Wet sanding with dish soap and water doesn't take hours, it's relatively quick. Followup with a plastic polish.
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Fixing cloudy car headlamp lenses.
- Thread starter hbarcat
- Start date
I’ve used this many times. It’s not once and done, 2 years or so before it needs to be done again.
The kits are kinda pricey and, IME, don't work any better (...worse in some cases) than the stuff we have sitting on our workshop shelves. Conventional lenses are polycarbonate, subject to typical weathering, and respond well to readily-available abrasives. Regular ol' toothpaste works but usually not aggressive enough to tackle the more-advanced degradation. Strangely enough, there's a huge overlap with the "tools" I use to address bass finishes (deglossing necks, removing fine scratches, etc.).
Riis
Sometimes you'll get lucky at the pick n pull and find a vehicle with newer headlights.
After "restoring" my headlights on my 06 Ram 5 times, I replaced them with aftermarket new headlights. Problem solved.
About the same amount of light as a cloudy headlight, but definitely more interesting to look at.
Actually, they use battery-powered illumination nowadays...any number of battery-powered conveniences for that fact. Modern but acceptable provided you don't connect to the "grid" and even that is changing.
Riis
I've wet sanded as you mention, but only up to 2000 grit, and then spray with Rustoleum UV Protecting High Gloss Clear. It is much faster than polishing and finishing compound, The wet sanding is all done by hand and doesn't take long, at all. Spraying prep takes the longest (taping off the rest of the hood so you don't overspray). A couple or three coats of the clear and they look like new.
I followed this how-to video. At the 11:20 mark he mentions either leaving the headlights as is after spraying, or wet sanding. I don't wet sand.
The only thing I'll say is the finish, for me at least, only lasted a couple of years, then started peeling again. At that point, I redid it and it lasted another couple of years. After that, the plastic of the housing gets a bit thin to sand again. But, 4 years of good use after maybe 30-45 minutes overall for both headlights seems like a good return on investment to me.
Definitely worth doing right before you put your car up for sale or trade in!
I've tried Plast-X compound with a buffing wheel, I've done Mother's Billet Polish, tried a number of other tricks... and they all failed. They look good for a minute or so, then cloud back up once the compound has dried up.
The 3M kit looks like the easiest and best method. That will likely be my next attempt, as both of our cars have some cloudy-ish lenses.
The 3M kit looks like the easiest and best method. That will likely be my next attempt, as both of our cars have some cloudy-ish lenses.
JazznFunk
Supporting Member
I used the Turtle Wax restoration kit to fix the headlamps on our 2013 Subaru on 2 separate occasions. The kit includes the UV hardcoat resin which has to be carefully reapplied. They were starting to oxidize on the top and upper-front, but still in good shape on the lower parts. Followed the directions exactly, and they turned out looking brand new. It just takes patience and elbow grease. I don't know how well those kits work on really fargone headlights that are totally cloudy and barely transparent, but they worked for light wear/oxidation for sure. Didn't even need to use a drill for the buffer/polishing.
I maintain the lenses using wax and polishing compound to deal with very minor oxidation.
I maintain the lenses using wax and polishing compound to deal with very minor oxidation.
We used the Cerakote Headlight Restoration Kit on our son's car, and I was amazed at how well it worked and how easy it was to use.
