{"id":27730,"date":"2019-12-12T08:00:26","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T13:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/?p=27730"},"modified":"2019-11-25T08:54:12","modified_gmt":"2019-11-25T13:54:12","slug":"how-to-polish-taillights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/how-to-polish-taillights\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Polish Taillights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-26430 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/DSC00294-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Tail Light Swirls Removed\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/DSC00294-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/DSC00294-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/DSC00294-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Fixing headlights can make a car look much better than it does, but what about the taillights? Normally they do not get as oxidized as the headlights as they&#8217;re not exposed to as much direct sun to being mainly vertical. However, they can be just as important. To me, taillights are one of the most recognizable parts of a vehicle, and is it just me that thinks they make the back of a car look like a face? Just me? Ok cool. Regardless, making them look good and having that red color really pop really brings the look of a vehicle to the next level.<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, due to them usually not having oxidation, it just swirl removal, which is much easier. If you do have oxidation, treat them the same as headlights (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/how-to-fix-oxidized-headlights\/\">click here for a past article I put together<\/a>). Swirl removal on taillights is simple but can be tedious if they have a lot of angles and unlike headlights, the angles are often inward, making them hard to reach with a machine.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-26429 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/DSC00292-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Tail Light with Swirls\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/DSC00292-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/DSC00292-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/DSC00292-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Normally a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Rupes-M62\/Yellow-Polishing-Foam-Pad-P887\/4-S1\/\">Rupes Yellow Pad<\/a> and some polish such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Griots-M56\/BOSS-Perfecting-Cream-P1061\/16-oz-S1\/\">Griots PC<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Menzerna-M10\/PO106FA-Nano-Polish-Super-Finish-P228\/16-oz-S1\/\">Menzerna SF3500<\/a> is enough. Sometimes you need to step it up to a compound like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Griots-M56\/BOSS-Fast-Correcting-Cream-P1059\/16-oz-S1\/\">Griots FCC<\/a> pr <a href=\"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Menzerna-M10\/Fast-Gloss-400-Compound-P688\/32-oz-S1\/\">Menzerna HC400<\/a> and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Meguiars-M43\/DA-Microfiber-Cutting-Disc-Buffing-Pad-P515\/55-S1\/\">Microfiber Cutting Pad<\/a> if they are bad. One thing I like about taillights is the surface is much more consistent across brand and models than paint, meaning they all use a similar plastic. So, finding a combo that works for you is much more applicable across the board.<\/p>\n<p>I would recommend using a minimum of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Lake-Country-M7\/Backing-Plate-for-Porter-Cable-7424-P56\/73-mm-S4\/\">3&#8243; backing plate<\/a> and your hand for the tight spots. If you have a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Rupes-M62\/Big-Foot-iBrid-Nano-P1124\/Long-Neck-S3\/\">Rupes iBrid<\/a> this is an area where it would shine.<\/p>\n<p>Luckily taillights are pretty forgiving and generally easy to correct, but that red glow of the taillights when they are properly polished is really the cherry on top of a detail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How to Polish Taillights<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":28871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,32,35,33],"tags":[385,1552,2466,414,196,2267],"class_list":{"0":"post-27730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffers","8":"category-imperfection-removal","9":"category-pads","10":"category-polishes","11":"tag-detailing","12":"tag-gloss-angeles","13":"tag-plastics","14":"tag-polish","15":"tag-tail-light","16":"tag-taillights"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/DSC00292-1024x683.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1kPO7-7dg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27730"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28872,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27730\/revisions\/28872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}