Windshield Repair Forum

When you have complete a restoration, the pictures is great, but what about reallife, is there any visible scratch marks on closer look? From Either the sanding or already existing scrathes! Or are they as good as new?! (sorry my english, long time since school;)

That depends on the products and equipment used as well as the skill of the technician. In most cases it is difficult to see any scratches with the naked eye when my technicians are finished with a headlight restoration and have applied the Coat2Protect, but if you use a magnifying glass you can see very fine sanding marks. We can get those out with a polish but have found that polishes do not make the perfect surface for the coating to adhere to. That is the reason we used to use a scuff pad on the surface after polishing and before applying the Coat2Protect, and one of several reasons we switched to polishing discs instead of using a polishing compound.

As long as the scratches cannot be seen with the naked eye we do not concern our selves with additional polishing.

On some vehicles I may use several 320 & 600 grit disc prior to polishing on a very bad lens. The end result, almost like new and no detectable blimishes. Then on a few occassions I may only need or use one 320, 1000, 2000 & polish and it will look really good but I may see a few scratch marks near the top of the lens just under the hood area or spot a blimish that actually is on the inside of the lens. The customer is normally happy considering what the HL's looked like prior to my restoration. Some lens have cracks, moisture etc... but some cutomer's just wants to get by at the lowest price. I do the best with what Iam dealt with. My customers are my barometer as to wheather Iam doing a good job or not. I must admit that the 50/50 protectant solution sold by Delta evens out the polished lens and cosmetically makes the HL look like new.