Rear Light Refurb
Posted: Tue May 15, 2018 6:32 pm
After a question from the meeting I thought I would do this how-to.
Before
First you will need some or all of the following.
The sanding discs I used are P120, P240 and P400
The wet & dry are P400, P800 and P1200
Other brands of compound are available.
As you saw above mine appears to have been “cleaned” with a brillo pad so has deep scratches, if yours is less damaged or even just faded you may be able to skip step 2 or maybe even 3.
1. Unless you are unlucky the reflector will be in good condition so will need masking off.
2. Use the P120 disc and the drill on a slow speed or you could damage the lens. It is quite scary at first as it looks like you are making it worse.
Just keep your movements gentle and evenly spread over the whole lens and keep going till all the scratches are even and you have no outstanding deep/large scratches.
3. Repeat with P240. Again it won’t look great at this point but keep at it.
4. Repeat again with P400.
5. At this point I switched to Wet & Dry P400 by hand. Take your time till again all scratches are even in size (when looked at dry it will just look shiny when wet).
6. Repeat with P800 and then P1200. The scratches should be getting smaller and smaller to the point the light just looks dull rather than scratched at first glance.
7. Now switch to the sponge and apply some G3 neat at first then sprinkle a small amount of water and continue. Add more water as it dries out and more G3 as it runs out.
This is what you should end up with. Notice I have only done the indicator.
8. Then do the same with a finer compound and polishing disc.
I have not done step 8 yet, I’ll do it when I do the whole light.
Don’t go too mad in the early stages (you need to remove the old scratches with an even amount of the new but not leave the plastic thin or melted) but the more time you spent on the later stages the better the result.
Also the first time I did it I did it all by hand (bar the G3 and final polish) as I felt I was less likely to do any damage but it does take longer.
Before
First you will need some or all of the following.
The sanding discs I used are P120, P240 and P400
The wet & dry are P400, P800 and P1200
Other brands of compound are available.
As you saw above mine appears to have been “cleaned” with a brillo pad so has deep scratches, if yours is less damaged or even just faded you may be able to skip step 2 or maybe even 3.
1. Unless you are unlucky the reflector will be in good condition so will need masking off.
2. Use the P120 disc and the drill on a slow speed or you could damage the lens. It is quite scary at first as it looks like you are making it worse.
Just keep your movements gentle and evenly spread over the whole lens and keep going till all the scratches are even and you have no outstanding deep/large scratches.
3. Repeat with P240. Again it won’t look great at this point but keep at it.
4. Repeat again with P400.
5. At this point I switched to Wet & Dry P400 by hand. Take your time till again all scratches are even in size (when looked at dry it will just look shiny when wet).
6. Repeat with P800 and then P1200. The scratches should be getting smaller and smaller to the point the light just looks dull rather than scratched at first glance.
7. Now switch to the sponge and apply some G3 neat at first then sprinkle a small amount of water and continue. Add more water as it dries out and more G3 as it runs out.
This is what you should end up with. Notice I have only done the indicator.
8. Then do the same with a finer compound and polishing disc.
I have not done step 8 yet, I’ll do it when I do the whole light.
Don’t go too mad in the early stages (you need to remove the old scratches with an even amount of the new but not leave the plastic thin or melted) but the more time you spent on the later stages the better the result.
Also the first time I did it I did it all by hand (bar the G3 and final polish) as I felt I was less likely to do any damage but it does take longer.
