What these small cracks on headlights and how to fix them/Turn your headlights brand new again

Hello, it's Salim ink. In today's video, we will be fixing and discussing a common issue that many car owners facing, small cracks on the headlights. Have you ever noticed small cracks on the headlights? These cracks can occur for several reasons, and it's important to understand why they're happening. First and foremost, age can cause the headlight to crack. Over time, exposure to the elements such as sun, heat, and cold can cause the headlight material to become brittle and crack. And another reason for small crack on the headlight is impact. While driving the car, small rock or debris can hit the headlight and cause a small crack. Finally, poor quality material can also cause a crack on the headlight. If the headlight material is not a good quality, it may not be able to withstand with a normal wear and tear, causing small crack to occur. The procedure will be almost the same as I showed in the other video where I restored the oxidized layer, but sanding procedure will be a bit different to remove that cracked layer, so I will be using coarser sandpaper to remove that cracked layer. So we're gonna need masking tape, these grits on sandpaper, polishing will be optional, rubbing compound, polishing compound, and wax to protect from UV light and not let it crack that fast. And the most important thing in this job is clear coat. You can use clear coat and hardener like me here, or you can use a spray can, but make sure it's a 2K clear coat, they are UV resistant. So we're gonna be sanding the headlights from the clear coat that been applied from the factory, and sand a bit more to remove the cracks. Sanding and removing the cracks depends on the crack depth. Sometimes they are only on the surface, but on these headlights the cracks are deep almost to the other side, so I will do my best for you guys to see the result. If you are not happy about it, you don't have to do all these steps and you can buy new headlights. With a cracked headlight like this, I always start with dry sanding with 220 grit sandpaper, but sometimes they don't disappear, or they already reached to the other side of the plastic. And masking tape is important in this case because we don't want to damage the paint around the headlight, because we're gonna be using coarse sandpaper and it will easily remove the paint. Use linear motion to sand the headlights. Linear scratch can be smoothed out easily in the next stage. Alright, for the next sanding, I will be using 600 grit wet sanding to smooth out the surface. And here is the result after wet sanding with the 600, 800, and 1000 grit sandpaper. I removed some of the cracks because they were not that deep, but still some left and already reached to the other side of the plastic, so you can still see them. So let's see how it's gonna look after applying clear coat. Before applying clear coat, you have two options. Either you mask the whole front of the car for applying clear coat, or remove the headlight and only mask the back of the headlights. And that's what I'm gonna do and it's much easier and much faster. One of the most important tip I like to give you guys is, never degrease the headlight's bare plastic with lacquer thinner. It will create small cracks on the plastic right away. Instead of that, use 70% isopropyl alcohol. Now I'm gonna use my 2 to 1 ratio clear coat. But for you guys, it's easier to use spray can clear coat. But make sure it's 2K clear coat, it's UV resistant and dry fast. I will be applying 2 coats of clear coat on each headlight, and I will wait 10 to 15 minutes between each coats. And here is after 1 hour of applying 2 coats of clear coat. Very good result comparing to how it was before. But if you get real close, you will still see the deep cracks. So if that's the result you want, no need to replace the headlights. Alright, that's it for this video. Hope the video was helpful and learned something new. If it was, like and subscribe if you haven't already, and I will see you in the next one. Bye for now.