How to polish the lights with your own hands? Polishing the headlights at home

The headlights are called the eyes of the car. On how qualitatively they shine, at times the driver's life depends. The new car always looks attractive shining, polished to shine headlights. This gives the vehicle brightness and presentability. But this kind of their appearance does not last long. During the operation of the car, the headlights fade. Why this happens, and how to deal with this tells our article.

Why car headlights lose an attractive look

Regardless of how high-qualitymotorist cares and protects the headlamp glass, they can often be damaged by abrasive substances, such as sand and small items. Especially often this happens when the machine is moving at a high speed.

The appearance of microscopic scratches contributes to a gradual decrease in the transparency of the glass. Its recovery when using rags or through washing is not observed.

If you wipe the surface of the car with the help of rough and dry types of fabric, the damage can only increase, and the headlights will not perform their functions qualitatively to illuminate the road.

Options for remedying the situation

For some car owners, a way out of theThe situation is to buy new glasses or headlights, which are quite expensive. You can save your money if you study the methods, how to polish the lights with your own hands.

Expected results

In the dark, a car that does not work well in headlights may be at risk. On such a vehicle it is uncomfortable to drive, especially if there are passengers in the cabin.

As soon as you notice that the headlights are not workingsuch a quality, and their functions for lighting the road began to decline, do not try to immediately replace the lamps, because they are not always the cause of lack of light.

The case may be in the glass, which does not pass light easily because of the appearance of scratched areas of the surface on it.

Take into account, with insufficiently transparent headlamp glasses, the light transmittance can be reduced by 70%.

Polishing the lights yourself

A feature of the polishing process is cleaning the surface of the headlights from damage, which are represented by numerous small chips and scratches.

To polish the lights with your own hands means to do the work, during which the surface of the upper layer of the material will be removed, which will effectively eliminate the existing shortcomings.

This procedure does not require a long studyspecial literature and a special set of tools. Such work can be successfully done independently, without the need to drive the car into service.

Cooking tools

To polish the lights with your own hands, you need to prepare:

• Grinding machine.
• Abrasive polishing compound.
• Materials to protect neighboring parts.
• Painting Scotch.
• Special shampoo.
• Protective lacquer for fixing the results.

It may be necessary and a number of alternative tools in the set for polishing the headlights:

• Grinding wheels and holders to them.
• Abrasive paste.
• Foam rubber.
• Masking tape.

If you are a beginner motorist, do not aspirepurchase a minimal set for polishing the headlights, so as not to be disappointed in the results. You should have all the items that can come in handy. For some experienced masters, it is not difficult to work without the use of a polishing compound. They can use only one grinder and a set of nozzles on which the sandpaper is fixed to polish the headlamp glass.

At the beginning of the preparatory work, keep in mind thatif you are the first time to purchase a complete set of tools for polishing the headlights, its cost will not be much different from the price of budget headlamps. Do not be embarrassed by this.

How to properly polish glass and plastic?

How to polish the lights at home? The material from which the transparent side of the headlights is made can be plastic or glass. And the glass structure is more fragile and firm. The deep clefts that have appeared are fully eliminated not only by the methods of grinding, as these procedures will not be enough to bring the heavily damaged surface into the proper form.

In such cases, the use of special sets is practiced, but they are expensive, and therefore it is more economical to purchase new headlights.

The plastic texture compared to the glass is softer, which facilitates the rapid mashing of such lights and the appearance of opacities.

Self-polish plastic lightscar can often. Such procedures will not harm their surface. It is important to consider that plastic does not tolerate high temperatures. The fact is that the effectiveness of most of the polish appears only with high revolutions on the grinding wheel. And such procedures contribute to a tangible warm-up of the surface.

Description of the polishing steps

When using a grinder, it is important to adhere to the polishing sequence of the glasses on the headlights below:

• Clean the surface of the headlights with water with the addition of a portion of the auto shampoo, having previously studied the instructions for using this detergent.
• Wipe the surface dry, taking only a natural cloth for this.
• Cover all the surfaces that border the headlights with paint tape.
• Assess how deep the damage is. If the scratches are too large, which can be determined by touching the nail, you will need to use the abrasive wheel P 180. Minor damage is easily eliminated by the circle P 320.
• Monitor the speed of revolutions, as in grinding such processes are the main ones. Recommended for their exposure in the area of ​​600 - 100 revolutions per minute.
• Do not stay long in one area, this is important in order to avoid irregularity of polishing.
• Remove large defects, after which you can proceed to the next stage with a finer abrasive - from P 320 and P 600 to P 1500 and P 3000.
• When this stage of work is completed, check how homogeneous the surface became.
• Finish sanding using the lastAbrasive, after which the headlights should become completely transparent. Pay attention to the importance of compliance with the technology of painting, which is specified in the manufacturer's recommendations.

To varnish dry, you need to wait about an hour. Then it is important to protect the freshly polished surfaces from damage for at least 24 hours.

How to do without grinders?

To perform high-quality polishing workheadlights need to prepare the above set of tools. If there is no financial opportunity to purchase a complete set, and there is no grinding machine, apply manual polishing methods.

To perform this procedure, prepareSandpaper, the granularity of which will be in the range of 600-2000 units. At the same time, note that the texture of the first variant of the paper will be the most rough for polishing. Its application will be required in those areas where there are especially deep scratches. In the presence of the bulk of small-scale injuries, processing can be started using a skins of 1000 units, and finish - for 2000. At the finishing stage, a clean natural cloth and polish are used.

Important points

When preparing to polish, it is important to consider what you can polish the lights so that the result is good and the surface is not spoiled. We offer a number of simple tips:

• When choosing a set for polishing the headlights, it is important to determine exactly what grain size is at the sandpaper, which one to choose the grinding wheel, depending on the degree of damage to the glasses on the headlights.
• If the scratches are too deep, it is recommended to start polishing using sandpaper with a grain size of P 600. Next, a gradual transition to P 4000 follows.
• The choice of a skin or a circle should be carried out so,to take into account their compatibility with water. For successful work, the surfaces of all grinding abrasives must be moistened. If you decide to switch to a smaller abrasive, you must clean the surface of the headlights.

In the construction market there is a largea variety of pastes with an abrasive texture. Each brand has its own technology for polishing. When buying a product, carefully study the instructions for its use, because each brand provides products that have individual characteristics.

If you decide to do without a grinder,polishing the headlights at home by hand will be more difficult, but also more economical. If carefully following all these instructions and follow the steps of the process, this method of processing will achieve no less qualitative results, although any grinding subsequently leads to the restoration of the transparency of the headlights, which will always be at least 20% matte than the new ones.

Features of the grinding machine

If you decide to polish the lights manually byinstructions and purchased the whole set of tools, you can do this job quickly and efficiently. The grinding machine during operation does not require a strong impact. Do not press it strongly against the surfaces that will be processed. Parameters of the rotational speed of the circle should be set beforehand, carefully observe what surface temperature becomes. When the plastic overheats, the process of turbidity inside the material takes place. Then this defect can not be corrected.

The instruction on how to polish the glass headlights indicates the need to use for this purpose not ordinary polishes, but solid mixtures - diamond pastes.

This product is produced by various manufacturers. You need to choose, focusing not only on the price, but also on the brand. If this is a well-known brand, it is unlikely that the product will be of poor quality.

Let's sum up the results

You can even polish the lights yourselfbeginning car enthusiast. It is important to comply with all technological requirements and rules, take into account how deep the damage is and what is the feature of the polished material.

With patience and accuracy, manymotorists successfully manage to bring old translucent lenses in excellent condition. This process does not take much time and effort, and the beauty and functionality of the headlights will be a reward for the effort.

Polishing the headlights at home does not giveopportunities to achieve perfect transparency. Performance will always be 20% different from new ones. But in comparison with the acquisition of new headlights, such processes will allow to provide functionality and a decent appearance of the "eye" of the car for a long time, without having to visit the car service center.