my MY03 996 C4S used to live in rhode island and was apparently parked *outside* at someone's beach house. the headlight lenses have like poison ivy rash on them. i've seen this kind of corrosion on boats before. i spoke with a guy i know that owns a body shop (he also owns an immaculate, early 911 show car with a period correct red concourse paint job!) about how to clean up the lense surface.

based on his advice here's what i plan to do:

mask w/blue painters' tape
clean w/plexus
wet sand w/2000 grit sandpaper
polish w/menzerna IP on orange LC pad using PC orbital set on 5
polish w/menzerna MP on blue LC pad using PC orbital set on 3
seal w/REJEX

had to mail order a bunch of stuff and won't be able to start until first week of april. watch this spot for photos of the process. if this works will do rear lenses, minus the sanding. the rears have no rash, but are scratched up.

to the detailing pros: does this sound like madness?

 

This is a great process, but I would try it without the sandpaper first. Sand marks are pretty hard to remove with a pc since there's not as much friction or heat as with a rotary. I would have recommended SIP and Nano instead. Sealing with rejex is an excellent idea as well. Try on glass too

 

thanks for the feedback moe! i guess it wouldn't hurt to see if the the IP takes the rash off before committing to sanding; good thinking. looks like the nano cuts better than the micro polish. maybe i'll try it too.

i got the rejex based on one of your other posts. i've already done the windshield with it and it worked great! much better than rainx.

 

IMHO, use a real buffer. It is going to take a long time to polish them out!

I had good luck using Power Gloss on a Yellow pad around 1200RPM's. Then going down to 106/green to clean it up & give it a smooth finish.

I know both Phil & Moe don't sell them, but there are a couple of "kits' out there that have all the stuff to redo plastic headlights.

 

yeah, i came across a couple of those kits when i was doing research. the one's i looked at had you compounding the lenses completely smooth including removing surface features like factory lettering, etc. that's a little bit further than i want to go with this process.

the rotary is definitely superior to the orbital. i just don't have the detailing chops to use a rotary. with aggressive compounds all you have to do is hold it at the wrong angle for a few seconds and you're making a trip to the paint shop (or in this case the porsche parts store). if i can't get it done with (maybe 2000 grit /) IP / 106, i'm gonna have to take it to a pro.

 

You would really have to screw up on the headlights. It takes a little work to mess up with a rotary. Especially with the newer paints.

If you want to remove all the pitting & crap, you will need to take the lens down to that level.

 

I would recommend having Venture Shield installed on the headlights, it may cover the scratches.


John

 

i finally got a start on this today. tried menzerna IP with griot's small orbital and 3" orange pad. it didn't have much effect. switched to menzerna power gloss. it started cutting the rash, but the going was *real* slow. finally the orbital overheated and shut down.

the good news is that power gloss was taking off the rash. i was working on a small test section, so i didn't break out the PC with 6" pads. i'll try that tomorrow. the PC has a lot more umph than the little griot's 3". stealth_993 might be right though, i may need a rotary.

 

i finally got back to this. i've done one lens. IMHO it looks 90% better. some very minor scratches remain. here's the process i ended up with:

-mask with painters' tape
-wet sand with 2000 grit
-polish with menzerna SIP on 6" orange LC pad with orbital
-polish with menzerna NANO on 6" blue LC pad with orbital
-finish with PLEXUS

the orbital was taking too long to remove the rash, so i broke out the sand paper. WARNING: once you sand the lens you are committed to the project; the 2000 grit will leave the lens hazy. the SIP takes the 2000 grit haze right off. the lens looked pretty smooth and scratch-free after SIP, but i hit it with the NANO anyway. then i finished up with PLEXUS to add some shine.

total time, including clean-up, was two and a half hours. the sanding took the most time. i would work a small area, rinse, dry and inspect. then repeat that whole sanding process over and over until the rash was gone. that sea salt rash is some tough stuff.

 

where are the before/afters?

 

i guess my photographic skills suck. all i got was a blast of light if i used a flash and couldn't get enough detail without the flash. how do you photograph headlight lenses?

 

ok. no before / after shots, but i think i got decent unpolished / polished shots comparing the left and right sides.

below is the drivers' side headlight which i haven't yet sanded/polished. the rash is most visible in this picture towards the front of the lens cover by the rubber trim.


below is the passengers' side headlight which i polished. there's still some rash above the fog lamp, but 80-90% is gone. (those places in front of the lens cover where the paint looks marred are just reflections from the flash.)