Is there a good way to clean up the outside of a lens to remove any scratches, wear or water marks? I was going to take a stab at some fine grit sand paper or even wet sanding but I'm not sure if that'll just make them worse or if it is the correct method what my next step would be (clearing, any form of sprayed or hand applied covering, etc?).

Any help or tips would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Stephen

 

Start with 1000 grit and wet sand,depending on how deep the scratches are. Then work.up to 1500 and 2000. Then use some polishing compound and a soft rag and buff them with a lot of elbow grease. If you give me a few I can upload pics of some.tail light lenses I did with just 1000 and meguiars ultimate compound.

 

Scratch-wise it's not too bad actually. I'm mainly concerned about these spots that look like hard water marks where condensation has sat or something like that. It's causing the light to distort when shining through and looks bad when you're looking at the lens. I'll start with some wet sanding and compound, see where that gets me then I'll start trying the other things you mentioned.

 

I have pics of taillights I did but they are on my phone and this app I'm.using for he forums doesn't allow me to.post pics, but they started out with that nightshade stuff on it and were dull and jazzy and when I got done they looked like shiny new red lenses

 

I found another thread on the Chevy Cobalt Forum and a guy had a how-to almost exactly like you said. I'm going to get the product today and take a stab on the two sets I want to do maybe this weekend if I can find the time and post some pictures up of it. It'll be interesting (and awesome) to see it clean up. Bugs the crap out of me looking at my extra set and my friend's car we did..

chevycobaltforum.c0m/forum/f24/headlight-projector-restoration-how-614/

here's that how-to if anyone checks this in the future. ^

 

i forgot to mention i did one of my old headlights as well but i only used 1000 grit and polishing compound, just for ***** and giggles turned out alright but should have gone doen to 2000 as well.