Headlight cleaning

sarmikgar

Member

Aug 8, 2008

53

0

6

Las Vegas

Jul 14, 2009

#1

• Jul 14, 2009

• #1

Got tired of looking at my discolored nasty looking headlights, I almost went out and bought one of those restoration kits, but my drill is on "loan" to friend so I thought Id give it a try by hand.

I went 600-800-2000 paper and used Meguiars PlastX to polish with, repeated that twice and then followed up with a couple extra hand polishes. Its not perfect, but much better than they were, needs an orbital buffer or something to get it perfect.

Pics show passenger side undone, and drivers side is done, I polished the drivers side a couple more times after the pics with minor improvements.


Pass side:







Drivers side:







Front shot of both:




Whatcha think? Not bad for a little elbow grease eh?

 

Niterydr85

Member

Apr 25, 2005

174

1

18

Pasadena, Maryland

Jul 14, 2009

#2

• Jul 14, 2009

• #2

Looks good! I saw the meguiar's restoration kit in a magazine the other day and have been thinkin about pickin one up. Glad to see they work.

 

IIGood

Founding Member

Aug 1, 1998

4,252

1,214

224

Churchton, MD

Jul 14, 2009

#3

• Jul 14, 2009

• #3

I tried that route before too. It's a good intermediate fix...mine were "blistering" a little bit so I sanded them down and polished them out as best I could. They were still a little hazy afterwards, but certainly a great deal better. Though they weren't the same as a new set of headlights.

So I went out, wrecked the car completely, and got a new set of headlights (among other parts) all on the insurance company's tab. LOL (okay, so that's not the reason why the car was wrecked...but I did get a set of new headlights as part of the repairs).

 

VOORHEES

Stangnet's "35th Limited Edition" VIN Guy

15 Year Member

Nov 9, 1999

3,046

36

119

LaGrange, GA

Jul 14, 2009

#4

• Jul 14, 2009

• #4

I used the 3m kit from autozone....worked great IMO.

 

sarmikgar

Member

Aug 8, 2008

53

0

6

Las Vegas

Jul 14, 2009

#5

• Jul 14, 2009

• #5

VOORHEES said:

I used the 3m kit from autozone....worked great IMO.

Click to expand...

Yes this is not a kit to be clear.. just sandpaper and the Meguiars PlastX that comes in and is also available separate from their kit.

Im sure better results would be seen from using the kits that are available. I am going to get a buffing pad for my drill when I get it back from loan and do that, I think that will make a big differance.

 

squeak93

15 Year Member

Jun 2, 2005

2,287

372

164

Joplin, Missouri

Jul 14, 2009

#6

• Jul 14, 2009

• #6

I thought the 3m kit sucked..... that or I suck at polishing plastic..... I do a mirror like finish on metal so I'd assume its the same principle (sand till the scratches are gone then polish). Anyway, not that impressed with the 3m kit. I'll do mine again one day as posted above with my own stuff.

 

94GTHO

Member

Jul 21, 2005

200

0

17

Richmond, Va

Jul 15, 2009

#7

• Jul 15, 2009

• #7

advance autoparts has a good kit. I forgot the name but it comes in a silver bag. It has two different grit sandpapers that u wet sand with then a polish and a glaze for the final step. Worked great.

 

D

darkside03gt

Member

Feb 19, 2007

851

8

18

Sacramento CA

Jul 15, 2009

#8

• Jul 15, 2009

• #8

I did the same thing but used a mothers mini power ball for the final polish. Worked 50x faster then hand polishing.

 

AdRock

Member

Nov 13, 2003

521

1

19

South Texas

Jul 15, 2009

#9

• Jul 15, 2009

• #9

I used the 3m kit with my electric drill and it worked great.

Here's a thread with some pics I took when I did the lights on my wifes Accord.
Headlight restoration - Lone Star Stangs | The Texas Mustang Club

I also did the 3rd brake light on the stang and it looks brand new. I don't have any pics of it though.

This is the kit I used.