Is anyone doing headlight refurbs?

there was someone doing headlight refurbs on the forum but i haven't seen any posts from him for sometime now .

http://www.fiatcoupeclub.org/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1424838&page=1

He stopped doing them and he has sold his coupe now.

He's not been on the forum since July 2013.

It's not difficult to do yourself with a bit of patience.

Tip. Use methylated spirits to strip off the surface film: it just peels off if you leave it to react for a while.

edit Remove the headlamps from the bonnet before you use meths, it can damage paint if it is in contact for any length of time.

Thanks for that tip but the film came off ages ago and they have been mopped a couple of times since which is only a short term improvement.

If only I'd known this yesterday - that film is really hard and takes some serious sanding. Still, I've only done one so far - I'll try meths on the other one.

Funny, I did (one of) mine yesteday too. I tried the meths but didn't know how long 'a while' was. Less than 20 minutes certainly isn't! Despite only 30% of the lens still being coated with the lacquer, it took around 3 hours to sand it off. I've got another light to do now this weekend and will try soaking for a few hours instead...

Annoyingly for me, despite getting the outside of the lens almost 100%, the inside is coated in grime. I'll need to open it up and clean that too

Lessons Learnt for me
Don't use sand paper at over 800 grit to start with - it needs to be a LOT coarser, especially with lacquer.
Don't bother trying to use an electric buffer - the shape of the lights make it near useless. If only she had a flatter bottom, damn woman!!

I found the cold lifted the lacquer from mine. Perhaps an overnight in the freezer?

My car was subject to a high degree of wind chill one night. When I cleared the frost most of the coating came away. I lifted the rest with a pressure washer.

I don't want to admit defeat, but I'm pretty sure they changed the sealant on the later cars. I tried splitting the lens the other day and I got nowhere. I tried with a heat gun first, then in the oven as hot as I dared (over 100deg). The sealant just doesn't seem affected by the heat. No amount of leverage moved it.

They may have already been split at some point and re-sealed with something not affected by heat. Lights also need a fair amount of brute force to split, i've done a couple of sets and each time i'm convinced the plastic is about to snap just before the sealant finally gives up, bit of a no guts no glory moment and probably best done on a spare set first!