For many Moscow drivers, polishing headlights with toothpaste yourself is a profitable alternative to professional salon polishing. In this article we will talk about the features of this process. The information will come in handy if you decide to polish your headlights to at least avoid damage to the headlights.
How to polish headlights with toothpaste?
Headlights can be polished with toothpaste at home using the most ordinary toothpaste, and expensive toothpaste is not needed for these purposes. Many drivers buy the cheapest tubes of paste at the nearest hardware store. To complete the work, you will need the paste itself, a bucket of clean water, and several medium-hard towels. It is advisable to have masking tape.
Further, for both glass and plastic headlights, the procedure is as follows:
- To protect the areas adjacent to the optics from abrasive exposure, strips of masking tape are applied. This is important, since the paste can really damage body parts.
- The headlights are cleaned of adhering dirt and dust, and ideally degreased.
- Next, apply toothpaste to the headlight and rub it with a towel or cloth in a circular motion. You need to make fairly intense movements for about 5 - 7 minutes until the scratches are removed.
- After polishing is completed, the glass is cleaned with clean water to remove any remaining paste. Please note that the paste is not diluted with water during polishing!
Why do you need to polish your headlights?
Unfortunately, the appearance of lighting devices only gets worse with every year of vehicle operation. The lights become dim, yellow, and scratched. When looking at such headlights, the first thing that comes to mind is to urgently replace them, but surely every motorist knows how expensive such a procedure is. Don't rush to take radical measures!
There are many options that will help restore your car’s former shine at home. Polishing your headlights yourself is a great way to transform your car with minimal financial outlay.
Can I polish with tooth powder?
It is also possible to polish plastic headlights with tooth powder, but it must be taken into account that powder is more abrasive compared to paste. And under no circumstances should they rub the headlights “dry”. Therefore, powder is poured onto a damp cloth, after which all the same steps are repeated as with the paste.
When choosing between powder and paste, you should give preference to powder if your headlights are significantly damaged. If the damage is minor, it is better to use a more gentle paste. This way the chances of damaging the surface are much lower.
Substance for restoring car headlights at home
Polishing headlights from the inside is done much less often than from the outside. To clean the inner surface, you will have to disassemble the lighting fixture, and this, in turn, will require additional time. In addition, during disassembly there is always a risk of damaging the headlight. Polishing from the inside is resorted to if external surface treatment does not affect its condition and light transmission.
Having decided to transform the surface of car lights, you should think about choosing a polishing paste. The substance is selected according to various parameters, but primary attention is paid to the condition of the polished surface. But even with serious violations of its integrity, it is undesirable to choose aggressive compounds with solid particles. If there are scratches and chips, the defects are filled with a polymer solution or varnish. Then the treated surface is thoroughly dried and only then do you start polishing the headlights with your own hands. This can be done from the inside at home either using GOI professional toothpaste, which is sold in any auto store, or by using ordinary toothpaste.
How to polish headlights yourself
Before starting work, the driver determines what glass polishing technology he will use. This will be done by hand or using a sander.
You need to determine for yourself what material the car optics are made of. If the headlight is polycarbonate, use cleaning products for plastic; if it is glass, use cleaners for glass.
Determine the degree of surface damage. In rare cases, you can polish the part using a special shampoo. But this is not even grinding the surface, in the literal sense, but simply washing. Shampoos remove dirt and can remove surface oxidation, but are powerless against deep scratches. Used for preventative cleaning once a month.
If you develop the habit of washing your headlights, special... shampoo once every two weeks using a protective spray for polycarbonate headlights, you will never have to deal with the task of special polishing and grinding of car optics.
Features of self-polishing plastic
When polishing a plastic headlight with your own hands, it is important to remember that polycarbonate is a soft material that, unlike glass, is susceptible to high temperatures. If the headlight overheats slightly, it may darken.
Therefore, even when cleaning at a service station, you should insist only on manual polishing.
Using coarse-grained sandpaper quickly removes the protective layer of plastic; it is better to use fine-grained sandpaper or auto chemicals.
How to polish a headlight from the inside: features of the process
The final stage will be the internal polishing of the headlights with your own hands. At home, toothpaste is an ideal tool for treating plastic from the inside. As already mentioned, not everyone faces the need to polish their headlights from the inside. And yet even a beginner can cope with such work. There are no significant differences between external processing of headlights and polishing from the inside; the main thing is to act according to the proposed step-by-step instructions:
- It is necessary to remove the tape that connected the edges of the headlight and the metal of the body, then remove the headlight from the car.
- If the glass has cracks that are noticeable only from the inside, there is no point in polishing it - such a lighting device must be replaced with a new one.
- If there are no defects, the headlight cover is thoroughly washed.
- Grinding the inside of the headlight is done entirely by hand.
- Fine-grit sandpaper should be used. A small pea of toothpaste is enough for polishing.
Polishing the inside of the plastic headlight is carried out according to the previously described principle. It will take extra time to properly clean the inside of it, but once the headlight is assembled and installed in place, everyone can be proud of the work done!
Step-by-step grinding of the outside of a car headlight
It is worth noting that for polishing glass headlights, mixtures with harder particles are chosen. Diamond paste will help you achieve the desired result. The method of its application does not differ significantly from the previous one. Proper processing of a car headlight involves:
- Wet the sandpaper and apply the prepared paste to it.
- Grinding is performed in a circular motion in a cross-shaped direction: up-down, left-right.
- After the first procedure, the remaining paste and abrasives must be washed off with clean water.
- Sanding then continues with fine-grit paper.
- If you have a machine or drill equipped with a polishing wheel, grinding is performed for 5-7 minutes.
Polishing from the inside
Do-it-yourself headlight treatment from the inside is required in cases where the loss of transparency is caused not by external factors that led to the formation of scratches, but by exposure to light flux and high temperatures from the inside.
The considered work at home begins with disassembling the headlights. You must first heat them, for this you use a hair dryer. The tool is moved slowly and evenly, distributing the heat over the surface of the part.
The amount of heating is determined by the material from which the headlight is made. Thus, plastic headlights can be heated to a temperature of no more than 200°C, and glass ones - up to 600°C.
After this, the part needs to be picked out with a sharp object, for example, a screwdriver. When doing this, you should use gloves to avoid leaving marks on the inner surface of the part.
The polishing technology is the same as described above. The only difference is that in this case the abrasive ability of the polishing materials used should be lower. Due to the absence of deep damage in the form of scratches on the inner surface of the headlights, polishing begins immediately with fine-grained sandpaper or polishing paste.
Toothpaste for car headlights
Toothpastes contain abrasive substances that help clean plaque from teeth. But with the same success they help achieve transparency and shine of car headlights. Many drivers use this simple method when it is not possible to go to a salon. For example, on a long journey.
To clean your headlights you will need:
- Toothpaste. Any polish is suitable: Splat, Sensodyne, ROCS, Lacalut, Blend a med, Colgate, “New Pearl”. You can use tooth powder, diluting it with water to the consistency of sour cream. The cost of the product, as well as the expiration date, does not matter at all. But, according to reviews, whitening varieties work better - they contain more abrasive particles and substances that dissolve plaque, dirt and pigments.
- A piece of felt for rubbing. It can be replaced with any medium-hard brush. An old toothbrush works great for polishing.
- Mounting tape. The impact of toothpaste does not benefit car paint and sealing rubber bands. Therefore, before starting polishing, it is recommended to cover the areas around the headlights with construction tape.
- A bucket of water and a rag. Useful for cleaning the car at the end of work.
Toothpaste can be used to polish glass and plastic car headlights.
Instructions for use
Polishing headlights with toothpaste does not take much time. It will take half an hour to do everything. Of these, 15 minutes you will just wait for it to take effect, so you can do something else.
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Step-by-step instruction:
- Apply tape to the rubber seals and around the headlights.
- Squeeze toothpaste onto glass. A tablespoon of product is enough to clean one headlight.
- Lightly wet the felt rag. Rub the surface for 5-7 minutes.
- Polish one headlight, then the other and leave the paste on for 15 minutes.
- Armed with a clean rag and a bucket of water, rinse your car.
- Wipe the surface dry.
- Ready! You can evaluate the result.
For better effect
Polishing headlights with toothpaste does not always give a perfect result. To enhance the effectiveness of the procedure, use an auxiliary tool - an electric drill or a grinder with polishing attachments.
For polishing, it is best to use 3 different attachments in succession: medium-grained, fine-grained and felt (in the same order in which they are listed). This approach will help not only get rid of cloudiness and plaque, but also remove scratches.
When using a power tool to polish headlights, do not exceed 1500 rpm to prevent them from bursting or melting. It is also important to ensure that the surface does not overheat. To do this, take short breaks and constantly water the headlights with a thin stream of water.
