[OlieL]

Gave my car a proper clean on Saturday - 4 hours of TLC, inside and out. Looked great when I was finished (and then it bloody rained overnight, leaving it filthy again - looks like the rain was full of Sahara dust or something! :crying

Anyway, I bought some Poorboys World SSK1 light Swirl remover (yellow) to see if I could rejuvenate the paintwork a bit. I tried it out on the boot lid (trunk lid for our US friends) and it's good stuff - going to do the whole car next time I think.

Having recently put in LED angel eyes, I'd noticed how misty my headlights were looking and wanted to see if I could get them looking better. I'd seen the posts about sanding them, which looked like quite a time consuming job, but thought as an initial step I'd clean them and then use some 'Mer' polish on them, which is pretty good at removing road tar and general gunk. That didn't noticeably brighten them, unfortunately. Then I thought that, since it's a very light abrasive, I'd see whether the SSK1 would improve matters. Well, the headlight on the left has been rubbed with SSK1 on a foam applicator pad, whilst the one on the right hasn't... what do you think? (have deliberately left as a large file so people can zoom in...)

 

[jgfabs]

That looks like a great difference.Thanks .

 

[OlieL]

Yes, I am quite chuffed given that it looks a lot better (have obviously done both sides now!) for very little effort. It's worth bearing in mind that the headlights were well cleaned beforehand, so it's not just that I've managed to remove dirt, and also this was only 1 application - reckon if I give it a couple more it will look even better!

It's a sight easier than masking up the entire front of the car, that's for sure...

 

[Mfreakin5]

using only polish or cutting compound works if you have very very light pitting only. If you have deep pitting or scratches (daily driving will cause these), then you will need to do the sanding method. However, the polishing only method does brighten up the lenses a bit so if that's all you're after, go for it. But if you take the time to do it right, it only takes 2 hours or so to sand, you'll be amazed at how much clearer your lenses will look. They will look brand new.

 

[Edgy36-39]

You mean left from the viewer standpoint, correct? That's the one that looks better. Nice tip!

Anyone ever try putting lamin-x film on their E39 heads? Guess it wouldn't work on the plastic. Does wonders for my M3, put it on both heads and fogs when I upgraded to the Euro Hellas. Has kept them looking minty for years.

 

[Mfreakin5]

You mean left from the viewer standpoint, correct? That's the one that looks better. Nice tip!

Anyone ever try putting lamin-x film on their E39 heads? Guess it wouldn't work on the plastic. Does wonders for my M3, put it on both heads and fogs when I upgraded to the Euro Hellas. Has kept them looking minty for years.

I'm running Lamin-X (3M film, actually) on my headlights. I had the film put on after I sanded them. Works perfectly. For the fogs, since they're much more prone to catastrophic impacts, I went with twice as thick film from headlight armor. Looks and works great!

 

[rao]

Looks good

 

[OlieL]

You mean left from the viewer standpoint, correct? That's the one that looks better. Nice tip!

Anyone ever try putting lamin-x film on their E39 heads? Guess it wouldn't work on the plastic. Does wonders for my M3, put it on both heads and fogs when I upgraded to the Euro Hellas. Has kept them looking minty for years.

Yep, left from the viewer's perspective. Thanks, hope it's of use to others...

I was thinking of getting some LaminX or 3M film, but it's quite hard to find in the UK. Would certainly like that for my fogs as I've already had one bust in the 8 months since I've owned the car.

 

[OlieL]

Looks good, i find metal polish works for my headlights a good old buff, but i plan to do the sanding when i have some more time. Know what you mean with the rain, its all the crap that bounces up from the road when the rain hits etc and why it drys, i find a good strong couple of waxes reduces this greatly

The car had just been waxed... trouble was it was a really fine rain, more like drizzle, so it just formed loads of tiny droplets all over my newly waxed paintwork and then dried. :reallypissed:

 

[cab]

FYI - most headlights have a UV coatign that can be polished or sanded off. Once done, the lights haze quickly (lots of threads on this on other forums). The answer seems to be "clearcoat the lights" preferably with a 2K clear. I know when I sanded/polished my E36's lights they came out great, but just a few months later they looked pretty bad.