techy101

Some before and after shots:

Before:


After:




And another one that I did on the SVX:

Before:


After:








Someone hit my drivers side fender a few weeks ago and cracked the headlight. Naturally I replaced it but this left me quite unhappy. One of my lights shows ~107,000 miles of use and the other one looks brand spanking new. I could either sandblast the new one, replace the old one, or try to recondition the old one. This is the reason I'm only working on one headlight in this project, I just want to make them match a little bit better.

Here is a picture of the new headlight:


And here is a picture of the old one:



To start out with, I need to stress that this process is for badly yellowed, pitted, scratched, or otherwise damaged headlights/fog lights/tail lights/etc...

For minor damage such as surface scuffs or to simply make things look a little bit better you should just use some PlastiX.

This is a fairly time consuming and labor intensive process, but not terrible or particularly advanced. There is risk involved since you will be taking sandpaper to your lights, but if you take your time and are careful the end result is something that nothing else can come close to.


Ok, with all of that stuff out of the way, lets begin. This little quote section is from another post of mine over on the SVX forums.

First, If you need to open the head light for any reason (i.e. remove broken glass from broken bulb, clear corners, etc...)

The removal pictures and instructions are specific to the 2003-2005 Forester, but it shouldn't be very hard to make the jump to another MY.


So lets begin.

To start with we're going to need to remove the headlight. On the 2003-2005 this is a fairly painless process.

1. Remove the grill. There are two clips on the top of the grill that you need to undo will pulling the grill gently towards you. Use a flat-head screwdriver to press the latch in the middle of the clip, this will release the clip. Pulling the grill lightly towards you will also help release the other clips. This may take some finagling, but it will come off.









Now you need to remove the headlight surround molding. I can't find the actual name for the part, so bear with me on the terms. Using a flat-head screwdriver undo and remove the two clips on the top of the surround. Then you will need to gently push on the lower clip (towards the outside of the car) until the piece pops off.







Here is what that piece looks like fron the inside. You can see all of the clip locations.




With that removed we can now access all three bolts holding the headlight assembly in place. There are two bolts in the large tab on the inside of the light as well as one on the top. Ignore the third bolt to the right of the circled ones. This is not for the headlight.




With these three bolts removed the headlight should come loose. There is one clip thing that goes into the fender so you will need to do some gentle prying and pulling straight out from the car and the light should pop out.

If you are on the passenger side you may find it easier to remove the plastic air intake above the light.


There are four wires connected to the headlight. The one for the headlamp itself is quite large and obvious. Unplug this as well as the other three connectors on the assembly. Those final three will not be exposed until you've removed the headlight from the car. There is only one that is a bit strange to remove, you simply need to use a flat-head screwdriver again to lift up the locking tab and it should slide right out.

Here you can see the connector for the headlamp


And here you can see the remaining three connectors

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A.L.I.C.E.-Black 2005 Forester XT 4EAT w/Carputer

techy101

Here is a picture of all the hardware that you have removed from the car. One bolt is from the air intake, three are from the headlight, and the two clips are from the surround trim thing.




Now that you have the light removed from the car the real fun can begin. Be advised that when you are wet-sanding the light you want to keep things nice and wet as well as making sure that nothing gets between the sandpaper and the plastic. If it feels like there is something under there stop sanding and clean the sandpaper off. Little bits of sand or plastic stuck between the sandpaper and the plastic can create nasty deep scratches. Also I find that replacing the water every once in a while helps too.

To start you will need a few items.

* 600 Grit Wet/Dry Sandpaper
* 1000 Grit Wet/Dry Sandpaper
* 1500 Grit Wet/Dry Sandpaper
* 2000 Grit Wet/Dry Sandpaper
* Plastic Polish (I use Meguiar's PlastiX)
* Not required, but very useful is a random-orbital buffer of some sort with a terry cloth cover
*I have also found some glass scrub useful, as well as some paint swirl remover. These and the PlastiX are all just mild abrasives.



1 - Get some kind of container and fill it up with water.
2 - Start with the 600 Grit sandpaper. Make sure you keep everything wet! Sand down until the water stops turning yellow, or until the surface is how you want it. The lens will be very hazy at this point. I start going one way (side to side), then after I'm done I switch to the other way (top to bottom)
3 - Move on to the 1000 Grit sandpaper. Same procedure as with the 600
4 - Now move on to the 1500 Grit Sandpaper. Clean the lens up as smooth as you can get it.
5 - Clean the lens off. It will be somewhat hazy at this point, but there should be no major scratches, just very very fine scratches that make it look hazy.
6 - Apply some of the plastic polish (PlastiX from here out) to a rag and begin polishing the lens.
7 - To make this easier, if you have a random-orbital buffer, use a terrycloth cover and apply the PlastiX.
8 - Keep a generous supply of PlastiX on the terrycloth cover/lens and polish as long as you like. I've found it helps to clean the old stuff off once in a while and re-apply
9 - I usually do this for five to ten minutes
10 - Using some kind of glass cleaner and a microfiber cloth (doesn't have to be microfiber, but I prefer them) clean the lens.


Now the more detailed information.

The sandpaper




Begin with the 600 Grit sandpaper and start sanding. As stated above, I like to go side-to-side and then top-to-bottom. This is the real workhorse of the project, so make sure that you remove enough plastic to get below the pitting, scratches and/or yellowing.


Mid sanding:


The headlight after the first round



Move on to the next grit once you are happy with the surface that you have created. Once it's all hazy any remaining pits and scratches will become very obvious to a close inspection.

When you move on to the next grit the idea is to sand down until the scratches from the previous grit are gone.

Here is the headlight after being hit with 1000 grit



And now after 1500 grit



And finally after 2000 grit



I ran into some issues with this project because I tried to move too quickly, and tried experimenting with a circular sanding pattern. I would avoid going in circles as it created scratches that were very hard to get out. I ended up having to back-track to the 1000 grit paper and redo the process prior to moving on. Avoid my mistake.


This time I started out with some glass scrub first, then moved on to some swirl remover, and then finally on to the PlastiX. I did this because of the circular scratches that were a lot of work to remove.

It's worth simply starting out with with PlastiX and seeing how things go. This should be enough to make things look nice and great.


I like to start out scrubbing the PlastiX in by hand. I am able to get more pressure by hand than I can with a buffer. This process will work just fine without any power tools, but I find that a random-orbital buffer helps a lot and makes things go much faster. To be clear, I'm talking about a random-orbital, not a high speed orbital buffer. A high speed orbital if not used very carefully can/will burn or or damage the plastic.

Each application of the PlastiX will make things more and more clear. Keep a generous amount of the polish on the light to keep things moving smoothly. When I did this one I did the light in sections for the purpose of pictures, but I recommend doing the whole surface of the light at the same time.

Here is the light in multiple stages of being polished.











Once you have the light where you are happy with it you're almost done.





As EvilDan pointed out, this process will remove the UV coating from the light. In I'm not 100% sure yet on the best way to seal the light is, but I will edit this as soon as I have a definitive answer. I believe that spraying the plastic with a UV resistant clear coat will do the job nicely, but I'm not sure. If anyone can shed some light on this it would be greatly appreciated.

(EDIT): I've heard people having good luck with any spray-on UV blocking clearcoat. This would be the way to go.


I like to finish up with a few coats of wax on the light to really make it sparkle.

Once that is done, simply re-install the light in the reverse of removal.

Enjoy your nice reconditioned headlight!



And here is one final picture of the light reinstalled in the car so you can see both at the same time. They match pretty well now.

abacall

Wow, the SVX really shaped up nice. In the before shot, you can't even tell there's a projector under there!

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sea-scooby

Very nice work!

Let's see....

Glass scrub
plastix
simple green
invisible glass
elbow grease

any more items used?

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05 Forester X A/T (hers)
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techy101

Those are the final bits, but the real meat and potatoes comes from sandpaper. The fine polishing stuff only works for the very very surface layer. If you want to get rid if real pitting and deeper than surface scratches you've pretty much got to sand.

I've tried all of the "kits" and products out there and nothing worked for severe yellowing, pitting, etc... They basically just polish up whatever is already there without fixing it.

Here's an intermediate step:

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A.L.I.C.E.-Black 2005 Forester XT 4EAT w/Carputer

salvi

Very interested on what the steps and materials are needed for this. Mine need it bad. I actually thought about buying a kit :)

Hasbeen

Great DIY. Definately book-marking this one

jlbruno

I've got a friend who used the 3m system before with good luck (on his jetta)
3M? Headlight Lens Restoration System - A fast and easy way to restore the clarity back to headlight lenses that have become dull or cloudy over time US 3M

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'09 Forester XT

EvilDan

That's great. I've actually picked up quite a few types of sandpapers for the job such as 1500,2000,2500, *you could go 3000* and some Meguiars plast-x, among other things.
While mine are not as bad as your SVX ones were, they look more like the first pic. Pitted to say the least. :) I plan on fixing that.

The only thing is that once you sand, you remove the UV coating, so you MUST seal and wax so that the lights do not start yellowing faster than the first time. However, if you do seal and wax, which takes nothing on such a small space, then you're golden. :)

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2004 Subaru Forester XT. 5MT Java Black Pearl.

singincanary

Great thread. My buddy did some work on mine, but they definately could use some work. Rep given.

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techy101

I completely forgot about the UV coating on these... DOH!

I did wax it, but didn't even think about sealing. Would one just use a UV resistant clear coat in a rattle can? That's what I'd assume.

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A.L.I.C.E.-Black 2005 Forester XT 4EAT w/Carputer

techy101

Posts are completed, let me know if anything isn't clear and I will try to clarify. It's a long post and probably goes into too much detail, but hopefully anyone will be able to follow along.

-Matthew

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A.L.I.C.E.-Black 2005 Forester XT 4EAT w/Carputer

wakeabyss

Put some clear bra on it and your golden. Nice job!

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techy101

Could this get moved or linked to in the How To section?

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A.L.I.C.E.-Black 2005 Forester XT 4EAT w/Carputer

sea-scooby

PM Silke, she will move it over.

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05 Forester X A/T (hers)
My Journal page