Headlamp restoration on S-Type R

[The Voices]

I thought I would start a new thread about this rather than add it to my ongoing one about my recent purchase of a 2006 S-Type R.

The plastic headlamp lenses had deteriorated badly, I purchased the Autoglym restoration kit for about £20 to see how much of an improvement it would make.

Basically the kit consists of a small backing plate to fit in a cordless drill and various grades of sandpaper with a foam polishing attachment plus a small bottle of finishing compound.

Sorry for so many pictures but shows what I achieved in a couple of hours, I am sure the results would be even better with more time spent ?

Started by washing and drying the headlamps, first pictures show the 'before' state they were in.

Used 2 inch paper masking tape all around the lamp unit, make sure you put on several layers (especially between the two headlight lenses) Paintwork could be damaged very easily.

With hindsight, I would cover up everything under the bonnet with an old sheet, I have not cleaned under the bonnet on this car yet but splashes go everywhere !

I used a water spray bottle to clean the lenses and 'rinse' the sandpaper.

Start with the 800 grade sandpaper, clean the lenses with the water spray and a microfibre cloth between polishing attempts, once you have a 'uniform' finish, move onto the 1500 grade.

Repeat the process using the 1500 grade, cleaning the lenses regularly with the damp cloth and also cleaning the sanding residue off the sand paper (otherwise you end up with stubborn streaks on the lenses and will need to sand them again)

Once you are happy with the results (lenses should have a 'milky' appearance), move onto the 2000 grade foam backed sandpaper.

It helps to spray the lenses with water to help with this stage and with the 3000 grade foam backed sanding pad which is the next stage.

 Give the lenses a final wipe with clean water and a clean microfibre to get rid of all the dust, at this stage they should already look vastly improved but still slightly 'misty'.

The last stage uses the foam polishing attachment, wet it slightly before applying a liberal 'dollop' of the supplied finishing compound.

This next bit is 'VERY IMPORTANT'

Spread the polish onto the headlamp lenses before turning on the drill !

Use the drill in the same way as when you were sanding, making sure that you do not stay on one spot too long.

Final stage is to clean and polish the lenses with a microfibre, I then polished it with normal Autoglym polish in the vain hope that it will delay the ongoing deterioration.

 

 

[JOE-DOT-COM]

Hi

I had to do mine as well makes quite a difference

I had to replace the adjusters inside the headlights as one side had broke, common problem, replacement adjusters on eBay

do the self leveling still work, every time you switch the ignition on they go all the way up and down then level, if you switch the lights on first then the ignition, you can see the beams go up then down, level sensors on the front and rear suspension sometimes fail,

I changed my bulbs for 8000k ones, there slightly blue and look better

cheers

Joe

[The Voices]

Not had chance to check the self levelling operation ?

The beam throw seems to be in the right place !

I did have to replace the adjusters on the 2.5 however.

Happy so far with the standard xenons but always willing to consider upgrades !

[JOE-DOT-COM]

Hi

The best upgrade I'd say are I fitted Adamesh rear silencers

they make the V8 sound absolutely great and there not too loud, just a nice V8 burble

at motorway cruising speeds there barely noticeable

well recomended

cheers

Joe

[The Voices]

Hi Joe,

Had a look on the Adamesh website.

They do the 'R' back-boxes for £449 per pair, I am originally from Yorkshire and therefore what is commonly referred to as 'tight'.

 

This seems a lot of money for two round silencers and two bits of bent pipe !

At some point I will speak to a fabrication company to see what it would cost for custom made, they can use the standard ones as a template and reduce the silencer size ?

Probably just me being a cheapskate as usual !

 

[Claws]

Great job on the lights, must have been quite scary the idea of using sandpaper on clear plastic!

did you use much pressure on the drill, or just basically the weight of the drill?

and thanks for doing the before and after pics 

[Russ68]

Well done Jon, I did the same on mine using a 3M kit. You don't need much pressure on the drill Steve, but it takes awhile to go through all the stages. I fitted Osram Nightbreaker bulbs, but my X200 is pre Xenon and auto adjusters. I just have a big plastic Allen key adjuster which I had to crank up as she was pointing about 6' ahead of her when I got her. The lights are now pretty good, they were shocking!

[The Voices]

Russ is right, the more time you spend, the better the results !

I did the lenses and put uprated bulbs in the 2.5 which made a vast difference.

[Claws]

Russ, Jon

slightly off topic 

Will the Adamesh boxes on mine fit an 'R' if I also go for it? I dropped the hint yesterday and SWMBO is NOT a happy bunny  

Regards

Steve 

[Russ68]

Sorry Steve, don't know for sure. They may be interchangeable across the range will all but the R if it does use the thicker tube. Joe may know or you could speak to Adamesh on Monday? Shouldn't be a problem to sell yours if they don't fit 😉

[Claws]

Thanks for getting back Russ, Simon (Simjag) tells me they fit All models, handy to know 

[The Voices]

That is interesting Steve, just checked again on the website and Adamesh list the 'R' versions as a separate item ?

I was under the impression that everything but the 'R' uses 50mm pipework, so they can be swapped between petrol and diesel, 2.5 V6, 3.0 V6 and the 'non-supercharged' 4.0 and 4.2 V8.

If it is just 10mm larger pipework and you plan to purchase the STR at some point, it might be worth buying the 'R' versions and getting the fitter to use an adapter to fit onto the 50mm pipework ?

As an alternative, I plan to get a quote from a 'Longlife' or similar exhaust fabrication company.

The backboxes are only two silencers with tailpipes and a short length of pipe with one bend ?