Headlight lenses

[oldskewel]

I could not find any for the pre-face lift E53 other than the $90 each ones in the link I gave. So I tried just a little harder on the headlight restoration and it really came together. Glad I did it that way.

Lens off was not very hard. While I had it off, I noticed what looked like some condensation residue on the spherical lens of the Xenon light. So I wiped it off. Once I have it back together and installed, I now notice the similar condensation residue on the right side (which I did not disassemble) seems to diffuse the light a lot. It makes the light look brighter when looking at it, but probably reduces light down the road. Pics:


^ left headlight with lens removed. Very clear The theoretical limit.


^ right headlight after sanding and polishing with 3M kit. This is "done" as far as the 3M kit is concerned. Not great, of course.


^ left lens after not enough sanding (still was a lot = 30+ minutes) with 3M kit, and removal from headlight assembly (while I was thinking about replacing the lens, before finding they cost close to $100 each)


^ side / top view


^ back-side view of lens. Before having it off, I was not sure if some of the cloudiness was on the inside surface (it was not - inside surface was perfect).




^ left lens after more sanding and polishing with 3M kit, and clear coat step #3 from Sylvania kit.


^ right lens after clear coat step #3 from Sylvania kit. No more sanding or anything vs. the second picture above.


^ left side, lights on


^ right side, lights on. As mentioned above, the Xenon sphere is much whiter on this side, I think due to the cloudy condensation residue on it.