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**DISCLAIMER** Sanding glass can be a risky undertaking and I take no responsibility for any personal or property damage that may arise as a consequence of or during the course of this process. This thread is purely for informational purposes.
Needless to say, due to COVID-19 social distancing, I had some extra time on my hands and decided to restore both fogs on my 05' C230K (W203). Since our fog lights are glass, the general consensus is that refinishing them when they get all pitted and gross is next to impossible.... However, after reviewing a thread on a BMW forum where a guy accomplished this, I decided to give It a shot and it f’n worked wonders! Therefore, I thought I'd pay it forward to the MBWorld community by writing up a DIY for anyone thinking about doing this. Genuine new HELLA fog lights are a whopping $175 each, but I refinished mine for $40-$45 in materials and a lot of my time and elbow grease.
Here is the sorry state my fog lenses were in when I started, after hand-washing them:
Original Fog Lens condition, after removing from the housing, held by 3 clips.
What I used:
1. Stick'n'Sand 5 inch Sanding Discs - 40 grit, 80 grit, 120 grit, 220 grit, 320 grit, 400 grit, 800 grit (I couldn't find any SnS discs finer than 400 grit so I used 3M Wet/Dry Sandpaper that I cut into 5" circles for the 320, 400, and 600 grits, works the same)
2. Stick'n'Sand backing plate for Electric Drills. All can be purchased at your local Home Depot.
4. Microfiber towels to periodically wipe and check sanding/polishing progress
5. Spray bottle with water to keep cerium polish moist during polishing process along with a bottle of rubbing alcohol.
6. Contractors mask or safety mask; to prevent breathing-in the glass particles or cerium oxide dust.
PREREQUISITES:
Start by removing the fog lights from your car, which will require you to remove the front bumper on your W203. Procedure may vary depending on which chassis you're working on. I'm sure there are other threads on MBWorld for this procedure for the W203 bumper, so I'd advise you poke around on MBWorld and Youtube if you don't know how to do it.
After removing the fog lights from the inside of the bumper held on by two small bolts each, gently remove the black plastic housing from the front lens by removing three (3) clips. They're held on on kinda tight, but were eventually easy to remove. I just used a simple flat-head screwdriver for this to gently pry them off with ease. Again.. be gentle. It's pretty easy. Once removed, you'll have to gently pry the glass lens off the housing by hand, be careful not to pry too hard or else the glass could fly off. It's been on there for many years, so it'll be on there pretty good. Maybe lay a towel down. Afterwards, wash and clean everything really well to remove all dirt and grime.
THE SANDING PROCESS
Next, start by dry sanding the glass with the 40 grit with the drill until you can no longer see any of the pitting. If your lenses are severely pitted, you may not be able to sand down deep enough to eliminate all of the pits without cracking your lens. Use common sense and if you see your glass getting too thin, stop sanding and move on to the next grit. Since we are DRY sanding, you MUST MUST MUST be careful not to heat up the glass too much. I was only able to sand for about 5-10 seconds at a time in one area of the lens before it got too hot and I had to stop to let it cool down for 2-3 minutes. I can't emphasize this enough, dry sanding generates a lot of heat so you MUST take your time!!!
Here is what my lenses looked like after about 1 hour of dry sanding with the 40 grit and a little 80 grit (I got all the pitting out except for 1 or 2 pit which were just too deep, but it's too small to really see anyway
After using 40 & 80 grit sandpaper.
The 40 grit will take the longest because you have to keep going until you've corrected the pitted surface to a smoother surface. Next I did 80 grit for about 10 mins:
I kept going, using the edge of the sanding pad to sand down trouble spots until I had removed each preceding grit's sanding marks with the next finer grit. Since you'll be looking at semi-circular sanding marks, I rotated the lens 90 degrees each time I switched grits so I could make sure I saw nothing but the latest grit's sanding marks before I moved to the next grit. Periodically wipe down the lens with a damp microfiber to check your progress. Glass is very hard so it'll take 6-10 times more sanding time than plastic would. I had planned on going up to 2000 grit, but after 600 grit, the sandpaper just fell apart, it couldn't sand the glass any more. Doesn't matter anyway, the cerium oxide took care of the rest!!
THE POLISHING PROCESS After sanding, clean the glass with alcohol and let it dry. Next, you'll need to mix the cerium oxide with water to make a paste for polishing. Other people say mix it 50/50, but I achieved the best results by mixing the cerium 60/40 water:cerium into a paste the consistency of yogurt.
Apply to the lens and start polishing with the 3" felt polishing wheel hooked up to your drill. The paste will fling a little at first so start slow and work your way up to max speed. Once the polish starts to dry/chalk up, add a spritz of water to the face of the felt wheel to keep things lubed. After about 2 mins of polishing, wipe off the lens with a damp cloth and check your progress. Cerium is the best thing for polishing glass but it still took about 8 passes of 2-4 mins each to get the clarity I wanted. The main thing was to keep the cerium paste on the lens moist and not chalky b/c the paste is what does the cutting.
RESULTS Here's what I was left with after polishing:
Beautiful, isn't it?
BEFORE/AFTER
As you can see, I had red overspray on the outer edges of the lenses from the previous owner, so I carefully taped the front of the lens off with painters tape, lightly sanded the outer areas where the all the black(red) areas were, wiped down in alcohol, stuffed a couple rags inside each lense to prevent any overspray getting inside, and spray painted the for a brand-new look. Below is the final result all assembled. I have yellow light-bulbs installed, in case you're wondering why you see yellow in there.
R + L Fog Lights Complete! Left Fog Light Right Fog Light
For future protection, after all the hard work, I purchased LAMIN-X adhesive fog-light protective films from Amazon. You can also purchase them directly from the Lamin-X website, but they'll tack-on shipping charges whereas Amazon won't, so was a little cheaper route - your choice.
The fog light restoration took a little while to restore, so I will be damned if my hard work goes to waste by allowing the glass to pit again. Also, I can imagine the lenses will be slightly more fragile since the glass is sanded down a tiny bit thinner; they're still pretty thick and durable, so I'm not too worried about them shattering or cracking, so, just to be safe. Either way, I'd recommend purchasing these and applying if/when you do the job yourself as they'll protect your hard work!
Thought I should mention to the other fellow members here. The glass covers/lenses for the fogs are available separately from the dealer. Not sure if this is true for all trims, but I was able to purchase just the lens when I shattered one on the highway. They're held onto the plastic casing by 3 clips which pop off easily with a screwdriver.
Sadly they do not sell the polycarbonate lenses for the headlights separately.
Thought I should mention to the other fellow members here. The glass covers/lenses for the fogs are available separately from the dealer. Not sure if this is true for all trims, but I was able to purchase just the lens when I shattered one on the highway. They're held onto the plastic casing by 3 clips which pop off easily with a screwdriver.
Sadly they do not sell the polycarbonate lenses for the headlights separately.
Thank, Slammer.
Hmmm, interesting. I looked everywhere and found nothing of the sorts. It was either fix what you have or shell out $$ for a whole new assembly. How much did you pay for the glass lens, you've got me curious...
Last edited by Norsk_Johnson; Apr 2, 2020 at 12:47 AM.
Just as an example, the PN is 2158260190 for the frosted (pre-facelift) lens, L side. The clear lens (R side) is PN 2038260290. No idea if they sell the lenses separately for the AMG (oval) lights. The seals for the lenses are PN 2158260191. I was able to reuse mine though.
A quick search online shows the price to be about $17 USD.
Last edited by slammer111; Mar 31, 2020 at 07:28 PM.
Just as an example, the PN is 2158260190 for the frosted (pre-facelift) lens, L side. The clear lens (R side) is PN 2038260290. No idea if they sell the lenses separately for the AMG (oval) lights. The seals for the lenses are PN 2158260191. I was able to reuse mine though.
A quick search online shows the price to be about $17 USD.
Thanks for looking into it, Slammer.
You are correct. The oval ones, which I restored, fit in the same exact housing, but the lens protrudes much further outwards (maybe 3-4 inches further) of the AMG bumper, resting flush with the bumper cover L+R AMG mesh grille(s). Not sure about the 2-doors, like yours, but I imagine they're somewhat similar to the the standard lenses. I looked everywhere online for just the Hella lens only (ebay, Amazon, rmeuropean, eeuroparts, ecstuning, fcp, etc...) with no luck and just assumed the stealerships would only offer the entire assembly for my model as well.
Either way, I now have brand new looking fogs and cost me less that $50 in materials to restore. I'd say the end certainly justifies the means with the finished result. Thanks again for you input!
Last edited by Norsk_Johnson; Apr 1, 2020 at 03:23 PM.
**DISCLAIMER** Sanding glass can be a risky undertaking and I take no responsibility for any personal or property damage that may arise as a consequence of or during the course of this process. This thread is purely for informational purposes.
Needless to say, due to COVID-19 social distancing, I had some extra time on my hands and decided to restore both fogs on my 05' C230K (W203). Since our fog lights are glass, the general consensus is that refinishing them when they get all pitted and gross is next to impossible.... However, after reviewing a thread on a BMW forum where a guy accomplished this, I decided to give It a shot and it f’n worked wonders! Therefore, I thought I'd pay it forward to the MBWorld community by writing up a DIY for anyone thinking about doing this. Genuine new HELLA fog lights are a whopping $175 each, but I refinished mine for $40-$45 in materials and a lot of my time and elbow grease.
Here is the sorry state my fog lenses were in when I started, after hand-washing them:
Original Fog Lens condition, after removing from the housing, held by 3 clips.
What I used:
1. Stick'n'Sand 5 inch Sanding Discs - 40 grit, 80 grit, 120 grit, 220 grit, 320 grit, 400 grit, 800 grit (I couldn't find any SnS discs finer than 400 grit so I used 3M Wet/Dry Sandpaper that I cut into 5" circles for the 320, 400, and 600 grits, works the same)
2. Stick'n'Sand backing plate for Electric Drills. All can be purchased at your local Home Depot.
4. Microfiber towels to periodically wipe and check sanding/polishing progress
5. Spray bottle with water to keep cerium polish moist during polishing process along with a bottle of rubbing alcohol.
6. Contractors mask or safety mask; to prevent breathing-in the glass particles or cerium oxide dust.
PREREQUISITES:
Start by removing the fog lights from your car, which will require you to remove the front bumper on your W203. Procedure may vary depending on which chassis you're working on. I'm sure there are other threads on MBWorld for this procedure for the W203 bumper, so I'd advise you poke around on MBWorld and Youtube if you don't know how to do it.
After removing the fog lights from the inside of the bumper held on by two small bolts each, gently remove the black plastic housing from the front lens by removing three (3) clips. They're held on on kinda tight, but were eventually easy to remove. I just used a simple flat-head screwdriver for this to gently pry them off with ease. Again.. be gentle. It's pretty easy. Once removed, you'll have to gently pry the glass lens off the housing by hand, be careful not to pry too hard or else the glass could fly off. It's been on there for many years, so it'll be on there pretty good. Maybe lay a towel down. Afterwards, wash and clean everything really well to remove all dirt and grime.
THE SANDING PROCESS
Next, start by dry sanding the glass with the 40 grit with the drill until you can no longer see any of the pitting. If your lenses are severely pitted, you may not be able to sand down deep enough to eliminate all of the pits without cracking your lens. Use common sense and if you see your glass getting too thin, stop sanding and move on to the next grit. Since we are DRY sanding, you MUST MUST MUST be careful not to heat up the glass too much. I was only able to sand for about 5-10 seconds at a time in one area of the lens before it got too hot and I had to stop to let it cool down for 2-3 minutes. I can't emphasize this enough, dry sanding generates a lot of heat so you MUST take your time!!!
Here is what my lenses looked like after about 1 hour of dry sanding with the 40 grit and a little 80 grit (I got all the pitting out except for 1 or 2 pit which were just too deep, but it's too small to really see anyway
After using 40 & 80 grit sandpaper.
The 40 grit will take the longest because you have to keep going until you've corrected the pitted surface to a smoother surface. Next I did 80 grit for about 10 mins:
I kept going, using the edge of the sanding pad to sand down trouble spots until I had removed each preceding grit's sanding marks with the next finer grit. Since you'll be looking at semi-circular sanding marks, I rotated the lens 90 degrees each time I switched grits so I could make sure I saw nothing but the latest grit's sanding marks before I moved to the next grit. Periodically wipe down the lens with a damp microfiber to check your progress. Glass is very hard so it'll take 6-10 times more sanding time than plastic would. I had planned on going up to 2000 grit, but after 600 grit, the sandpaper just fell apart, it couldn't sand the glass any more. Doesn't matter anyway, the cerium oxide took care of the rest!!
THE POLISHING PROCESS After sanding, clean the glass with alcohol and let it dry. Next, you'll need to mix the cerium oxide with water to make a paste for polishing. Other people say mix it 50/50, but I achieved the best results by mixing the cerium 60/40 water:cerium into a paste the consistency of yogurt.
Apply to the lens and start polishing with the 3" felt polishing wheel hooked up to your drill. The paste will fling a little at first so start slow and work your way up to max speed. Once the polish starts to dry/chalk up, add a spritz of water to the face of the felt wheel to keep things lubed. After about 2 mins of polishing, wipe off the lens with a damp cloth and check your progress. Cerium is the best thing for polishing glass but it still took about 8 passes of 2-4 mins each to get the clarity I wanted. The main thing was to keep the cerium paste on the lens moist and not chalky b/c the paste is what does the cutting.
RESULTS Here's what I was left with after polishing:
Beautiful, isn't it?
BEFORE/AFTER
As you can see, I had red overspray on the outer edges of the lenses from the previous owner, so I carefully taped the front of the lens off with painters tape, lightly sanded the outer areas where the all the black(red) areas were, wiped down in alcohol, stuffed a couple rags inside each lense to prevent any overspray getting inside, and spray painted the for a brand-new look. Below is the final result all assembled. I have yellow light-bulbs installed, in case you're wondering why you see yellow in there.
R + L Fog Lights Complete! Left Fog Light Right Fog Light
For future protection, after all the hard work, I purchased LAMIN-X adhesive fog-light protective films from Amazon. You can also purchase them directly from the Lamin-X website, but they'll tack-on shipping charges whereas Amazon won't, so was a little cheaper route - your choice.
The fog light restoration took a little while to restore, so I will be damned if my hard work goes to waste by allowing the glass to pit again. Also, I can imagine the lenses will be slightly more fragile since the glass is sanded down a tiny bit thinner; they're still pretty thick and durable, so I'm not too worried about them shattering or cracking, so, just to be safe. Either way, I'd recommend purchasing these and applying if/when you do the job yourself as they'll protect your hard work!
Amazing results. I tried polishing mine and the results were horrid. Deep scratches that won’t come out. I first tried with drill then polisher. No help. Did you use sand paper or diamond cutting discs?
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