C6 - dull headlight lenses ??

MYBAD79

MYBAD79

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The headlight lenses on these C6 Corvettes are getting sandblasted at 70-80 mph on FL highways... funny that the clearcoat on the bumper seems to be more resistant than the plastic headlight lenses....
Anyways.... I removed the headlights and resurfaced them with a very slight tint , now they blend in a lot better and are not sticking out as they did before:
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After the clearcoat application:

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Standing in front of the car you cannot tell these plastic lenses are tinted, unless there's another stock C6 parked next to this one.

Here's a set of black C6 headlights, these are clearcoated as well (and will be in the 'for sale' section soon):
214962b179dd332.jpg
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214962b17abfe7a.jpg
 
Karsten, what you have done is a fine fix for a really serious problem here in Florida, and your comment about it being sand blasting is interesting, in that I have noticed ALL cars with plastic lenses getting that foggy look, and so thought it was just cheep plastic and sunlight....but some of them also seem to yellow with the sandblasted/foggy look....

yet another reason I stuck with glass lights on my car...not going the foggy lens problem....simply a fortune for new lenses and even the tail light lenses are stupid high prices....

forget junkyards already....stupid crap and so WHY?? glass bulb is what is needed....

should be against ANY .gov standard to use plastic in front of headlights....talk about safety issue #1 it's silly........:bonkers::goodnight:
 
Gene, I've posted about this very problem before. I wetsanded and clearcoated the lenses on my Camaro some time in 2005 and they were still great and fog free when I sold the car earlier this year....
 
Looks good... I've used Meguiar's PlastX on my Grand Prix. Works great, but takes some elbow-grease! It works best with a high-speed (DA) polisher.

product_G12310.jpg
 
Luster said:
Looks good... I've used Meguiar's PlastX on my Grand Prix. Works great, but takes some elbow-grease! It works best with a high-speed (DA) polisher.

product_G12310.jpg
Click to expand...

Yeh, I have some older McGuires cleaner and polish in the white/gray bottles...used it on my wife's car with just barely noticeable results...

what sort of d/a polisher???
 
I've used this and all other plastic polish products that the parts stores sell.... it would look good for a week or so and then turn yellow again... well, that was on two of our Camaros, the C6 headlights were just dull and not yellow.... The Camaro headlights were yellow and dull when I bought the car in 2001 when it was less than 3 years old.... I polished, I waxed, I gave up.... then finally I decided to wetsand with 400 and 600 grit... I had nothing to loose at that point, if it didn't turn out I needed new headlights, just like before wetsanding...it turned out just fine :drink:
 
Did you remove the headlights to do this? I remember you saying how much trouble it was going to be. I probably need to put this on my to do list. I looked at buying a plastic wrap for the front end. I think to just do the bumper area was around 400.00 dollars. Pretty pricey!
 
Yes, I removed the headlights. There's two plastic pieces inside the fender that have to come off, the front wheels also... you have to loosen the bumper and the fenders (no big deal, it's only plastic rivets and a few small torx screws)...

You want to glue the dry rotted rubber gasket securely in place - I wonder what material that is that it can be dry rottet after only a little under 3 years.... cheap bastards at GM....

You also want to seal the headlight where GM glued the clear lens to the housing... a drop of glue here, a drop there, nothing in between.... no wonder there's moisture inside the headlight all the time.... I fixed it :drink:
 
MYBAD79 said:
Yes, I removed the headlights. There's two plastic pieces inside the fender that have to come off, the front wheels also... you have to loosen the bumper and the fenders (no big deal, it's only plastic rivets and a few small torx screws)...

You want to glue the dry rotted rubber gasket securely in place - I wonder what material that is that it can be dry rottet after only a little under 3 years.... cheap bastards at GM....

You also want to seal the headlight where GM glued the clear lens to the housing... a drop of glue here, a drop there, nothing in between.... no wonder there's moisture inside the headlight all the time.... I fixed it :drink:
Click to expand...

I would have to see the specifics, but you know what the cure is, black/clear RTV silicone sealant been using it for decades for curing all sorts of stupid shit factories don't want to deal with on account it maybe 'messy'.....

:rain::rofl::shocking:
 
MYBAD79 said:
Yes, I removed the headlights. There's two plastic pieces inside the fender that have to come off, the front wheels also... you have to loosen the bumper and the fenders (no big deal, it's only plastic rivets and a few small torx screws)...

You want to glue the dry rotted rubber gasket securely in place - I wonder what material that is that it can be dry rottet after only a little under 3 years.... cheap bastards at GM....

You also want to seal the headlight where GM glued the clear lens to the housing... a drop of glue here, a drop there, nothing in between.... no wonder there's moisture inside the headlight all the time.... I fixed it :drink:
Click to expand...


I just wonder why the weatherstripping & silicone deteriorated so quickly. Has anyone checked to see if there might be a recall on this problem. I just can't believe this could be a southern heat/humidity problem. I do remember this being a problem on a IROC Z that my son had. Thinking around a 89 model.
 
The glue/silicone did not deteriorate, it was simply not enough glue to start with...:eek:

Under normal circumstances you'd not take the headlight out and therefore never see the dry rotted rubber.... it tears as soon as you pull on it slightly... garbage IMO...

I sent you an email with a Word doc :thumbs:
 
Karsten,

Got the email. Thanks! Hope that I don't have to do that anytime soon. I will keep an eye out for moisture just in case.

Herb
 
Here's a pic of the headlight assemblies with the rubber seals. The rubber is held in place with a few hooks, you have to pull and stretch the rubber to get it off the hooks. No idea why they simply glued it in place (like I did) :rain:

I am not impressed with GMs "quality" at all.

214962b179102bd.jpg
 
MYBAD79 said:
I am not impressed with GMs "quality" at all.
Click to expand...

I think, when the executives are sitting around the board room table, they are saying "How can we do the this the cheapest possible way?!!!"

Then they pass that "wisdom" on to the designers.:mad:
 
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