Today the nasty headlight was done.
It had some serious scratches and gouges, some over 2 mils deep. Gotta love how people force these things under beds and such…
I wet-sanded in the direction of the scratches with 400 grit 3M wet-dry paper, using a tiny amount of dish detergent as a lube. I used a minimal amount of water, just enough to kepe the paper from clogging. After 54 minutes of hand-only sanding, the scratches were gone.
I had jumped to 2000 grit next, as I had lost my 600, 800, and 1000 grit in my messy garage. However, after 30 minutes of going the opposite direction, then going back in the direction of the scratches, I was done. Not bad time-wise considering I had skipped some grits. It came out very nice.
After another 30 minutes of polishing with Mother’s mag and aluminum polish with the 4” cotton wheel on the drill, it looked great. I did a hand polish and called it good enough.
So two hours were spent on this headlight, but it looks like new now. Some before and after shots are below, some in different lighting as surface detail is sometimes hard to see.
Hopefully next weekend I can start the reassembly!
