Honda Civic Headlight Restoration....

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This was my first headlight restoration job that involved monetary compensation
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Its an 8th gen Civic, not sure what year. I wish I would have got more "before" pics as the ones I have don't clearly show the condition the lights were in. The owner said they even tried replacing the bulbs due to a small amount of light actually getting onto the road. This job took around 2 hours. I started by wet sanding the lights with 1000 grit followed by 1500 grit, then compound and polished via my dual action with alcohol wipe downs in between. I ended up washing the whole car and topped the car with a Meguiars wax as you try product. The owner didn't ask for that, I just threw it in since the car was certainly over due! after the wash and dry I topped the headlights with Zaino AIO followed by Optum Opti-Seal. I am happy with the results and so was the owner! They said they would have hired me to do the headlights on there van but they had already ordered new lamps at $200 a pop, yikes those things are expensive! Ok here are the pics, again sorry for poor quality and lack of pics on the before photos.

Before....



After....










Before / After....
 
Quality work! Awesome results, I need to do this soon on my car and I hope to have even 50% of your results.
 
Originally Posted By: FirstNissan
Quality work! Awesome results, I need to do this soon on my car and I hope to have even 50% of your results.


Its not to hard of a process. PM me if you have any questions, I'll be glad to try and help!
 
Originally Posted By: doitmyself
Will the Opti Seal bond to the ZAIO?


It should as both are synthetic. Zaino has a product called clear seal that is the same idea as opti seal and all of zainos products claim to bond to one another.
 
A local detail shop does both headlights for $30 and provides a lifetime guarantee so if they degrade again, they re-do them for free. Definitely worth the $30 to me as I'm sure they did a better job than I would have, as I'd probably have paid about that much for the supplies and if it came back I'd have to do it again. Most people have told me if you get 2 years out of the job, that's very good.
 
Originally Posted By: gregk24
Originally Posted By: doitmyself
Will the Opti Seal bond to the ZAIO?


It should as both are synthetic. Zaino has a product called clear seal that is the same idea as opti seal and all of zainos products claim to bond to one another.


By the way, what are those spots on the hood and fender, paint chips that have rusted? And it looks like they have something going on with their bumper too. I take it they aren't the most meticulous owners.
 
Originally Posted By: dlayman
Originally Posted By: gregk24
Originally Posted By: doitmyself
Will the Opti Seal bond to the ZAIO?


It should as both are synthetic. Zaino has a product called clear seal that is the same idea as opti seal and all of zainos products claim to bond to one another.


By the way, what are those spots on the hood and fender, paint chips that have rusted? And it looks like they have something going on with their bumper too. I take it they aren't the most meticulous owners.


The spots were paint chips but they didn't go down to bare metal, and yes it appears the car was in a fender bender at some point as the sides were popped out a bit and some of the paint had "crows feet". The headlight job with a simple wash spruced it up for sure.
 
A lot of the factory Honda paint does that crows feet thing. Mainly the one I think called nighthawk black. I did similar process to the headlights on my maxima some time ago but just used chemical guys jet seal at the end instead. Held up fine and sold the car recently.
 
Originally Posted By: ryanschillinger
A lot of the factory Honda paint does that crows feet thing. Mainly the one I think called nighthawk black. I did similar process to the headlights on my maxima some time ago but just used chemical guys jet seal at the end instead. Held up fine and sold the car recently.


Hmmm...I thought the crows feet issue was a bunch of small areas all over, not those long cracks that run parallel to each other. Did you just apply the jet seal once? I am looking for a wipe on sealant that is long lasting.
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
The issue is how long it will last.

Yep- without going down to 600 (or even 400), it is unlikely that he removed all of the old clear coat from the lens. That is the key to a proper headlight restoration. After the restoration, your best option is to spray a headlight sealant onto the vehicle or use Opti-Lens.

Originally Posted By: gregk24
I am looking for a wipe on sealant that is long lasting.

You can try Sonax Polymer Netshield but ease of use is not a characteristic of the product (relative to some others).
 
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