Painting lexan. Do I need to sand it?

OJ86

Promoted Users
I made some headlight covers and I sanded them on the underside with 800 and painted them with a tinted clear. I'm just not happy with the clarity, but then I started to wonder if I needed to sand them at all??

If i can just clean and shoot them, I am going to cut another set and redo them.

Any thoughts?

They look ok, but upclose you can see the 800grit scratches, and well it kinda bugs me, so if i can redo them without sanding, im going too.

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are you able to see the scratches from both sides? the clear should have filled the 800 sand scratches..
 
right- if you look through the back side that was cleared, can you see the scratches? I'm guessing you did the back side so it would not show imperfections?
 
in theory you can clear straight over the lexan, the solvents should bite into it. you could also try a 1200 or 1500 grit
 
Just my opinions based on our experience, but we finish with 2000 because coarser grits generally seemed to have less clarity. Also we use Universal and no faster than Slow hardener. Faster activators also seem to reduce clarity a bit also. Personally I would put the clear on the outside because for one, clear on Lexan lays out really well, and two, Lexan sheet has poor UV resistance on its own.
 
I have found the same thing as Crash. Sanding out clear plastic lenses for cars I get all the yellowing out and sand up to 1500 or 2000 before clear.
 
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