SVO Headlight Restoration

[Nito2v]

A week back I bought this light off of Gator.. as my original driver's side marker light was stark white and cracked.. not bad for $55 seeing as they are hard to come by.

Before:
drivers.JPG

Seeing as it was dirty and yellow'ed up I figured I would clean it up and get it back to looking next-to-new.




After:
IMG_1277_zpsf86f6a5a.jpgIMG_1278_zpsb4399e08.jpgIMG_1279.JPG

Figure you guys would appreciate how it turned out. Looks great now.

[SVOeric]

looks good, how about the process you used to get there ?

Also would be nice if you actually upload the pics to the forum. Cause in a year or 2, if you sell your svo, you'll probably take down your photobucket pics, and when someone views this thread, they see nothing but bad links.

It can be really frustrating for people trying to research stuff.

[Nito2v]

Uploaded them as you recommended.

I started out by cleaning them with dawn and warm water, and then dried them with a microfiber.

Kept the bucket of soapy water around and soaked my 3m 1500 grit sand paper in it, 3m 2000 grit would come after. I began by spraying the surface of the light with a quick detailer (Mother's in this case since I had an over abundance). I would resoak the sand paper and re-lubricate the surface as I felt needed. To check my progress I would stop, clean the lense with soapy water then dry the light again. I sanded away most of the oxidation, scratches, and yellowing with the 1500, then proceeded to 2000 and repeated the process.

When the light had a uniform surface with no evidence of yellowing, I buffed the lense with a Griot's Garage DA buffer with a buff n' shine orange pad in combination with Meg's M105 compound on speed 6. I repeated again on speed 5. I hit the lense one last time with Meg's M205, a green buff n' shine polishing pad on speed 5.

To keep the light protected I would use a sealant followed by either spray sealant or wax. I went with Chemical Guy's Jetseal, buffed it off then applied their Hybrid V7 Spray sealant. Surface is smooth as glass and has a deep reflection that the pictures don't show.

Hope that helps anyone in the future. Saves you a lot of money.

[svono50]

Wow, nice detail on the process, thanx for sharing!

The yellowing of the plastic is basically UV light damage to the plastic, so if you buff/polish off the yellowed surface and don't do something to protect the now exposed plastic it yellow in the same manner. Most waxes have built in UV blocking capability, so keeping a fresh coating of wax or other UV blocking product on it will help make your work last a while. Talking with one of my plastic guys at work, he gave me some insight on the yellowing lenses. His recommendation was to coat the lens with spray clear acrylic paint, only after you test it to make sure it won't damage the base plastic. Clear acrylic paint is naturally a UV blocking/stable product, as compared to Lexan or polycarbonate. Something to keep in mind.

[Nito2v]

Sealant should protect them for up to 6 months in real world settings. The light won't go on the car until it's painted.. and I still need to correct and seal my passenger light. Not nearly as bad as the before on this light but it could use clarity. Worries me to have the more expensive and rare light on the car outside.

Will look into clearing them if the yellowing returns.

Do you reallly have to remove the bumpers on these cars just to remove the marker lights? Seems like a royal PITA Ford. lol

Thanks guys!

[SVOeric]

nope, it slides right out, you just have to lay on the ground and reach up through the fenderwell.

[Nito2v]

oh goodie, I didn't really want to have to take the whole bumper off. Thanks!

[SVOeric]

it's not the most comfortable position to get it out, but it's not as bad as changing a clutch cable

[SvoTy]

Good looking light!

[Nito2v]

Thanks. Didnt realize the corners were so easy to get to from behind the fender. Going to pull the pass. light and correct that too, properly. Will get pictures of that one.

[Nito2v]

IMG_1291.JPG

Got the flush mounts in today, so I did the same procedure, and threw some Opti-bond trim gel on the rubber gaskets. Can't wait to put them on!

[Shadez14]

Looks to be an amazing job, and thank you for the write up. Trying to pick up another 86 tomorrow and the owner has all the lights off the car. Said he was going to junk them because the were so faded. Glad I called him before he did that... Any how, you should just start doing this as a small side business