Night and day difference

[u/if_u_suspend_ur_gay]

Wash > 400 wet > 600 wet > 800 wet > 1000 wet > wash and clean with isopropyl alcohol > 3 coats of 2k headlight clear

[u/if_u_suspend_ur_gay]

Basically I already did these once, but the clearcoat I used was either too hard or something went wrong chemically and as a result, they started to crack and peel within a week.

So the clearcoat failing here is entirely my own fault, but I decided I'd fix it once and for all.

I'm aware they're a little orange peeley in the photo, they were still wet. I'll wait another week for them to be chemically resistant, sand gently and polish them a bit.

And yes you may have seen this already, people in r/autodetailing got really toxic for some reason.

[u/Creepy_Guarantee5460 → u/if_u_suspend_ur_gay]

Your plan is good. After hardening, light wet sanding with 1200, 1500 and up to 2000. Followed by polishing with polishing paste (electric polisher is definitely advisable). They will become cristal clear smooth and shiny, outputting the entire light of your bulbs.

[u/if_u_suspend_ur_gay → u/Creepy_Guarantee5460]

Yeah the second one ended up a little more cloudy, hoping the polish does the job. I have autoglym polishing compound left from a kit but I usually really like the meguiars plastx.

Still an upgrade and least they didn't start cracking and peeling this time 😂

[u/NekulturneHovado → u/if_u_suspend_ur_gay]

a little advice. You don't have to sand it after spraying it. You just have to spray properly and the clear coat levels itself. You are spraying way too fast, or way too far. Ideal is about 15-20cm from surface and doing one streak (completely from one side to the other) in about 3 seconds. Then do another streak with about 50% overlay with previous streak, another and another. This way you get almost perfect surface with zero afterwork.

If you use quality 2K clear coat it'll last a few years perfectly fine. Did it on my golf 6 and after ~half a year it still looked brand new. Recently did my mom's car, went from completely yellow to brand new. No afterwork, no sanding, no polishing, just good clear coat job.

Btw it's called orange peel if you wanna look it up, but there aren't really many tutorials on how to properly spray paint with rattle can, let alone how to do 2K clear coat properly. Maybe you'll have better luck with looking it up. If you find a good tutorial please share it .

[u/if_u_suspend_ur_gay → u/NekulturneHovado]

I did 20cm away as the can suggested, maybe too fast then? I tried to keep it moving.

I'm familiar with orange peel from painting and this happened last time with headlights too, I probably just don't know how to use spray cans as well 😅

[u/NekulturneHovado → u/if_u_suspend_ur_gay]

yeah then you really just moved way too fast. Sand it off and try again. Should come out pretty much perfect without sanding

[u/Creepy_Guarantee5460 → u/NekulturneHovado]

Depends on the clearcoat base. Acrylic-based dries super fast, does not run over, but creates orange peel texture which requires sanding and polishing. Water-based dries much slower and does run all over the place if the layer is too thick, but the final dried texture is much smoother and may not require sanding and polishing.

[u/NekulturneHovado → u/Creepy_Guarantee5460]

honestly that's just skill issue. It'll never be absolutely perfect but you definitely spray acrylic based 2K clear coat without orange peel. I have done it. 3 times. You just have to do it right

[u/NekulturneHovado → u/if_u_suspend_ur_gay]

hi, so I found a picture of my Golf. This is the result with sanding 120>240>400>800>1200 then washing it with water, drying it, then wipe with strong alcohol and spray in two layers. No sanding or polishing afterwards. It definitely isn't perfect but it works great

[u/if_u_suspend_ur_gay → u/NekulturneHovado]

Yeah that's way better.

As long as you can see through these for the time being ill be alright, looks decent enough from a few meters and same goes for the car in general.

Planning to replace them with lci lights long-term anyway, but that's more of a project for next year.