I finally decided to try sanding and using SprayMax 2K Headlight Clear Coat on my car

I decided a few weeks ago to buy what I needed to restore my head lights after watching too many videos on people restoring them with ease. Worst case scenario was I screw up and need to buy new headlights as some parts of my headlights already have some cracks in them. Here is what they looked like (at least the passenger side):

I am very aware of how shitty Louisiana roads and my car's paint are.




What I bought
SprayMax 2K Headlight SPECIFIC spray (not regular clear coat)
spray bottle with water
isopropyl alcohol
tack cloth
painters tape
600/1000/1500 grit sandpaper
clean towel
Total cost of everything I had to buy: $50 ($23 paper, 2 tack wipes from Harbor Freight, SprayMax 2K Headlight spray $27, everything else I already had)
The goal is to also do Mrs. Baggins's headlights one weekend, so one sheet each grit will actually do both cars. There's probably enough clear coat to do several more cars.

I bought the Hercules sandpaper sheets in 600, 1000, and 1500 grit that come in packs of 5 each. Put them altogether and cut them up into 4 sets of each sheet (9"x11" originally)


In most videos, I noticed people would tape the edge of the headlights and use those clear overspray sheets to surround the lights. I decided to do one headlight with only painters tape and one with painters tape and butcher paper (I did not feel like buying the overspray sheets). Personally I thought the painters tape looked better but I will also say that I lost my patience using damn butcher paper.



Went over with wet sand paper in only a horizontal pattern, cleaned, going finer on grit until I finished with the 1500 grit. Went with isopropyl alcohol and then wiped clean with the tack cloth.


I started with one headlight as I needed to do a very light coat of 2K spray, wait 15 minutes, tack again, then heavy coat spray of 2K. This was the result (assume the driver side is the same, because it's hot and I want to stay in the A/C):

Leave the car out in the sun so UV rays can cure it faster (the only benefit to the Louisiana weather right now) and in a couple hours it should be good to drive without worry, maybe sooner. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the result. I should probably post an update in a couple months just in case it doesn't look as great, but we're hoping for the best. I may go with a ceramic coating at some point in the future.