Zenki Headlight Sanding Results

[Freise]

Since I bought new clear lenses for my car, I decided to experiment with the old ones to test out sanding down the fluting on the inside of the headlight would turn out since there is so little information on it (this is not removing the yellow, that took me 5mins with 1500grit wet sanding and some polish!).

All sanding was done by hand, without a sanding block (just raw sand paper).
I started off with 60grit sand paper, which took roughly 6-7 hours to do the patch in the pictures. From there I moved to 400grit for about thirty mins, followed by 600, and finally 1500 grit. Once it was sanded, I applied Maguires PlastX clear plastic cleaner and polish to remove as many of the sanding marks as possible. Here are the results:
http://i499.photobucket.com/albums/rr354/Freise/DSCF2152.jpg
Clarity (sanded down):
http://i499.photobucket.com/albums/rr354/Freise/DSCF2150.jpg
Compared to stock:
http://i499.photobucket.com/albums/rr354/Freise/DSCF2151.jpg

As you can see, it does actually become relatively clear. I wouldn't say it is by any means a beautiful finish, but it can be done. Overall, I'd say the only way this is worth it is if you have 10-20 hours of time to dedicate to good sanding, or else a much more efficient way to sand (obviously I'm not extremely experienced with sanding and finishing.)

I just thought I would put this Information out there, when I did a search in google and many forums, I found next to nothing on this subject.

[03redTuscani]

Holy hell, the problem you had was starting with 60 grit sand paper. WAY too coarse for this kind of job. I would use that on wood furniture, not a plastic headlight cover.

It's not the worst, but you could have done better. Of course, you did mention that you aren't that experienced. You may be able to clear it up a little more with some clear coat, because I can guarantee you stripped whatever clear coat off.

This is a job that could be done in far less than 10 hours, when done properly.

[5pecialist]

Get sanding discs that attach to the end of a power drill... that should cut down on the time considerably.

[florante rea]

mother's polishing ball might be better?

[keeeban]

10 hours...? Holy shiet.

..Could have cut it down to ~20 minutes if you use a power drill with an attached buffer(Edit: sanding) wheel piece. Much easier, and time efficient.

But hey, you learn as you go. :D

[iROYAL]

I just thought I would put this Information out there, when I did a search in google and many forums, I found next to nothing on this subject.

I find this hard to believe.

[5pecialist]

I find this hard to believe.
Your Google skills are weak young one.
:duh: You guys, this is about deleting the Fresnel prisms INSIDE the lens - not polishing the outside.

[cc4usmc]

:duh: You guys, this is about deleting the Fresnel prisms INSIDE the lens - not polishing the outside.

You're right, I made a mistake. I guess a cleaner thread would have helped, along with clearer pictures.

[Freise]

Try re-reading the OP, I sanded down the inside of the headlight to remove the fluting (those lines). I was doing a projector retrofit and the fluting messes with the light output.