General Polishing headlights and engine tops...

[yvesthepunto]

Hi Guys,

I want to clean up my mk2 Punto a bit. The engine has heavy surface rust and the top cover is generally pretty grim. Was wondering if there is a way of cleaning these up?

And also my offside headlight has a horrible smudged frosted pattern of marks across it. Even from a distance my nearside light looks sharp but my offside is frosted. Ideas?

Thanks

 

[s and b]

Autosmart products are good for engine spruce ups
smaller quantities are available via ebay for home use.

For your headlight i get a piece of 1200 wetn dry and soapy water give the lens a good good rub down moving the paper all the time with plenty of water on it,you can even do it in situ if you are careful
once you have removed a very thin layer of opaque lens then you then go to stage 2
an electrical buffing machine and pad
smear a little compound on the headlight lens wet the buffing wheel and carefully bring up to new, keep wetting and keep moving the wheel or you will burn the lens.
I did a couple of clio headlights yesterday that some muppet had painted black with a rattle can,they now look like new again and £100 stayed in my rocket for new ones

 

[DaveMcT]

www.frost.co.uk sell all types of polishing kits. Also try www.mandp.co.uk

If the headlamp is heavily scratched there is likely to be hidden damage. Take it out and check before faffing with polish. Replace it if needed..

Rusty screws used on covers etc can be replaced with stainless steel. Dont use it for high tensile work and avoid stainless nuts on stainless bolts as they shake loose and threads can self weld (called galling).

 

[flakybandit]

i have the same problem with my headlight the plastic is very smudged and seems to be on the outside, at first i thought it was maybe from heat of the bulbs on the inside but not. Would you really be able to rub the plastic lens with wet and dry.? i thought it would just make it worse.

 

[Ziggy122]

i have the same problem with my headlight the plastic is very smudged and seems to be on the outside, at first i thought it was maybe from heat of the bulbs on the inside but not. Would you really be able to rub the plastic lens with wet and dry.? i thought it would just make it worse.

Wet and Dry would yes
but you'd need to remove the imperfections of the Misting or the scartchs with lots of tiny finer ones
Basically light abrasion - Once its at the stage for polishing
The Polish eats the Much Finer and tiny' scratchs away and leaves you with a Much cleaner Lens

Idearly you could get away with just a machine polisher and spending a long time

But keep the Heat down - as the plastic will go Cloudy which is then Perminant

Ziggy

 

[flakybandit]

thanks

 

[DaveMcT]

For what it costs why not buy these or others if you need a different spec

 

[flakybandit]

Would turtle wax safe cut do instead of rubbing compound or is it a rubbing compound as it is for removing small scratches and such.

 

[flakybandit]

For what it costs why not buy these or others if you need a different spec

Thanks would like new lights but i live in spain so need different ones i think, plus mine need fog lights

 

[DaveMcT]

My point was that spares are cheap. You can also swap the fog lights from your old units into the blanked spaces of the lower spec units.

Also a bad scratch means some sort of impact so the light may well be damaged.

This gives info about plastics polishing
http://www.glasstechnics.co.uk/polishing-compounds.html
Fine grades of wet & dry (used wet!) will remove deep marks.

 

[flakybandit]

My point was that spares are cheap. You can also swap the fog lights from your old units into the blanked spaces of the lower spec units.

Also a bad scratch means some sort of impact so the light may well be damaged.

This gives info about plastics polishing
http://www.glasstechnics.co.uk/polishing-compounds.html
Fine grades of wet & dry (used wet!) will remove deep marks.

Thank white, yes the lights are cheap but no good for me here in spain i have the mot coming up here and they check the headlamp orientation. As i say i have a tub of turtle wax sure cut would that do as a a rubbing compound anyone.?

 

[DaveMcT]

http://shop.ebay.es/?_from=R40&fts=2&_trksid=m570&_nkw=fiat+punto+faros&_sacat=See-All-Categories

 

[s and b]

Thank white, yes the lights are cheap but no good for me here in spain i have the mot coming up here and they check the headlamp orientation. As i say i have a tub of turtle wax sure cut would that do as a a rubbing compound anyone.?

no

follow my tips and borrow a buffer even a cheap battery powered one would do

 

[cgarr04]

https://www.fiatforum.com/punto/276061-how-can-i-remove-my-headlight.html

Nice result for £10...

 

[xander_trippin]

Toothpaste is great for cleaning headlights. i use it all the time on my plastic angel eyes

 

[g50245]

My O/H's car is a Clio and the lenses have gone yucky (outside).
I've been to a couple of places and none seem to stock Autosmart products. Which of these products would be on the same level / quality? (I will still sand it down with wet n dry paper):
-3M Headlight Lens Restoration System Restorer Kit
-XERAPOL PLASTIC POLISH AND ACRYLIC SCRATCH REMOVAL KIT
- Meguiar's Plast R-X
thanks

 

[DaveMcT]

Many folks have recommended Xerapol polish for plastics.

When done, get some lens protector covers

 

[g50245]

What are these?
Some sort of liquid to put over the cleaned lens? if yes, any recomendations?
Thanks for the previous answer

When done, get some lens protector covers

 

[DaveMcT]

Google it

 

[s and b]

Google it

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=it

no dont get it