Headlights

So, the headlight covers on my BMW (e46 325i) have been jacked up since I got the car.  They are like all crazed and …  well crazy looking.  They really needed to be polished, so I did that last night.  Here are some pics.  Exciting huh?

Pretty ugly looking!

So, I taped it off so that I would not ruin the paint

Then I sanded them with 1000 grit and then 2000 grit sand paper.

I don't have a pic of this, but the next step was to apply Meguiars PlastiX - a great clear plastic polish.  It like fills in the grooves and rounds off the peaks left by the sanding.  I am a little worried that this will come off as I wash the car and will have to be reapplied every now and then.  Without it they lenses look very foggy when dry and very clear when wet.

The finished product.

Big difference huh?  

If you can't tell, I did this at night and this morning I was able to see that I left some areas almost untouched.  It seems that I was scared of ruining the paint, so I avoided the lower areas quite a bit.  You can see it a bit in this picture. I will probably fix it this weekend, but it is definately something that I will have to do in the day time. 

I am thinking of using an electric vibrating sander too, but I have heard that this can cause too much heat and cause the plastic to warp.  That would suck, but I am still going to try it.  I will just do it in bursts.

I really need to get a drill adapter for the polish too.

Sweet.