Soapy/Wet Sanding Headlights

[Nick370]

Okay, so I've wet sanded my headlights a few times but never with soapy water and the results have always come out great. However the reason Im writing this is a friend of mine just got a GTR and the previous owner tinted the headlights with what told us was a "tinted clear coat".

First off, never knew something like that existed. Secondly, it definitely wasn't done with that cheap "nightshades spray tint" or "plasti-dip".

Long story short, I had him bring it over and I've seen regular clear coat be removed from wet sanding so we decided to tie it a shot, and he insisted that we use soapy water, which Ive never done before. The process we used was 600, 1500, 3000 grit wet sand. It didnt remove the clear or tint, AT ALL, only thing I can think of is the soap created too smooth of a surface or almost barrier between the sand paper and the headlight. The headlights still clouded up but just not to the extent I expected...

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, but is it possible that I used too much (only a couple tbsp) soap in the water?

[wideglideleon]

I just use a few drops of dish soap so the sand paper doesn't get clogged up.
My be its tinted with vinyl wrap.

[redondoaveb]

What's the possibility they were disassembled and tinted from the inside?

[SouthArk370Z]

I'd try some 300 grit. 600 and up are more for polishing than removing material.

[CRiZO]

That's typically how tinting is "properly" done.

You're going to have to essentially remove a layer of paint. Get'r'done