectiveness of most polishes is manifested only with high revolutions on the grinding wheel. And such procedures contribute to a tangible heating of the surface.
Description of polishing steps
When using the grinder, it is important to follow the sequence of polishing glasses on the headlights, shown below:
- Clean the headlights with water and a portion of car shampoo, having previously studied the instructions for use of this detergent.
- Wipe the surface dry using only natural cloth.
- Tape with masking tape all the surfaces that border the headlights.
- Assess how deep the damage is. If the scratches are too large, which can be determined by touch with a fingernail, the use of an abrasive wheel P 180 will be required. Minor damage can easily be repaired with a circle P 320.
- Control the speed of revolutions, since in grinding such processes are the main ones. Recommended exposure in the region of 600 - 100 revolutions per minute.
- Do not stay long in one area, this is important in order to avoid heterogeneous polishing.
- Remove large defects, after which you can proceed to the next step using a finer abrasive - from P 320 and P 600 to P 1500 and P 3000.
- When this phase of work is completed, check how uniform the surface has become.
- Finish grinding using the last abrasive, after which the headlights should become completely transparent. Pay attention to the importance of adhering to the painting technology that is indicated in the manufacturer's recommendations.
To dry the varnish, you need to wait about an hour. Then it is important to protect the freshly polished surfaces from damage for at least a day.
How to do without a grinder?
To perform high-quality work on polishing headlights, it is necessary to prepare the above set of tools. If there is no financial opportunity to purchase a complete set, and there is no grinding machine, apply manual polishing methods.
To perform this procedure, prepare sandpaper, the grain size of which will be in the range of 600-2000 units. Please note that the texture of the first paper will be the roughest to perform polishing. Its use will be required in those areas where there are especially deep scratches. In the presence of the bulk of the damage of a minor nature, you can start processing using skins for 1000 units, and finish - in 2000. At the finish stage, pure natural fabric and polish are used.
Important points
When preparing to polish, it is important to consider how you can polish the headlights so that the result is good and the surface does not spoil. We offer a number of simple tips:
- When choosing a headlight polishing kit, it is important to determine exactly what grit size is in sandpaper, which grit to choose, depending on the degree of damage to the headlamp glass.
- If the scratches are too deep, it is recommended to start polishing with sandpaper with a grain size of P 600. Then a gradual transition to P 4000 will follow.
- The choice of skin or circle should be made so as to take into account their compatibility with water. To successfully complete the work, the surfaces of all grinding abrasives must be moistened. If you decide to switch to using a finer abrasive, it is imperative to wash the surface of the headlights.
The construction market has a wide variety of pastes with an abrasive texture. Each brand has its own polishing technology. When buying a product, carefully read the instructions for its use, because each brand provides products that have individual characteristics.
If you decide to do without a grinding machine, polishing headlights at home manually will be more difficult, but also more economical. If you carefully follow all the instructions and follow the steps of the process, this processing method will achieve at least high-quality results, although any grinding will subsequently restore the transparency of the headlights, which will always be at least 20% less matte than new ones.
Features of the use of a grinding machine
If you decide to manually polish the headlights clearly according to the instructions and purchase the entire set of tools, you can do this job quickly and efficiently. The grinding machine during operation does not require a strong impact. Do not press it firmly against the surfaces you will be processing. Set the parameters of the rotational revolutions of the circle beforehand, carefully observe what the surface temperature becomes. When the plastic overheats, a clouding process occurs inside the material. Then this defect cannot be corrected.
The instruction on how to polish glass headlights indicates the need to use not ordinary polishes for this purpose, but solid mixtures - diamond pastes.
These products are produced by various manufacturers. You need to choose, focusing not only on the price, but also on the brand. If this is a well-known brand, it is unlikely that the product will be of poor quality.
To summarize
Even a novice motorist will be able to polish his headlights with his own hands. It is important to comply with all technological requirements and rules, take into account how deep the damage is and what is the peculiarity of the polished material.
With patience and accuracy, many motorists successfully manage to bring old translucent lenses in excellent condition. This process does not take much time and effort, and the beauty and functionality of the headlights will be a reward for the effort.
Polishing headlights at home does not make it possible to achieve perfect transparency. Performance will always be 20% different from new ones. But in comparison with the acquisition of new headlights, such processes will ensure the functionality and decent appearance of the "eyes" of the car for a long time, without the need to visit a car service.