97 Civic Headlight Restoration
imgur.com/a/KfvPS
imgur.comPosted Jul 21, 2014, 4:46 PM UTC
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imgur.comI love your rims. Would love some like that on my malibu and they would fit perfectly in terms of looks. Good job as always vega!
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Thanks! I meant to thank you for recommending Auto Finesse Finale. I tried it out and love how it works and the scent is amazing. The rims came with the car when I bought it and I do like them over stock, but I might be changing them in the next few months. If I do I'll let you know.
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Yeah finale is pretty sweet. For a QD it has some great gloss and slickness.
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Great write up, and the headlights look fantastic!
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Thanks!
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Good job Ray. I still use that DP all-in-one Headlight stuff.
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Thanks and ya that's good stuff.
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Great write up.
Lights good great.
Damn that is one clean looking civic!
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Looks great! I recently did the same to my 97 civic. Really changes the look for the better.
This is a DX correct? Mine's got the black trim and its a DX. No power steering is a love/hate relationship. I recommend you plasti dip the trim/sideskirts/front grill to give it that overall new look as well.
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Wow. Clean!! I'm waiting on a new air filter so I can write an engine bay detail makeover soon. I ordered one from Autoanything.com last week but they sent me an email a few days later saying it was on backorder. So I ordered another from Amazon it should be here this week. I'm going to change the oil, oil filter, air filter, spark plugs, spark plug wires, paint the valve cover and detail the engine bay. I hope it turns out as clean as yours.
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Looking forward to the writeup. I always love before/afters. Also, look into replacing the cabin filter if you haven't. I still have to do mine. Its located behind the glove box supposedly. I bought mine about 4 years ago with around 180,000 miles. I was pretty nervous buying a car with that many miles but mine has been great to me. The only thing I did was replace the DX cluster with an EX one (DX doesn't have the tachometer so I was shifting blind..wtf?) Its straight up plug and play. I also painted my valve cover.
I recently did the following to mine:
New Timing belt + water pump
Spark plugs
Spark plug wires
Valve adjustment
Clutch + flywheel (tranny is whinny a bit, was hoping the bearing was bad so I got the kit but alas its still there. Bright side is new clutch!)
Tranny fluid
brakes
Should be good for another 100k with routine maintenance hopefully. I hope you enjoy yours, a civic is nothing special but this thing just wont die!!!
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Focus SE owner here. Same thing with no tach. Planning on getting one from a zetec Focus eventually, but there's no way to change the electronic odometer, so I have to try and find one with roughly the same amount of miles... :/
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My friend used toothpaste on his car after reading a comment on this subreddit. Worked like a charm and cost him $3
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u/zenautodetailing aka u/orlheadlights did a good example of why this isn't the best way of doing things. In addition, the results from toothpaste won't last nearly as long as properly restoring your headlights.
Here's the imgur album from u/zenautodetailing
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Ya if it's not too bad toothpaste can work, even a compound will improve the headlights. But when it starts to yellow or get into medium-heavy oxidation, completely removing the oxidation works best. I don't want to have to polish these back out in a few months.
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I always love the Autopia Write-Ups! Very Nice Work!
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I do headlights the exact same way, and no matter how clean or careful I am, I almost always get an erratic "pig tail" here and there. Is there anything specific you do to avoid this?
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Newbie here. What is a pig tail?
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Also, any specific reason for using the 3m disc for 3k and not the Meg's?
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The most common reason for pigtails is dirt or sand or contaminants getting stuck between the sand paper and whatever you're polishing. Work as clean as possible. If the headlights are really bad, spray them with fresh water more often and wipe the milky residue with a clean microfiber towel. If you want to be extra careful, set your spray bottle to stream and rinse off your sandpaper before continuing to damp sand. If you're machine damp sanding like I did here, try using a slower speed with less downward pressure and make sure the polisher is always completely flat. If you don't focus and use the polisher on an edge, you can leave pig tails. Follow the contour of the headlights carefully. Being extra careful and working extra clean will slow you down maybe 5 minutes, but you won't get pig tails anymore.
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Thanks buddy, keep up the great work!
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Can I use 2000 grit?
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Added to the wiki!
http://www.reddit.com/r/AutoDetailing/wiki/howto#wiki_how_to_restore_headlights
woohoo!