I finally got sick of looking at my tired looking taillights. After 154k miles they looked pretty worked. I popped them out this morning and decided I was going to clean them up. My lenses(not just the painted part) had some sort of nasty build up, almost like the yellowing on the headlights. I tried the Scrubbing Bubbles on it, but that just made them smell fresh and disinfected them. 
I had some 0000 Steel Wool laying around, for polishing furniture and figured I'd give it a try. I'd tried it on one of the 'bars' before and it turned out pretty nice. So I went at them with some elbow grease. If you try this, your lenses will turn very cloudy until you break through the crap on them. Also, there will still be some fine scratches in them but they can be polished out with a cotton wheel or the like, just don't dwell in one spot too long or you'll melt the plastic.
However, I wasn't done yet because the paint was pretty dull too. So....get ready to cringe, I hit the paint with the steel wool
and it took the crap off them too. When I finished that they were vastly improved.
I was 'on the fence' about what to do next. I had considered using VHT Night Shades on the lens and paint the bezels black OR just the VHT, but the bezels would still be dull. I wasn't sure what the that would look like on Teal though, so I didn't. To restore the shine to them, I sprayed them with a can of clear coat I had laying around.
I was surprised how nice they look. They shine like the rest of the car. There is a bit of 'orange peel' but nothing that can't be taken care of. Sorry I don't have a digi-cam so no pics.
Now I just have to do something about the faded front bumper cover and side skirts. Don't worry I'm not going to try to spray can those!!
Total cost $0.00
I had some 0000 Steel Wool laying around, for polishing furniture and figured I'd give it a try. I'd tried it on one of the 'bars' before and it turned out pretty nice. So I went at them with some elbow grease. If you try this, your lenses will turn very cloudy until you break through the crap on them. Also, there will still be some fine scratches in them but they can be polished out with a cotton wheel or the like, just don't dwell in one spot too long or you'll melt the plastic.
However, I wasn't done yet because the paint was pretty dull too. So....get ready to cringe, I hit the paint with the steel wool
and it took the crap off them too. When I finished that they were vastly improved. I was 'on the fence' about what to do next. I had considered using VHT Night Shades on the lens and paint the bezels black OR just the VHT, but the bezels would still be dull. I wasn't sure what the that would look like on Teal though, so I didn't. To restore the shine to them, I sprayed them with a can of clear coat I had laying around.
I was surprised how nice they look. They shine like the rest of the car. There is a bit of 'orange peel' but nothing that can't be taken care of. Sorry I don't have a digi-cam so no pics. Now I just have to do something about the faded front bumper cover and side skirts. Don't worry I'm not going to try to spray can those!!
Total cost $0.00
