Rear tailgate light restoration

[Zakbelle]

I've seen a lot if X5 with really full scratches rear tailgate/reverse lights mine included. With the tailgate getting repaired I thought is take the opportunity to renovate them. I bought the 3M headlight restorer off eBay £20 and with the use of a corded drill ( cordless don't rotate quick enough) and 30 minutes the light lenses are restored to near new

Pre treatment


Post treatment


Pre pic doesn't really show how bad it was, use a workbench to free both hands for best results remove from the car (2 minute job)





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[Sanj]

That's bloody good! Nice.

[Zakbelle]

Cheers sanj, can't wait to get my car back, never missed a car before and can't get away with this x3 I drive 2.0d it's bloody awful, all £37k of it!!!!!!


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[Chrisw4266]

Good result on the light clusters mines the same does the 3M kit include a sealer to put on afterwards? or was that how they looked after polishing?
Cheers Chris.

[Zakbelle]

No sealer they just looked
Like that after polishing and haven't deteriorated since


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[AW8]

Good result- thanks for sharing

[Chrisw4266]

Cheers Zakbelle may try this but I'm considering tinting the rear lights.

[storminmike]

[quote="Zakbelle"]
No sealer they just looked
Like that after polishing and haven't deteriorated since


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[/quote]

Just wacthed the vid on You Tube....how far does the kit go? I presume enough to do both rear lights but can the headlights be done too or do you run out of paste/pads?

[Zakbelle]

I had more than enough to do the rear lights, maybe enough for the headlights but not 100% on that


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[storminmike]

[quote="Zakbelle"]
I had more than enough to do the rear lights, maybe enough for the headlights but not 100% on that


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[/quote]

Cheers for that....which part do you think you were running out most of....the final paste perhaps?

[Zakbelle]

No one of the grades of pads actually, the paste goes a long way, it was the final grade before the 2 sets of pads, but you do get a few


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[jaynana]

really great job..

i did this sometime back with the Meguiars product, came recommended from detailing world.

didn't remove the lights, just taped off the surrounding paintwork with blue tape.

used a DAS-6 random orbital polisher - much safer but surely less effective than a corded drill.

[centurion]

nice one... i've done it couple times using 3M product on the front and results were tremendous.

I'm due for one on mine before I seriously consider LED upgrade ... will do the thread by eom and cover other mods (e.g. heavy duty cleaning) i'm due on my 4.8is... just love the DIY aspect of it but with family and two very little boys coupled with building works, it's just proving too d..n difficult.

Excellent work...

[jason1872]

done this today with the 3m kit great result bit scary at first tho :-[