headlight lenses

Has anyone ever successfully cleaned the fog/haze/whatever off of their car's headlights? What product did you use? Did it make any noticeable difference is nighttime visibility? Wouldn't New headlight units be better?

I've used the product from Turtle wax specially made for cleaning/clearing lenses and I've used plain ol' Mothers car polish with equally great results.

Don't bother buying new if they're not cracked/broken. The originals can always be brought back, even if it takes sandpaper and clear coat. The haze is on the outside in most instances and can be removed.

Toothpaste, water and a brush will also clear the lenses. It takes a little more elbow grease, but it works.

I used the cheap Turtle Wax product and I guess you get what you pay for because it lasted about a month. It looked better but not sure it improved visibility, though I thought so. I know of folks who have used other products with sucess.

minivanman wrote: Wouldn't New headlight units be better?

Only if you don't mind spending a few hundred dollars each.

Flitz, then wax.

I am working on this project this very moment! I have tried a simple buffing disc in the past, but I did not have any luck.

I picked up this 3m kit from the auto parts store, which is supposed to be among the best off-the-shelf ways to clear headlights. I'm waiting for my drill's battery to charge for the last step, but after the 3000 grit disc, it is a huge, huge difference. My headlights were in really bad shape. They sell it with a wax sealant as well, but Oreilly didn't have it in stock.

I'll take a picture later on once I finish the job.

Use a corded drill if you can. My battery powered one didnt last long. I used the 3M kit and I should have taken before and after pics of the 2 cars we did, it was an incredible difference and if we had more time we could have done an even better job around the edges (was doing my moms and brothers car while visiting for mothers day)

when I was buying the kit the day before, a guy walked up and saw me looking at the kits in the store and said to get the 3M kit, it works great. (like several of you GRMers mentioned) He then showed me the back of his shirt advertising his auto detailing business.

I bought the kit without the wax sealant and just used some polish I had in the garage. worked fine. (I did part of one of my headlights too that was yellowing)

Here's an older picture showing how the headlights looked.

Here's the after:

The only vehicle I own with yellowed headlights is the bmw, and its yellowed lights have been off the car in a box for a decade. Eurospec glass FTMFW.

Oh, and that looks good mitchell

This is of interest to me.

One of the headlights on my Forester is burned on the inside and it is letting water in. A full restoration is going to involve removing the lens, taking it apart and then refinishing it.

I tried a product from Wurth USA that cleared the yellow of the lenses in about 20 seconds, but I did not put any protective coating back on and they are starting to get dirty again.

One more endorsement for the 3M kit.

I used it on my ridiculously hazed and yellowed headlights last November and they still look perfect. The instructions recommend you apply two layers of painters tape around the areas you’re restoring. Replace “recommend” with “you’ll Berkley up your paint if you don’t”. I ground well into the second layer of painters tape so consider two layers mandatory.

In my case, it wasn’t just a cosmetic improvement, I got a big gain in illumination as well and I think I picked up about five horsepower too

TeamEvil wrote: I've used the product from Turtle wax specially made for cleaning/clearing lenses and I've used plain ol' Mothers car polish with equally great results. Don't bother buying new if they're not cracked/broken. The originals can always be brought back, even if it takes sandpaper and clear coat. The haze is on the outside in most instances and can be removed.

DItto here. I did the very yellowed Sequoia lights with the Turtle Wax kit and they look literally brand-new now.

I also did the WRX lights, but they didn't come out as good - it's hard to sand them as well with the very curved housings (the Sequoia's are mostly flat, so came out much better).

I've done the headlights on the Mercury a second time with the Turtle Wax kit as they needed a refresh a couple of months later, they still look good and there's plenty left in the kit to do them again and again and again if needed.

Cheap and it works. Not too bad a deal in today's World o' Crap . . . .

It's important to use some kind of coating afterwards.
UV light does a number on the bare polycarbonate plastic, so a coating that blocks UV is best (it's what OEM do).
Some clear spray paint claim to block UV.
Failing that, a good wax can preserve the plastic from simple oxidation.
I did mine about a year ago, and used wax, still looks pretty good, despite the Florida sun.

I just used wet dry sand paper, started at 250 and worked my way up to 3000 or something, I don't remember , I'm drunk, but it worked!