Headlights: Before & After

Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives

Just a little whore of my headlights before and after. I wet-sanded with 1000 then 1500 then 2000 grit. I then used rubbing compound, polishing compund,and Meguiar's #3 with a buffer. I then baked them apart to get the dirt out of the inside and to reseal them since one had about 1/2 inch of water sitting in it. Check em out...

I get my car back tomorrow from the shop. I am having a new clutch put in. After that comes some serious goonzing... I mean whoring.

No pics showed up for me

Originally posted by hotdimmes:
No pics showed up for me

only one pic comes up out of the 5 locations

http://image04.webshots.com/4/9/18/6/2227918060090487582sWivwt_ph.jpg
http://image44.webshots.com/44/5/37/5/2693537050090487582Yramky_ph.jpg
http://image46.webshots.com/47/5/86/96/2161586960090487582jkNfcD_ph.jpg
http://image62.webshots.com/62/0/90/93/2467090930090487582cvOehl_ph.jpg
http://image62.webshots.com/162/3/7/92/2567307920090487582WOWSaG_ph.jpg

like stevie wonder would say "cant see [censored]"

Well they were working last night. I'll fix it this afternoon.

For now, here's a link: http://www.webshots.com/search?new=1&source=mdocsheader&words=cannondalemtb

Originally posted by cannondalemtb:
Well they were working last night. I'll fix it this afternoon.

For now, here's a link: http://www.webshots.com/search?new=1&source=mdocsheader&words=cannondalemtb

Nice work Bobby. I hadn't really seen them in a few weeks.

MAKE SURE to post some photos of them installed. Your new car is looking REALLY GOOD !!!

If I still had my 'Tour I would be commissioning you to fix up my headlights! Except that I wouldn't have had a month to work on them... haha

Good work all around on the car! I'm impressed. Now we will have to see what we can do with an older red truck!

Originally posted by cannondalemtb:
Well they were working last night. I'll fix it this afternoon.

For now, here's a link: http://www.webshots.com/search?new=1&source=mdocsheader&words=cannondalemtb

Nice, you just saved me a lot of money by convincing me to wetsand/restore rather than just getting new ones.

Originally posted by cannondalemtb:

I get my car back tomorrow from the shop. I am having a new clutch put in. After that comes some serious goonzing... I mean whoring.

Whoa!!! The young buck gets in a little shot... But Goonzy does take every opportunity to whore. But his ride is sure NICE !!!

Bobby, Try these photos:

Have you already done the other headlight? Make sure you post some photos of the complete car soon!

Originally posted by Former Contour Owner:

Originally posted by cannondalemtb:

I get my car back tomorrow from the shop. I am having a new clutch put in. After that comes some serious goonzing... I mean whoring.

Whoa!!! The young buck gets in a little shot... But Goonzy does take every opportunity to whore. But his ride is sure NICE !!!

Bobby, Try these photos:

Have you already done the other headlight?

the new word for whoring is now goonzing?

They turned out great! I just did this same process a few weeks ago and even though they're not 100% new looking they look soooooo much better than before. I used Meguiars PlastX as the last step and just hand-buffed them, but it still turned out nice. Can't wait to see the full "after" pics.

Originally posted by Goonz SVT:

the new word for whoring is now goonzing?

hey I was called the picture post whore at SZ 05

those look fantastic! is anyone here doing this as a service for other CEGers? I just need the sanding/polishing done to mine. they don't look so good

Originally posted by Former Contour Owner:

Originally posted by cannondalemtb:

I get my car back tomorrow from the shop. I am having a new clutch put in. After that comes some serious goonzing... I mean whoring.

Whoa!!! The young buck gets in a little shot... But Goonzy does take every opportunity to whore. But his ride is sure NICE !!!

Bobby, Try these photos:

Have you already done the other headlight? Make sure you post some photos of the complete car soon!

I fixed his photos, I think...

Originally posted by The Davis:
those look fantastic! is anyone here doing this as a service for other CEGers? I just need the sanding/polishing done to mine. they don't look so good

Bobby? You interested in doing some work?

cannondalemtb is my brother-in-law. The only potential problem I see is that you will be without your lights for some time. He took his time on his... weeks.

It really isn't a hard process, but does take some time and patience. Bobby told you right in this thread how he did it and what he used...

For instance, he told me that when he baked the lights, he had read a How-to on here, and thought OK it'll take like 10-15 minutes. Took him closer to 1.5 hours.

here is my before and after

Originally posted by Former Contour Owner:
Bobby? You interested in doing some work?

I don't know who Bobby is, but I need it done.

Originally posted by Former Contour Owner:
cannondalemtb is my brother-in-law. The only potential problem I see is that you will be without your lights for some time. He took his time on his... weeks.

I'm not worried about that. The car is parked waiting on my son to get his license. The only real downer to the way the car looks are the lights

Originally posted by Former Contour Owner:
It really isn't a hard process, but does take some time and patience. Bobby told you right in this thread how he did it and what he used...

Yeah, but I don't have the time or the patience to do this. I tried it once before and got minimal results.

Originally posted by Former Contour Owner:
For instance, he told me that when he baked the lights, he had read a How-to on here, and thought OK it'll take like 10-15 minutes. Took him closer to 1.5 hours.

Baking is to separate them so you can paint/touch-up the inside, right? I've already redone the inside of the lights (didn't bake them) and only need the exterior refreshed.

Originally posted by The Davis:

Originally posted by Former Contour Owner:
Bobby? You interested in doing some work?

I don't know who Bobby is, but I need it done.

Originally posted by Former Contour Owner:
cannondalemtb is my brother-in-law. The only potential problem I see is that you will be without your lights for some time. He took his time on his... weeks.

I'm not worried about that. The car is parked waiting on my son to get his license. The only real downer to the way the car looks are the lights

Originally posted by Former Contour Owner:
It really isn't a hard process, but does take some time and patience. Bobby told you right in this thread how he did it and what he used...

Yeah, but I don't have the time or the patience to do this. I tried it once before and got minimal results.

Originally posted by Former Contour Owner:
For instance, he told me that when he baked the lights, he had read a How-to on here, and thought OK it'll take like 10-15 minutes. Took him closer to 1.5 hours.

Baking is to separate them so you can paint/touch-up the inside, right? I've already redone the inside of the lights (didn't bake them) and only need the exterior refreshed.

Bobby is cannondalemtb the guy that did this work on the headlights and started this thread.

It's funny, he got this car and has been doing all of this work on it while he was waiting to get his license as well!

I'm sure he'd do it for you. PM him : cannondalemtb.

Yes, you are right there is no need to open them up if you don't need to clean out or paint the inside. He has some crap on the inside of his.

Well it did take me some time, but I did get them done right. With school ending next week, I could get them done a lot faster. If the price is right, I'm sure I could get the job done.

I will get some photos sometime soon. I just got the car back from the shop today after getting a new clutch put in and took it to work and drove it around. I noticed a smell of oil burning but I thought it was just the oil still burning off the exhaust manifold from when I changed it. Well when I finally got home, I stopped in the driveway and realized that there was quite a bit more smoke than there should be. SO I quickly shut it off and pushed it the rest of the way down the driveway. I pulled the dipstick and there was a minimal amount on the very end of it. So I jacked it up to look underneath and turns out that the bottom bolt that holds the transmission to the engine (I believe it is, it is right next to the oil pan) is GONE! The oil was dripping from right beside it where it should be sealed tight with that bolt.

Well the mechanic will be hearing about this in the morning and towing it out of here. It is one thing to miss a screw on the door panel or under the dash but a freakin bolt like that!? Come on!

I sure hope the engine isn't ruined. I will just be without a car yet again...

cannondalemtb, I don't know what you'd consider a fair price for this. Post or PM me a quote and I'll get back to you. I'd try this again or let my son give it a shot but you obviously know what you're doing so I have no problem paying for a quality result

You're in MA? That's where my (step)son's dad lives.

Honestly, I have no idea what would be a fair price. PM me with a reasonable offer.

Originally posted by cannondalemtb:
Honestly, I have no idea what would be a fair price. PM me with a reasonable offer.

Headlight prices

They look new so I think $85 per light is fair??