Damn its, like night and day, I still got some polish to get off them to make them really look nice but man they came out nice. When I get home i'll take a picture of the left side (which is un done) with the polished one. I just used some 1500 grit and wet sanded, got some mothers aluminum compound and used my buffer wheel.

 

Left light (unpolished obviously), this was the same condition the other one was in if not worse.

 

Polished light, gonna do some more work to it but damn its a world of difference.

 

Side by side...

 

It was dark out, they look a hell of a lot better in the sunlight, the flash from the camera doesn't show the shine that well.

 

Awesome job! I polished my taillights a couple of days ago and its amazing how much better they look. So you used mothers alluminum polish? And just buffed it in? I use my drill but I want to get a bench grinder. Then I will go crazy polishing everything

 

Yup, wet sanded with some 1500 grit for about 10-15 minutes, smeared a buttload of aluminum polish on and went to town. Took about 30 minutes per light. Just did the other side, .

 

Looks good, I'll have to try that!

 

Is that overspray or something on the unpolished light? Looks like ****.

polished one looks clean though

-Bud

 

Yup sure is over spray. Thats why the car is in the shop right now getting repainted. original color was black and the owner decided to repaint it white and got a cheap maaco job done. Its all being fixed now, I know the guy doing the painter, family friend for over 30 years. He took these off and I decided to take them with me to polish them before he starts the paint.

 

Does polishing work on the front turn signals too? Mine are starting to look pretty bad.

 

yup sure does

 

buffer wheel? bench grinder?....sorry for being really in the dark on this but Im unsure of what these are (though I have some idea) I too would love to polish my tailights, yet I want to make sure Im using the right equipment, could someone post a pic of these....man I feel dumb

 

Just did my parking lamps, not tto bad but all the damn dirt is inside of them, the outside is flawless and reflects but the inside of the plastic cover is dirty as hell, I tried getting some windex and water in there and nothing works, only a little cleaner. Any way to open these things up safely to give them a good cleaning? I'll post pics of a bench grinder and a hand buffer.

 

what I did was spray a crap load of simple green in there, shake it around and let it soak for awhile. That should help somewhat.

 

no offense of coarse butthey could be better. IF you would have used 2000 grit, they could be 25% better then that, and thats a real number. 2000 grit starting with low amounts of water then slowly gettign more and more, sanding for 30 minutes will get them things unbelieveably smooth. Almost to where with no polish they will be as good as they already are. Trust me, i did my tail lights, but i blacked them out and then polished and you wont see anything better in the rest of your life. However i use blue magic plastic cleaner, then i tried blue magic metal cleaner was ok, then i took all that off and then did plastic cleaner and gold class, and man, you'd be amazed.

But on the otherside, terrific job, shows you put a lot of offort. "Work Smart, not Hard," right?





Shane

 

i think im going to polish my tailights too, i forgot i had two benchgrinders in my garage

 

Yea, its so damn simple don't know why I hadn't done it earlier. I thought for sure I was gonna goof mine up as I usually do on these DIY polish jobs, I tried my old RS rims and was like "Screw this", hell these were simple and my lights look brand new now.

 

Do you have to take off the inside panel to get the tail lights off?

 

yes, you do goota take the panel and then the spare tire panel also.

 

yeh you have to take off the panel from the hatch, the one that hides the motor, then you will see some black screws you can loosen with your fingers

 

Ok. Thanks guys.