Headlight restoration fun..

[Suprapowaz!(2)]

I had to replace my wifes headlamp low beam, and really took notice of how yellow and foggy the lenses were. I decided to clean them up with some sandpaper, compound, and polish/sealant I had laying around in the garage. The results were amazing, and night time visibility is awesome. Less talk, more pics.

Here's a pic of one done, and the other untouched. This is my daily driver. Paint is trash so I'm not worried about protecting the areas around the headlight.




Here's the common household items that I had laying around to do the job.




Here we go. Driver side light untouched.




Here it is after wet sanded with 800grit.




Again, after wet sanding with 1000grit.




After wet sanding with 2000grit. This the final stage of sanding.




Here's the light buffed with some fine cut compound. Looking good.




And done with the last step polish/sealant with buffer.




And here is the passenger side light I did earlier.




It makes a huge difference with night time visibility. I'm happy. I'm sure many others here have done this on their cars. Any pics you'd like to share?

 

[gp-7mgte]

That looks really good, makes the car look young again.

Sent from my HTC VLE_U using Tapatalk 2

 

[Suprapowaz!(2)]

Thanks. That car is old, and looks it too. Bought it new back in 2001. It's good on gas tho.

My neighbor saw that I was restoring the lights and came over with that 3M headlight restoration kit. He said he has three of them just sitting in his garage, and let me use that one. I used it on my Honda passenger side light. It worked good, but what I did with the buffer looked better.

 

[BoostMonger]

Impressive sir!

 

[Silver MK3]

Looks good. I've done the ones on my Mom's 4Runner a couple times for her. The first time using one of those sand paper kits, that worked the best. The next time I just used some Klasse All in One cleaner for paint and that worked pretty well and was easy, but didn't last long. The most recent time I used Mother's PowerBall kit and it worked great and was by far the easiest to use, but it doesn't appear to be lasting very long. It's been two months and they aren't as shiny as they used to be already.

I feel like with today's technology they should be able to make a plastic headlight that doesn't oxidize. I guess most of them stay looking fine through the warranty of the vehicle so it probably isn't of too much concern to the automakers.

 

[Suprapowaz!(2)]

My neighbor that uses the 3M kit says that he has to redo his headlights about every two years. There just isn't a permanent fix for fading plastic headlight lenses. I've known people to sand and clearcoat, use kits, and do what I did and they all still fade. That's why I did it the cheapest possible way. No sense in buying expensive clearcoat if it isn't going to last anyway. I'll just compound/polish them again once they show signs of fading again. That way I'm not wet sanding them again.

 

[Silver MK3]

My neighbor that uses the 3M kit says that he has to redo his headlights about every two years. There just isn't a permanent fix for fading plastic headlight lenses. I've known people to sand and clearcoat, use kits, and do what I did and they all still fade. That's why I did it the cheapest possible way. No sense in buying expensive clearcoat if it isn't going to last anyway. I'll just compound/polish them again once they show signs of fading again. That way I'm not wet sanding them again.

Yeah exactly. It's much easier to keep up with it rather than letting it get real bad again and then have to deal with the real heavy stuff again. I think there is some sort of a clearcoat applied from the factory as well and you do have to sand them the first time to get it off and get the lenses looking real good. I tried to take the light oxidation off my dad's 09 Tacoma when I did my mom's headlights and it did not come out as good as her's despite the car being 4 years newer. I didn't sand those I just used the PowerBall thing.

 

[tlo86]

what are you sealing it with? ive always thought of a good clear on it. ppg dcu2002 or something high solid.

 

[suprarx7nut]

That looks awesome. My fiance's Honda Civic looks nearly as bad and I've used those kits a couple times already. It looks great for a week or two... then fades back to crap. Let us know how it holds up!

I may have to pony up the cash for new oem headlights if hers keeps going bad.