Bongo Fury

Hi All.

One thing Barry suffered from when purchased was yellowed headlights. I tried the quick fixes like T-Cut and Xerapol plastic restorer, but whilst they improved them, they still looked pretty poor.

So I bit the bullet and bought the 3M Headlight Restoration Kit. It cost £22 (not much more the T-Cut and Xerapol cost me!). You can't get replacement lenses, so this is the only way to go really.

The kit contains everything you need including the masking tape (you get more than the picture - I took it after finishing). All you need it a drill. If using a cordless drill make sure you have enough battery life to complete the job! I used 2 batteries on my DeWalt. Picture doesn't show the sachet of polishing compound as I'd opened that and it was going everywhere


It is well worth watching the 3M video on YouTube before starting. Search for 3M Headlight restorer.

This is how the lens started - all yellow, misty and pitted (and this is after T-Cut and Xerapol!):


First stage is very scary using the P500 disc. This takes off the surface of the headlight. It took about 8 passes of the drill. I used two of the P500 discs provided (the kit comes with 6). Care is needed around the indicator bulge. If you press or linger you get little bits of melted plastic build up. Not much pressure needed! In the end I did round the indicator by hand with the disc. It's worth wiping off the dust frequently as that will also melt if you let it build up. To get to the edges, especially the back ones, I made sure there was a good layer of tape as you have to move the disc onto the tape to get right to the edge of the lens. Carefully does it! Make sure you take off all the pitted yellow layer - keep wiping with a cloth until it looks evenly milky white.


Next you move to the finer P800 disc. Again, about 8 passes taking care to cover off all areas. A bit fiddly round the indicator - again I finished by hand here. Wipe regularly to so you can see coverage. Aim is to get rid of all coarser scratches. End result looks like an even white.


Third step with the "Trizact" P3000 disc. This needs to be kept wet. Use a plant sprayer to wet the disc and lens. Then go over the lens evenly about 10 times. A white slurry forms. You know it's working then.


Final step is the polishing compound with the orange sponge like pad. Put a good pea sized amount on the sponge head and smear over lens before starting the drill. Polish all over the lens until the polish is removed. Wipe down with a cloth and go "Wow". Lens is like new (the apparent swirls in places in the picture are in fact reflections of the tree behind).


The final step was to apply a surface sealer and UV protection coating. I bought this from Amazon and hopefully it will prevent future yellowing:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00A3S1RGU

The headlights now look amazing. Well worth the money and an hour of graft, if a bit scary to undertake!


Let down a bit by the fog lights now - they have been well and truly sand blasted. As they are glass, I'm not sure what to do other than replace them.

I'll put this into a fact sheet if people would find it useful.

Brilliant (literally) - I found your post very informative and will give mine a go.

Thank you.

Great job.

What a fantastic result

The 3M kit looks to be the best one as you do the whole job with the drill. The Meguiars one (which is the same price) relies on manual sanding with 2 small blocks. It took 20 minutes each side with the drill, so goodness knows how it would have taken manually!

It was really scary to start with. You just have to grit your teeth and carry on. A big sigh of relief at the end though and an absolutely superb result. Definitely a "wow" moment It's taken years off Barry

How do I submit a fact sheet?

Thanks

Try a PM to Doone, mod of this parish.

Bob wrote:Try a PM to Doone, mod of this parish.

Okay, I'll add some detail and send Doone a PM.

It will make a most useful Fact Sheet, for certain.

mitchelln wrote:It took 20 minutes each side with the drill, so goodness knows how it would have taken manually!

It was really scary to start with. You just have to grit your teeth and carry on. A big sigh of relief at the end though and an absolutely superb result. Definitely a "wow" moment

I did the lights on my Astraven by hand, with various grades of wet & dry. Came up a treat after an MOT failure on the headlights, but takes a good while.

Gritting of teeth is required but, as you said, much care is also needed to avoid taking too much off, leaving scratches or running onto the paint. Lots of time and lots of water on the wet stages.

Looks like you did a great job, and the difference is huge! Must do mine now, we have xenons on our 51 plate, so I was a bit twitchy about taking the w&d to them in case I couldn't get a replacement. I wasn't worried when I did the Astra lights - they're ten a penny by comparison.

mitchelln wrote:How do I submit a fact sheet?

Send me an email [email protected] and I will send you a Word template.

As Telly Savalas said....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t1RBw0IGXA

They picked a nice conveniently shaped flat example to work on

That looks fantastic, we need to do one of ours. I presume one was replaced in the past. One is crystal clear, the other is yellowing. The yellowing isn't as bad as yours but is as noticeable given the clear one on the other side!

Just one thought, given how easy it is to remove the headlights, wouldn't it be better to remove the whole unit to reduce the risk of damage to the paintwork?

I considered taking off the lenses, but then wondered how I'd safely hold them still.

They would have to be held tightly as the coarser P500 disc was quite grippy. I would imagine that keeping them still would be tricky. The lenses are surprising slippery and I was worried that clamping them tightly risked cracking them. Also adds the possibilities of messing up removing them, dropping them etc. These things seem to be pretty irreplaceable.

Two layers of the tape and a firm hold on the drill seemed fine. When doing the first one, I found one layer is not enough near corners and edges and started to erode.

That looks great I have a 21 year old old car as well as the Bongo and do the car each year with T-Cut restorer as you say the clean up it does not last for very long and I have to do it every year at least to keep them clear and keep the pattern ok for the M.O.T. so a nice find. Good share.