Need some help with wet sanding.

[Crodski 10+ year member]

the back of my taillights had some white residue on them and the best way to get it off was to wet sand them (so i've read). well i have finished that and now they look kinda dull. i bought all the necessary supplies to fog them (can spray, and clear coat) but before i do that, do i polish them with plastic polish to bring back the shine or do i clear coat them before or what??? or do i do everything after ?

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

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[atoz350 10+ year member]

What do you mean by "fog them"?

 

[Crodski 10+ year member]

What do you mean by "fog them"?

you know, tint them with that rc spray

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

what grit did you wet sand with? Normal plastic polishing kit uses: 1000/1500/2000/2500 then a polish after that.

I'd hit them with some 1000 grit and paint over that...

 

[Crodski 10+ year member]

i used 2000

^ ok so i should polish then paint/?

 

[Crzy 10+ year member]

what is it just oxidation? try to use mothers paint polish very fine grit. you could also use polishing compound, might be a tad course tho and dull the plastic

edit reread ur post and what i said doesnt apply to you

 

[Crodski 10+ year member]

ehhh **** it i am just gonna polish em and see how they turn out. can let the thread die now/

 

[eharri3 10+ year member]

Another guy messing up his tail lights cause he's too cheap to get tinted covers.

 

[fbi90909 5,000+ posts]

Another guy messing up his tail lights cause he's too cheap to get tinted covers.

tinted covers are gay.

as for the OP.

hopefully you haven't started yet.

if you haven't, do this

you stated you already wet sanded your tailights to get some crap off of them which is fine. since you already wet sanded them down with 2000 grit that should let the new tint spray adhere to the surface of the lens.

don't polish the tail lights! if you polish the tail lights you are going to need to strip the polish off of the tail lights in order to get the paint to stay on there w/o chipping/peeling.

the tail lights will clear up after they are painted on. after you spray the layers to your desired tint level let the tint paint fully cure.

after the tint is cured, clear coat them NUMEROUS times. you want at least 7-10 layers. Why so many layers? cause you will need to wet sand the clear coat after it is cured to remove all the orange peel that will be left behind. lets say you only do 3 layers of clear with some orange peel. you wetsand the clear down to get rid of the orange peel and you may end up sanding down to the point of the tint. next thing you know your wet sanding the tint and guess what? you have to start all over.

a lot of sanding will be required after the clear. start at 1500 then go up from there. if you can get some 2500 to 3000 the better. after your done sanding it's time for buffing it with a buffing compound. take your time with that, then use a polishing compound. after that you should have slick tail lights.

if you don't want to go thru all of that. just spray your tint on it, wait 5 minutes, spray your clear on it, install on car and call it a day.

or don't bother at all.

 

[natisfynest 10+ year member]

tinted covers are gay.
as for the OP.

hopefully you haven't started yet.

if you haven't, do this

you stated you already wet sanded your tailights to get some crap off of them which is fine. since you already wet sanded them down with 2000 grit that should let the new tint spray adhere to the surface of the lens.

don't polish the tail lights! if you polish the tail lights you are going to need to strip the polish off of the tail lights in order to get the paint to stay on there w/o chipping/peeling.

the tail lights will clear up after they are painted on. after you spray the layers to your desired tint level let the tint paint fully cure.

after the tint is cured, clear coat them NUMEROUS times. you want at least 7-10 layers. Why so many layers? cause you will need to wet sand the clear coat after it is cured to remove all the orange peel that will be left behind. lets say you only do 3 layers of clear with some orange peel. you wetsand the clear down to get rid of the orange peel and you may end up sanding down to the point of the tint. next thing you know your wet sanding the tint and guess what? you have to start all over.

a lot of sanding will be required after the clear. start at 1500 then go up from there. if you can get some 2500 to 3000 the better. after your done sanding it's time for buffing it with a buffing compound. take your time with that, then use a polishing compound. after that you should have slick tail lights.

if you don't want to go thru all of that. just spray your tint on it, wait 5 minutes, spray your clear on it, install on car and call it a day.

or don't bother at all.

TROOF!!!!

 

[eharri3 10+ year member]

In my opinion spraying paint on your stock lighting is even gayer. At the very least don't be dumb like the other guy who posted a thread about the same thing and commpletely paint over the light so the tail lights are not even visible from behind.

 

[NeverEnuffBass 10+ year member]

Another guy messing up his tail lights cause he's too cheap to get tinted covers.

Probably one of the tackiest things you can put on your car other than a wing

 

[fbi90909 5,000+ posts]

In my opinion spraying paint on your stock lighting is even gayer. At the very least don't be dumb like the other guy who posted a thread about the same thing and commpletely paint over the light so the tail lights are not even visible from behind.

there are special spray paints that are made for tinting //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

so spraying "paint" on your tail lights is not gayer if you know what you are doing...

gtfo&stfu

 

[eharri3 10+ year member]

In my opinion either way is ghetto but if you don't have the $$$ for a spare set of tail lenses IMHO just get the covers, you don't risk messing anything up and they can be yanked if you get stopped. I now mainly do whole aftermarket lense replacements.