Need help with Meguiars PLASTX

[JLTSX07]

Hey guys,

I am really in need of some advice. I have a 2007 ACURA TSX. I noticed today that I had some scratches on my headlights. They were not bad, but if the light caught them right, you could see them. Since I am really anal about my car, I was determined to get these out. So, I initially started with some liquid glass wax. I thought maybe that would help to cover them up. That didn't do anything, so I tried SCRATCH OUT by KIT (yellow bottle). That helped a little bit, but didn't do a whole lot. So, I went to Autozone and picked up some PLASTX. Anyway's, this didn't seem to do much either. Now, my headlights look clear, but I swear when I have my headlights on (HIDS w/ projectors), I swear the light looks kind of like fuzzy on the garage door. Maybe it's just me, but I am really worried that I might of permantely screwed up my headlights. Will any of the products that I used PERMANENTLY mess up the plastic on my headlight housing? Also, on one of the headlights, the PLASTX kind of dried, so I moistened an applicator pad and buffed it off, then used some invisible glass window cleaner to buff it off. Is there anyway to permanently remove it, or would that have done so? Also, is it pretty common for headlights to have scratches (drying the car, etc)? If anyone could be of some assistance, that would be wonderful!

Thanks,
Jeff

[Jeepster04]

Re: Need help with Meguiars PLASTX

Well, sounds like you used stuff made for plastic, so no, I would believe you DIDNT do any harm to them. Im not sure what the 'liquid glass wax' is though.

Can you feel the scratches with your finger nail? If so, its going to be hard if not impossible to remove them with plastx.

You really need to use some 'passion' and work the plastx into the headlight. Let it dry to a haze, them remove with a MF or cloth of your choice.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Need help with Meguiars PLASTX

If you didn't inspect the surface quality in the same light conditions after each application of the different products then you can't troubleshoot which one caused the problem if any caused a problem.

Don't know what to tell you about light shined on a garage door that looks fuzzy, that could be how they look, you could get an identical car with identical headlights that have not had the products you applied to them and mark your driveway with tape and then put both cars in the same place at the relatively same time, (one car after another), and shine the lights onto the garage door and then you and a number of other people with good eyes could compare what you see and try to decide if there is a fuzzy look to the light your cars shines onto the garage door as compared to your "Control" car.

That would be one way to trouble shoot the problem.

As for removing tiny scratches out of your headlight covers, read this article that can be found in the Information Station that we've copied and pasted below.


What it means to remove a scratch out of anything...



"Some materials and/or surface coatings don't lend themselves well to being abraded"



In order to remove a scratch out of anything, metal, plastic glass, paint, etc. You must remove material around the scratch until the surface is level or equal to the lowest depths of the scratch or scratches.

The below diagram if for paint, the the same thing applies to just about an surface material or coating.



In essences, you don't really remove a scratch, you remove material around a scratch.

Then the big question is, is the material or coating workable, as in can you abrade small particles of it and leave behind an original looking surface. For example, some things you can abrade, (remove the scratch), but you can never completely remove all of your abrading marks, thus you can't really fix the problem, all you can do is exchange one set of scratches of a different set of scratches.

The next questions is, how thick is the surface material you're working on or the coating. You are limited to what you can do by the thickness of these to things, (surface coating or surface material), and whether or not this surface is workable.

Sometimes you don't know what you can so until you try. It's always a good idea to test your choice of products, applicator materials and application process, (By hand or by machine), to an inconspicuous area. If you cannot make a small area look good with your product, applicator and process, you will not be able to make the entire surface look good. It's always a good idea to test first and error on the side of caution, versus make a mistake you cannot undo.

[CWM3]

Re: Need help with Meguiars PLASTX

Got pics?

[JLTSX07]

Re: Need help with Meguiars PLASTX

Well, sounds like you used stuff made for plastic, so no, I would believe you DIDNT do any harm to them. Im not sure what the 'liquid glass wax' is though.

Can you feel the scratches with your finger nail? If so, its going to be hard if not impossible to remove them with plastx.

You really need to use some 'passion' and work the plastx into the headlight. Let it dry to a haze, them remove with a MF or cloth of your choice.

I thought that you didn't want to let this product dry on the light?

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Need help with Meguiars PLASTX

Might check the ingredients on the Liquid Glass product also check to see if they recommend or don't recommend to use on plastic.

As for drying, PlastX is a plastic cleaner and polish in one but it also contains a protection polymer that offers a little protection after wipe off. This product should be applied, work in or against the surface depending upon what you're trying to do and the wiped-off.

Plastic lens like you're working on are usually on the hard side so removing small particles of plastic by hand might be difficult, at least it might not be easy to remove scratches, at least not as in... wipe-on, wipe-off kind of easy.

If you read the article we copied and pasted above you'll see that in order to remove a scratch, (a below surface defects), you have to remove or abrade the material surrounding the scratch until the upper most surface is level with the lowest depths of the defect you're trying to remove.

Does that makes sense?

Are these tiny scratches worthy of this kind of attention?

How does your paint look? is it swirl free and flawless bright sunlight? That's where most people focus their time and energy, the big picture as in how the entire car looks.

Also some plastic headlights have coatings on them, if you rub through the coating you will have a visual imperfection that cannot be fixed.

[JLTSX07]

Re: Need help with Meguiars PLASTX

Might check the ingredients on the Liquid Glass product also check to see if they recommend or don't recommend to use on plastic.

As for drying, PlastX is a plastic cleaner and polish in one but it also contains a protection polymer that offers a little protection after wipe off. This product should be applied, work in or against the surface depending upon what you're trying to do and the wiped-off.

Plastic lens like you're working on are usually on the hard side so removing small particles of plastic by hand might be difficult, at least it might not be easy to remove scratches, at least not as in... wipe-on, wipe-off kind of easy.

If you read the article we copied and pasted above you'll see that in order to remove a scratch, (a below surface defects), you have to remove or abrade the material surrounding the scratch until the upper most surface is level with the lowest depths of the defect you're trying to remove.

Does that makes sense?

Are these tiny scratches worthy of this kind of attention?

How does your paint look? is it swirl free and flawless bright sunlight? That's where most people focus their time and energy, the big picture as in how the entire car looks.

Also some plastic headlights have coatings on them, if you rub through the coating you will have a visual imperfection that cannot be fixed.

I actually looked at my headlights today in the sunlight, they look perfect clear, and I don't see any haze. However, last night when I looked at them with a flashlight, I did see some haze. Kind of weird, but in the sunlight they definitely look great. So, I am just glad that I didn't take off any kind of coating or anything that I shouldn't have. I was going to apply another coat of the PLASTX, but I don't think that I need to now.