Got the EuroTune done with the CAI / 74mm installed - ZOOM ZOOM !!!

 

So, a nice, noticeable power increase then huh?? Good to hear. Hopefully, I will have mine soon. Just did my exhaust, so have to give the wife time to recover before I spend more, lol

 

After spending a couple of hours on these fog lamps, this is what I ended up with...anyone have any idea how to fix it?

 

So a EuroTune turned it into a Mazda.

 

It looks like you did not use the correct abrasive from the picture. You need to start with something that is a little more abrasive, but not too high of a grit because you need to be able to polish out the scratches, gradually. You start with a lower grit, then move to a very high grit (3000) over several stages. You can try wet sanding as well when you get to the higher grit stuff. If you dont sand down until you get rid of the rock marks (most of them, anyway) then you will never really be happy with the turnout, but keep in mind, if there are deep ones, you may not be able to get them out, only make them look a little less noticeable by knocking off the edges...

 

Yea, a really fast, fat Miata

 

I used this kit from 3M:

Restoring a Headlight 3M US DIY drill drills clean cleans clear clears restore restores cloud cloudy haze hazy scratch scratches scratchs yellow yellows headlights fog light lights tail taillight taillights signal plastic plastics car cars auto autos

Not to totally hijack the thread, but what should I be using? Please be specific about what grade, etc.

 

Meguires Heavy Duty Headlight Restoration Kit - $25-$30

 

Thanks for the pointer! I will see if I can find it!

 

It does not tell me what grit of SP is included in the kit, but please keep in mind, these kits are designed for plastic and poly lenses, not the glass of your foglights.

You will need to play around with it to see what will work, and I am hesitant to give you any exact answer as I have never done this particular job and do not want to tell you something too gritty and have you be upset with my advise when you can not polish out the scratches. You need to keep going with something heavier until you get the desired result. It should not take you hours, either.

PM me if you want to continue the conversation for the sake of everyone else.

Hope this helps.

 

I don't think the P1000 will be coarse enough...should I go to a P600, perhaps?

 

Detailed today for the weekend drive.

Cleaned the muffler tips with Simple Green and elbow grease....
Then a senior moment...I started to detail, and after 2/3 of the car done, realized I still had the Simple Green in my hand
It is clean though!

 

Without first hand knowledge here, but if these are actually glass.. a short trip through google tells me throw the sandpaper away.

 

They're not glass...

 

They are glass as far as I know and to get out any pits means a thou or so has to be ground away. Diamond dust is good for polishing glass and some other stuff you can buy, not cheap and it will take a long time.
Probably not worth the effort in my mind.

 

They sure don't sound like or feel like glass...don't weigh enough, either...I stand to be corrected if we can get a definitive answer...

 

Good to hear! LOL.. Okay let me now throw in my .02 worth.. when I got my car she had pretty yellow headlights.. my first rodeo with headlights too. I had some "wore out" 800 grit wet and dry from using on my Miata... and that is what I went after my headlights with, not bearing down but just light pressure and then went to polishing with car polishing compound and final buffing with car wax and they looked very respectable at that point. Previous owner was very surprised at how good they looked. Have since moved to products for headlights, but have no regrets or undesirable results from from my initial attack on them.

Edit:
Okay.. the great debate has begun.. I vote glass.. when applying headlight protectant at work.. I broke out the blue magic headlight restorer on my fog light...which not being "overly" concerned as they don't look bad..but did do a "huh"... didn't seem to polish out at all..

Edit..Edit.. Wasn't there a 12:30 am infomercial "scratch magic" or some such for filling the scratches on your glasses.. but wait order now and we'll double your shipment?

Edit..edit..edit..
After looking at your pics.. and your description of "don't feel like glass...".. I'm thinking tempered glass.. which could be thinner.. lightweight.. and expensive to replace.. like the 400 dollar price tag that comes with used ones? What do you get when you sand on glass? A highly undesirable result?

 

[QUOTE=Mrmiata

Edit..edit..edit..
After looking at your pics.. and your description of "don't feel like glass...".. I'm thinking tempered glass.. which could be thinner.. lightweight.. and expensive to replace.. like the 400 dollar price tag that comes with used ones? What do you get when you sand on glass? A highly undesirable result?[/QUOTE]

Ok - my 2 cents worth, they are glass. I wanted to remove the pitting so I got out my Dremel and used a coarse grade sanding disc. To my horror the disc dug into the glass and scuffed it and I thought I'm only making it worse! Not to be deterred, I put the finest disc I had on the dremel and I was able to polish out the scuffs as well as remove all the pitting. see post #754

 

You guys are right, it is glass...so I can work it out...plan on doing it this weekend...so, I should use the finest discs I can find? What about the initial disc you used? Skip that? How do you mount your discs? I just have the part that goes in the Dremel...

 

This is the first sanding wheel I used. DO NOT USE THIS ONE - it scuffed the glass (but it also told me that the glass was penetrable)


This is the one I used, it took all the pits out but I had to be careful or it would scuff the glass...


I used the discs on the bottom right of these three, the dark blue X...



And the finishing touch, I used a combination of rubbing compound/headlight polish and steelwool pad. It was pretty tedious, I was watching TV and polishing during commercials for a couple of hours (I watch TV anyway so I made it productive time lol)
I have to say if I can do it anybody can do it...so geter done!