harder then normal lights list

[t4k]

I hadnt thought about a regular sander to do that because of the potential to wearing a hole in the lens. I will put that in my back-up arsenal. Its rare that I need to use it. The 180 disc have come in handy on many occassions. I plan to order the 4.1 this week and see how I like it on a regular bases. Thanks for the info on the other sanders.

Be very careful with a non-orbital sander. A hole is possible but unlikely but you will get some circular swirls that are hard to remove. I have used a regular palm sander with great results but they are hard to control in small areas.

[candyman]

I ordered the 4.1 on Friday. Do you have any problems with the palm sander draging?

[t4k]

I ordered the 4.1 on Friday. Do you have any problems with the palm sander draging?

I wet sand.

[part-timer]

I hadnt thought about a regular sander to do that because of the potential to wearing a hole in the lens. I will put that in my back-up arsenal. Its rare that I need to use it. The 180 disc have come in handy on many occassions. I plan to order the 4.1 this week and see how I like it on a regular bases. Thanks for the info on the other sanders.

Be very careful with a non-orbital sander. A hole is possible but unlikely but you will get some circular swirls that are hard to remove. I have used a regular palm sander with great results but they are hard to control in small areas.

I've gone to wet sanding by hand with the entire process. If I get a lens thats extremely difficult to remove the old coating on, I use a razor blade, then sand them.

[pommy]

Hi Part-timer!

I like using the blade on really bad ones too - cuts down on dust also.

Do you find that the stop and start points of the blade make deep lines in the lens?

I have to be careful of the end to end "stopping points" when scraping personally.

I'm currently doing the last sanding step by hand, dry, then wet to get the best possible surface, although it can be tiring!

Cheers,

Pommy

[mend master]

I tried the razor blade trick yesterday on Impala headlights. Maybe I have a sub-standard grade of blades, but it seemed like they dulled very quickly and had to be replaced much too regularly for me. I went back to the tried and true block sand with 180 grit to take most of the hard layer off, then 180 with a 3" D/A, 320, 500, 800, (all dry); then wet sand with a Trizact 1000 grit; shoot with Speedokote. The sales manager, a salesman, and their repair coordinator were all blown away. They asked if I had replaced the lenses! Apparently another vendor had come around offering $35 pricing, had tried the Impala and left the lot in disgrace. My motto is, "If you can't run with the big dogs, you'd better stay on the porch!"

[Marcus]

I am brand new to this forum. I have 20 years experience in the detail business and thought I would give headlights shot. I am mobile and do no not have pneumatic set up a this time. Using a cordless drill with Meguiar's or Merka sanding discs.I have had great results except for two cars. A 2007 Cadillac CTS and a 2007 Hyundai Tucson. I started with 400 and could not get through the factory clear on either. I gave up thinking I might be destroying the lens. Can anyone attest to these makes, or any others I should be on the look out for? And most important; how do I conquer these difficult lenses? Any and all feed back is appreciated!

[mend master]

I am brand new to this forum. I have 20 years experience in the detail business and thought I would give headlights shot. I am mobile and do no not have pneumatic set up a this time. Using a cordless drill with Meguiar's or Merka sanding discs.I have had great results except for two cars. A 2007 Cadillac CTS and a 2007 Hyundai Tucson. I started with 400 and could not get through the factory clear on either. I gave up thinking I might be destroying the lens. Can anyone attest to these makes, or any others I should be on the look out for? And most important; how do I conquer these difficult lenses? Any and all feed back is appreciated!

Marcus, as the thread indicates there are a number of challenging lenses out there as well as various approaches to address them. Would recommend going back to the first page and reading through the posts. If you'll invest the time to read, you'll find the answers to not only the questions you currently have but many that you haven't even thought of yet.

[glassdoctor]

The CTS lights do have a hard factory coating, like some other GM cars. I don't recall an issue with any Hyundais though. It may have already had some other coating applied. I've seen that a couple times, where it looked terrible and was a pain in the butt to remove. 400g is a good starting point for tough lights, and normally is more than enough for the average job. But on a very rare occasion it helps to have something a little more aggressive to get it started.

I would suggest picking up a decent dc/ac inverter for working mobile, so you can use an electric DA sander. Either a 3" like Delta sells, or 5" if that is the sandpaper you have and you are comfortable working with it. I think a DA sander (dry) works better than other methods for the initial sanding steps. After that, wet is good and rotary works fine for the final steps. Btw, I dry sand with a 5" DA and 500g is where I start for most tough jobs, including a CTS. If I had some 320 or 400, I might use that on some of those GM lights, but I have a ton of 500g and it works. I do have some 180 but it's better off staying in the box 99.9% of the time. I think it's time I pick up some 320 and give the 180 to a carpenter or maybe a lumberjack.

[Marcus]

Thanks for the tips and advise. I'll post before and after of this 2007 Hyundai Tucson when I figure out how to upload a photo on this site. After reading through the threads I realize I haven't been changing discs frequently enough, thus spinning my wheels and working too hard. I spent 3 hours with these lights. I did manage to get the drivers side just about perfect, passenger side about 80%. Customer was actually thrilled. Said; they look brand new! OK.