Page 1 of 1

Rear tailgate light restoration

Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 4:20 pm
by 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
Image

Post treatment
Image

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)





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Re: New 2 bmw

Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 7:53 pm
by Sanj
That's bloody good! Nice.

Re: Rear tailgate light restoration

Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 9:20 pm
by 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!!!!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Re: Rear tailgate light restoration

Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 9:05 pm
by 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.

Re: Rear tailgate light restoration

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 10:27 pm
by Zakbelle
No sealer they just looked
Like that after polishing and haven't deteriorated since


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Re: Rear tailgate light restoration

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 10:41 pm
by AW8
Good result- thanks for sharing

Re: Rear tailgate light restoration

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 10:49 pm
by Chrisw4266
Cheers Zakbelle may try this but I'm considering tinting the rear lights.

Re: Rear tailgate light restoration

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 8:57 pm
by storminmike
[quote="Zakbelle"]
No sealer they just looked
Like that after polishing and haven't deteriorated since


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
[/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?

Re: Rear tailgate light restoration

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 9:06 pm
by Zakbelle
I had more than enough to do the rear lights, maybe enough for the headlights but not 100% on that


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Re: Rear tailgate light restoration

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 9:46 pm
by storminmike
[quote="Zakbelle"]
I had more than enough to do the rear lights, maybe enough for the headlights but not 100% on that


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
[/quote]

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

Re: Rear tailgate light restoration

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 10:32 pm
by 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


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Re: Rear tailgate light restoration

Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 7:35 pm
by 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.

Re: Rear tailgate light restoration

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2014 4:12 pm
by 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...

Re: Rear tailgate light restoration

Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 4:24 pm
by jason1872
done this today with the 3m kit great result bit scary at first tho :-[