Help! I am having trouble with buffing flush mounted lenses

3

35window

Promoted Users
Fellas I'm looking for some help-
I've installed flush mounted LED tailights in my Car, and while they generally look awesome, there are some "ghost" lines where the the lens meets the clear -
Everything on the Car is SPI(Epoxy, SS Black, Universal Clear), and I believe the problem is due to the hardness of the lenses, and the "softness" of the Universal Clear-
I have tried everything I can think of-I block it out with 1500, 2000, 3000 and 5000 and I've buffed with my 7" buffer, 3" buffer and even have hand buffed it (which takes hours)-
You can only see it in a certain light, but it's driving me crazy-
I think the answer might be using a harder, different Clear, but I'm not sure of that-if true, it sucks because I'm in love with the Universal Clear-
Has anyone had experience with something like this?
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Are you referring to those whitish looking squiggly areas in the center? That looks like an air pocket where the clear is lifting off the lens. Hardness of the clear or lack thereof has nothing to do with it. Hardness of the substrate has nothing to do with it.
My first guess would be that for whatever reason the clear didn't hold there and lifted. Too fine a grit or not enough scuffing of the lens before clearing could cause that. Second thought and rather likely, would be that when you were buffing you got it hot right there and the clear lifted off the lens.
 
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Thank you, no, that is the reflection inside of my shop (I couldn't get a good photo), they actually look killer except for the ghost lines-Thanks for your thoughts though!
 
If you are referring to the outline of the lens ghosting in? It may be due to the fact that you have 2 completely different sub straights back to back and they will expand and contract at different rates.

If you're not talking about the outline, please disregard my entire post!
 
i have installed these lights on many motorcycles and cars over the years. if you are talking about the ghosting seam then you will never get rid of that and its like OJ said. dissimilar materials that have different expansion contraction rates as well as a very epoxy bond seam. especially with the car being black not only will you never rid yourself of these, they are also going to crack, guaranteed. it will get 100 times worse when the sun gets it really hot. nothing in bodywork is ever butted up to one another so there is a line. everything is always feathered out. the plastic should be made 1" bigger than the light all the way around then stick up proud to the surface and tapered down to the metal surface with an epoxy. your basically blending in that bond seam at least an inch to both sides of the seam. this will avoid cracking and ghosting. your in a sense making a big "V" just like when you do a plastic repair.
 
Thank you all-Jim, I did make the lenses bigger (maybe not an inch, but maybe 1/2", and I sanded ihem flush to the fender with SPI epoxy (which confuses me, as I would think it wouldn't show)-
Anyway I went through the last show season looking that way (and got lots of compliments about them), and it sat out in the sun a lot without any problems so far (other than the ghosting)-
I decided this Winter I was going to fix it, and re-cleared it (as I had used Candy to darken the lenses and didn't want to sand through)-
Anyway, I found the best results hand buffing them (better than before where I used a buffer), and was just trying to make them perfect-
Guess not-they still look great (but)-it's only in a certain light that you see it-
Shine, thanks so much for the compliment!!
 
only sucess i ever had was with fiberglass fenders and only a couple of times . i finally stopped even trying . if i installed them or painted it i said up front they will fail .

i watched your build from the beginning on hr.com . glad your getting to enjoy it .
 
35window said:
Thank you, no, that is the reflection inside of my shop (I couldn't get a good photo), they actually look killer except for the ghost lines-Thanks for your thoughts though!
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I thought you meant that squigly line area in the middle. :) I could tell the light reflections. Agree with the others if you are talking about ghost lines between the body and light body.
Great looking car BTW. I love the look of the 35 and 36's. :)
 
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