Windshield Repair Forum

Hello everyone,

Today I restored the head lights on my 2002 Chevy Venture Van. It was my first restoration. I am very pleased with the results; however the time to complete the project was extended an extra 20 minutes due to plastic protrusions on the head lights. I had to hand sand them and their surrounding areas. The Metabo was a little too bulky to get up close to the protrusions.

Instead of hand sanding, does anyone have any advice on how to sand the protrusions and its surrounding area? I'm assuming that a smaller type sander might be available. Any positive input would be helpful.

Thank you!

Welcome to the headlight restoration forum rlb. The smaller tools that I have used are all rotary tools so it is very easy to damage the tab or the area directly around the tab. I'll be interested to hear if anyone else has a favorite tool for dealing with this problem as well. I still hand sand around the headlight alignment tabs myself, although it typically only adds 5-10 minutes per vehicle. You will no doubt get faster with a bit more practice.

You'll need to do it by hand. There is no quicker way to do it right.

Thank you Brent and t4k for your responses! Thanks in advance for any others that may respond.

Hi,
The only way is to do it by hand, if you cut them off you will damage the headlight and it can fail inspection . i use a pre cleaner and a pas to clean around that area, then the rest is by hand, and if you use the correct method to sand, polish seal.. then you will get the best results and you would never know that the headlight was ever restored. good luck


Gtech