Clear Coat for Headlights

H

hoodun

Can I shoot Euro Clear over my plastic headlights which have been sanded to 320g. I'm mainly concerned about adhesion and UV protection. They keep yellowing. Since I'm painting the car I figure I could just unmask the headlights when shooting the clear. ...?
 
I'd say 320 is wAy to coarse, I've been clearing over 1000grit on some daily drivers that are hammering on miles and have had no adhesion issues. To clear over 320g would kill the clarity of the lens I think
 
Courses, I have heard is 400 wet and works great, the Universal will cover 320 dry in one coat over paint or primer, so I would really see no problem on headlight as long as first coat was wet so you fill the scratch instead of bridging.
 
I have used euro over 320 wet. But not on crystal clear lights. I normally do 600 wet on the clear ones. Euro works great. 2 years and still look great!
 
One thing that will help make sure the lights come out as clear as possible is to make sure all traces of the previous UV and scratch resistant coating is all sanded off the lamps. Some will be there on the unworn parts of the lamp if you look for it. The solvents in the urethane clear will melt and reflow the Lexan, but not so much if the coating is intact. We usually step sand ours pretty fine because experience has taught us that a bit more clarity can be achieved that way. I've been spraying clear on headlamp lenses with a lifetime warranty for over 8 years now without a single comeback. Urethane clear is superior to the coating applied by the factory.
 
I can't speak for the euro clear cause I've never used it. but as far as universal goes, I hit the headlights with 500 than follow with 800 and I have had nothing but epic results. Like crashtech said, make sure all the old junk is gone.

Acura tsx







Subaru sti





 
Nice job! By the way the euro or Universal will work perfect on the lights.
 
For future reference... My experience with this is that 400 or 600 sanded work the best so long as you sand through all the damaged / oxidized plastic. 1000+ seem to give a very similar result but is more work AND seems more susceptible to delaminating after a rock chip then if clear was applied over rougher surface. I've used both universal and Euro clears, they both look great, but unless I miss my guess, the Euro seems to be a bit harder and more durable. I've also had great results in a number of instances using slightly tinted (ie with ppg 9700 black) SPI intercoat clear (with a bit of hardener) first then shooting universal or Euro over the top of that. Headlights, tailights, marker lights, damaged (newer, C5) corvette roofs, and all sorts of other things (even furniture ;-).
 
I just recieved my euro clear yesterday the tech told me 4 clear 1 hardener 2 reducer crashtech you said very fine do you stop at 2000 grit for that Crystal clarity.
 
I would go no finer than 600-800 grit.(wet) The clear needs mechanical adhesion (sand scratches). If you go 2000 the clear will peel. It will fill 600 grit scratches no problem.

Barry recommends 400 grit wet. Crash stated 800 grit. I would go no further than 800 grit to ensure adhesion.
 
Finally got around to doing my 02' sprinter van's lights. They were pretty close to being ready for the trash can & still have trash & spots on the inside, but outside is 10 times better with the clear. They were sanded & buffed really good once years ago & lightly cleaned constantly , so a light 400 & then 800 grit sanding went pretty quick. Did 3 coats of euro. Definitely won't be the last lights I spray.
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Sad part here is I got more time in light recleans over the years than in removal, sanding , spraying & reinstall.
 
I do two and have a full time guy I know, this is all he has done for about 10 years and he does two, I just assumed more could hurt clarity but I really have no way of knowing.
 
More than two would be for sanding and buffing, but I've never seen it to be necessary. SPI clear lays out really nice on polycarbonate.
 
Timewise it took almost 20 minutes to remove the sprinter lights thanks to a connector being glued in place & approx. 10 minutes to reinstall & put up tools. No bumper cover to remove like many cars. Less than 10 minutes to clean & sand mine , since they were thoroughly sanded & buffed back around 08' & light cleaned occasionally, so add a little time there. Figure your average time for mixing clear & cleaning gun, ( approx. 10 to 15 min here), but I worked on 4 little projects at one time, so that cuts that down. Walking outside to lights & spraying was about 2 minutes each time. I actually only did the 3rd coat because of spraying outside my work area & got too much trash on it to let go. Think it actually did look better on the 2nd coat other than the bugs & oak tree stuff.
Technically was all day since I removed first thing in am & put back on before going home.:rolleyes:
Most any shop will fit a small project like this into other jobs to save paint material & equipment time. A thought for time vs money on a single use only would be these 1 use 2k rattle cans you can now get for around $20 or so per can, but I never tried my can out yet.
 
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