paint thinner and stock lights? HELP

[yuuki]

help! i used paint thinner to try and remove some overspray from one of my stock headlights and what happened was the area i used paint thinner on became all gooey and looked like sticky goo was stuck on my headlights... but the more i tried to remove the goo the worse it got... can anyone tell me if i just damaged my headlights by using paint thinner on it? or could the gooey substance be something else? I never thought paint thinner would even do anything to my headlights..

im too scared to keep using the paint thinner until i get some confirmation that paint thinner indeed would not do that to the headlights.. but right now the area i used the paint thinner on looks hideous!

[Grants]

Be careful what solvent you put on plastic or it will melt it. Sounds like your paint thinner falls into that category.

You should wash the solvent off with water and see how much damage there is. If its not too bad, maybe you can sand the damaged area down? Theres heaps of threads explaining how to do this.

Oil based products like eucalyptus or tea tree oil are safe on plastic, but you should still wash it off when you've finished.

[yuuki]

hmm.. i guess it is melted now.. well the surface that i touched the paint thinner on is all rough and is hideous right now but i think i can sand it.. do i clearcoat it afterwards after sanding it or do i just leave it sanded?

[storm99]

Yep sounds like you melted your light cover. You shouldn't need to clearcoat it, just sand it carefully with light grain sandpaper and then use a specialist plastic polish to remove the scratches from the sanding. Like Grant said, if you do a search for polishing headlights, you'll find loads of 'How-to' guides.