Fog light lens

I have a lot of stone chip on my fog light lens. Does anybody know how to get it clear again.
I took a bad advice from somebody by using a fine steel wool to take the roughness off. It got worse and dull now

Hard to believe this hasn't been answered in over a year. I just did this to my headlight lenses, but the fog light lenses are made of the same material so the same method will work for both. Actually, I have the rectangular style fog light lenses. I've never handled the round ones in person so I don't know exactly what they are like.

First take the fog light out and remove the bulb from the lens. Your owners manual will tell you how to do that. It'll be much easier than try to do this while it's on your car.

Start with medium grit sandpaper. I used 600 grit. You might be able to use something more coarse. Sand the lens until there are no more pits. As you sand the surface of the lens will become an opaque whiteish color. This is normal. Make sure this opaque whiteish color is pretty uniform across the whole lens before you move on to the next step.

Next, wet sand with 1200 grit wet/dry sand paper. After you've gone over the whole surface a few times with that do the same thing with 2000 grit wet/dry sand paper. Keeping the surface wet while you sand is important to getting it as smooth as possible. After this the lens still won't be perfectly clear but it will start looking better.

Finally to get the lens perfectly clear and like new, polish with a plastic polish like Meguiars PlasticX or something similar. It's a long process but it's worth it.

Originally Posted by beluv

Hard to believe this hasn't been answered in over a year. I just did this to my headlight lenses, but the fog light lenses are made of the same material so the same method will work for both. Actually, I have the rectangular style fog light lenses. I've never handled the round ones in person so I don't know exactly what they are like.

First take the fog light out and remove the bulb from the lens. Your owners manual will tell you how to do that. It'll be much easier than try to do this while it's on your car.

Start with medium grit sandpaper. I used 600 grit. You might be able to use something more coarse. Sand the lens until there are no more pits. As you sand the surface of the lens will become an opaque whiteish color. This is normal. Make sure this opaque whiteish color is pretty uniform across the whole lens before you move on to the next step.

Next, wet sand with 1200 grit wet/dry sand paper. After you've gone over the whole surface a few times with that do the same thing with 2000 grit wet/dry sand paper. Keeping the surface wet while you sand is important to getting it as smooth as possible. After this the lens still won't be perfectly clear but it will start looking better.

Finally to get the lens perfectly clear and like new, polish with a plastic polish like Meguiars PlasticX or something similar. It's a long process but it's worth it.

Great post, that is the same steps that I'd suggest. You may not have to start as aggressive as 600 grit. Your headlights will come out great

George

Thanks guys.

Beluv... great write-up.

Originally Posted by TeamStealthAuto

Beluv... great write-up.

Bavarian Autosport has a product for this. I have not used it but its worth checking it out.

www.bavauto.com

Great advice. I am going to try this tomorrow.

Did you guys actually try this? Does it work on GLASS fog light lenses? The
E46 Fogs have glass lenses I think...

no e46 have plastic, e36 had glass .. i did it to my fogs, my friends gti, came out great!

Don't mean to bring this thread back from the dead, but I did the same thing this weekend but started with 400 grit, then 600, then 1200, then plastic polish (Scratch x)... They are like new again (YAY!!!) Definately recommended to get rid of the tarnished yellow lense look. Now I want HID fogs!!! Or CCFL's for the Fogs?

Originally Posted by 01topaz330ci

no e46 have plastic, e36 had glass .. i did it to my fogs, my friends gti, came out great!

can anyone answer this cause I'm curious. My fog lights definitely feel like glass. They have a lot of chips in them and they don't look as clear as my headlights. Can I use this technique to clean them also.

im not sure about the coupe but i know the m3's are glass.

i think it depends on what kind of fog light you have. I think the round ones ARE glass though. and the rectangular ones are plastic.

dont quote me though.

Thanks I have the round ones. If they are glass, they are a beeyatch to clean.

im too scared to try that, im afraid ill ruin em

why? worse comes to worse you buy new ones for $100