Whats up guys, I have Nightshaded tail-lights. I had them on forever and just yesterday i went out and lightly sanded them with 600 grit and added some more clearcoat to them becasue I wanted them to look nice and glassy. Well, there alot shinier than they were, but I want that finished cleared look like the outside of a car. Kinda got a little orange peel going on. I know it can be easily fixed with some compounds and a buffer. I have a buffer, I have rubbing and polishing compound. But I have never done this before and want to learn how to do it so it looks right.

I heard a buddy I work with say the rubbing compound is too abrasive, and I have tried it somewhere before and it was pretty damn abrasive, polishing compound even seemed a little harsh too. I believe compounds like rubbing compound will work great on metals. He said I should use polishing compound and then something called Glazing compound which I cannot find in stores. Its just less abrasive than polishing compound I imagine to finish it off and give it the shiny look. Can anyone who's good at this stuff give me some points. I plan on trying it on my lowprofile spoiler I have in my attick before I do it on my car.

 

I used the rubbing compound and then the polishing compound on my nightshaded tails and it worked great. Didn't use a buffer , I did it by hand. I think buffers is what makes the compounds abbrasive as hell.

Just giving you an option. Lol

 

I actually have a lowprofile spoiler at my house that i rattle can painted black one day to see how a black low-pro looked on my car. I actually did a damn good job on it lol but im gonna test the rubbing and polishing compound on it to see how it looks.

Heres a pics of the lights as of right now though:



^and thats just **** on them, im at work lol

 

That's a pretty good job if you ask me. Lol

the rubbing compound should work. Just do it by hand

 

im home now trying it on my spoiler. I actually tried 600 grit wetsanding, figured it would smooth it out so theres no dimples or orange peel, then rubbing compound, then polishing, then wax. im just waiting for wax and to wipe it off to see how it looks

 

Well how does it look?

I actually just used rubbing compound and polishing. Waxed too and it improved the glaze. I took a pic but it's on my iPhone. I'll try to upload

here they are





i now the pics suck but its all i had. but you can see the lines and edges of the garbage can top. and its pretty clear pic of my hand

 

just wet sand it with like 1000 grit, then buff it out with the wax, or look for rejuvinater(sp??)

I did this with my motorcycle since there was decals on the tank, and they clear coated them on there. So i cut the clear coat carefully around the decals, peeled them off, wetsanded down the clear coat on the rest of the tank, put two coats of clear on, wetsanded with 1000 grit, then buffed it all out with rejuvenate.

Heres a pic to show you


its not a close up but it shows the shinyness(just the tank). The fairings are plastic also, so it kinda applies to what your doing

Hopefully this helps?!?!

 

Got a close. Anything could look shiny and still have 1000 grit scratches

 

Nope! i dont have it anymore lol, but i assure you there wasnt scratches on it, i would of freaked the **** out. Then repainted it lol

Thats what the rejuvenators job is for.

 

Whenever I wetsand at work, no matter what Grit I start with I always finishing with 3000grit. The scratches are just that much easy to buff out.

 

before:



after:

 

That's prety damn good!! What u used?

 

nice job buddy.

 

the before picture is after sanding rubbing and polishing compound. then i just waxed it with mcguires using that orbital buffer polisher. worked pretty damn good.

 

That looks like a handheld polisher. What brand is it? Where did you get it?

 

That looks like a handheld polisher. What brand is it? Where did you get it?

 

...walmart ftmfw!

it was that one or a bigger one that took liek 2 hands but this was 20 bucks for a random buffer/polisher

 

Holy ****. Nice find

 

Don't get me wrong, I don't wanna seem like that guy. just trying to be helpful.

compounding by hand should only be done when you can't get in there with a buffer wheel, waste of time.
orange peels are taken out by WET SANDING, not compounding.

so...wet sand, give a final coat. clear coat, wet sand, then a very fine final clear coat. if it's not perfect by now, feel free to compound. I usually wet sand with 600, then 1200, then compound with 3m 3000. good luck padawan.

 

dont give me that padawon **** mr. I GOT 2 MUFFLERS!

But i tried doing it by hand on my tail lights and it did not come out good at all. After wax and **** it just looked horrible. Much easier on the spoiler since its big and i can get the buffer on it pretty easy. Just had to strip all the paint off the lights and redo it. Orange peel ftmfw for now If i removed them from my car and went out and bought a higher grit wet sandpaper i probobly would have done it better. i guess i worked with what i got and preferred the older look over the newer look

 

it looks fine man tbh. your car looks sick to begin with no ones gonna notice some orange peels. when did you go dual I thought you had a 4 inch muffler delete

 

i do have a 4" muffler delete. where did you see duals!?

 

oh doi. I thought you meant duals by 2 mufflers ***** i gots a 5 inch! lol

 

Hear its great for drifting lol. I wanna go duals after I get my 3" DP. i wanna go straightpipe and go duals that way it breaks up the noise a bit so hopefully I can stay straight pipe and it wont be AS loud.