Hilux 4x4 Forum

I've been searching a while for P2000 en P3000 Grid wet & dry sanding paper and no one seems to stock them. The highest I could get is P1500.

Anybody have an idea where I can purchase P2000 and P3000 grid sand paper?

Cassie ek het nou die dag by ons Mica gesien en gekoop. Hulle het net P1500 en P2000 gehad. Maar ek dink enige plek wat car paints verkoop sal he.

Yoh Cassie, that's really fine! What is the intended use and wouldn't a burnishing compound give better results?

Andy normal use is for wet sanding before polishing. Not sure what Cassie wants to do with it.

Thanks guys. I want to use it to restore my cars headlights

I've used P800 followed by Brasso and then toothpaste on dull / yellowed poly-carbonate light lenses and they came out just fine. Even with the P800 it took quite a bit of rubbing before the yellow disappeared.

If not faded too much Brasso does the trick.
If faded a bit more, try Autsol, it's metal polish with very fine particles.
Enige partewinkel behoort dit aan te hou.

Thanks for the feedback guys....

Was thinking of the paper as I wanted to reproduce the results in this video... have all the other products except the sand paper for finishing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEJbKLZ7RmM

Dink die politoer gaan selfde doen as skuurpapier, moet hom maar net na die tyd mooi skoonmaak dat hy nie vetterig is. Skuurpapier gaan beste wees want dan weet jy dat jy geen vetterigheid gaan hê nie. Hor maar by die plekke wat bakwerkpanele verkoop, 2000 kan nie so skaars wees nie.

Anders as jy iemand ken wat in 'n laboratorium werk, toe ek nog Metalurg gespeel het, het ons tot 4000 grid gebruik om samples mee te skuur, voor ons dit poleer het.

Agree with everything in the video, but you can use brasso instead of the really fine grit paper - however, if you want to do the clear coat finish, then you have to clean it off well, first with water and then with benzine.

I'm not a committed fan of the clear coat finish, although it does work and it's what the manufacturers, body shops and restorers do. It does give you a long lasting result, but it also breaks down over time - the same as the factory finish does.

When that happens, you're back to square one and you have to do it all again. Alternatively, (and it's what I'm doing with good results at the moment), is to give it a quick polish with toothpaste each time before I wash the car.

Of course you would initially have to step down from the brasso to something finer to bring up a gloss in the plastic (poly-carbonate) itself and I did this with Silvo after the brasso and lastly the toothpaste. (Silvo is finer than brasso and the toothpaste is even finer than that). It takes a bit of rubbing, but it comes up with a nice gloss and maintaining it requires a tiny fraction of that rubbing.

Agree with Andy, clear coat is never ever a permanent solution and when it starts to peal off it doesn't look nice.

I just Brasso my cars lights often and they stay nice. If you leave it too long they might go yellow, but if you do it like once in two months they stay clear.

Pieter, the reason why I say to finish with the fine grit of toothpaste is that if you finish with Brasso or Silvo, it might look nice and bright and fairly clear, but if you turn the lights on it shows up the haziness that's still there. The toothpaste removes a lot of that haziness and it's much clearer than without it. (The clearer the lens, the better penetration the light beam will have).

A further tip is that when using all of them (brasso, silvo, toothpaste), I add a little water as I work to keep it from drying out and when I finish with each one, I use what's still there without adding moisture, so that it polishes to being dry - the tiny grit particles seem to loose their sharpness and become a little less abrasive, bringing up a bit more shine at the end of each stage.

I know what I'll be doing this weekend Thanks Cassie for bringing the topic up (again?), some great tested and proven methods available it seems!

General advice is to refrain from using toothpaste on acrylic.
There are various kits available in the R300 - R800 range but I would not even waste my time; there are plenty service providers around that come to your house/work to do the job for you... these guys are in my neck of the woods http://www.creativecardetailing.com/Ser ... torations/ and most prices I've seen are in the R600 range for both head units

Personally I polished out a scratch using 800 then 1000 then 1500 and finally the various grits from the polish block from SWAMBO's nail kit that is even finer than 3000. Most restoration kits contain 2000 & 3000 grit

Thanks guys. I have gone the silvo, braso, toothpaste and a few other methods but these lights are a bit far gone to be effective. It's for the Tazz which I bought from people that never parked it in a garage or shading so the lights have taken a beating. So this is my last resort to see if I can restore it somewhat before going the new headlight route.

maybe give these guys a call http://www.wisecracks.co.za/headlight-repair.php they have technicians in your area

Thanks Stef.

now I'm interested as well. I have tried the sand paper and toothpaste before and couldn't get it to work so well. I'm going to give the wisecracks guy a try and see.