BMW E60 headlamp restoration

Veloc

3,000 RPM
Senior Member
May 19, 2010
3,234
991
1,713
Sabah
This came in to have its headlamps restored. As you can see, both sides are hazy and yellowish.



The condition was very severe. Looks almost impossible to be polished



Closer inspection revealed that the headlamp has plenty of micro crack and some of them are quite deep.



Plenty of micro cracks and heavily degraded by uv rays.



The other side is less severe. Less cracks but nevertheless yellow and hazy.



This is not a day's job. A combination if manual hand sanding and machine sanding took place from as low as 400 grit! There was a total of 7 steps of sanding for each side to be able to removed the degraded layer, as well as to achieve a fine finish.


This picture was after the final sanding step at 3000 grit.



A bit hazy but the degraded layer is removed and clarity is almost there.



Polish residue left over by previous irresponsible detailers gave me extra work.





The process is proceeded by a series of cut and polish to restore clarity and reflections to the headlamps. Levelled with Osren P50 and P40 on denim, compounded with Osren Active Polish 34 on wool, and finished with Osren Perfect Finish 8 on polishing pad. The headlamps was then coated with Opti Coat (Pro) for hardness and protection against uv ray degradation.





Just a comparison of some before and after pictures...


Before


After
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rwOPv1cx_RA/UfCQK82quiI/AAAAAAAACGM/jRqVq0cv03k/s640/DSC03533.png


Before


After







Before


After





Before


After




Thank you.


Got to credit my buddy Fishbonez for his insights on sanding these super hard headlamps :biggrin: Thanks bro!
 

g88

3,000 RPM
Senior Member
Jan 28, 2004
3,081
54
5,148
how do you prevent/protect the plastic from getting yellowish again ?
 

Veloc

3,000 RPM
Senior Member
Thread starter
May 19, 2010
3,234
991
1,713
Sabah

Random Post Every 5 Minutes

Anyone can spare some tips or advice on how to make the engine run at optimum performance? I just overhauled the whole engine recently, and am trying to know what simple mods are the best for this engine. Mated to a 3spd auto gearbox btw. (I know the gearbox sucks)

Really need some good advice to make it a worthy engine :)
Ask a question, start a discussion or post something for sale!
Post thread

Online now

Enjoying Zerotohundred?

Log-in for an ad-less experience