headlight polishes

[— kung fu jesus —]

My wife's 10ae spends it's life outside. The SOCAL sun can be brutal on it, especially the headlights.

I have been trying various polishes at varying price points. So far I have two, Mother's headlight kit with the foam ball you put into the chuck of a cordless drill. I think it was $25.



It worked pretty well, as it was the first time I had done this to this car.
I particularly liked the foam ball, it was easy to use. I just used some blue painter's tape around the headlight to keep the fluids from splattering on the bumper.

I didn't use the sanding pads as the fluids in the kit worked pretty well.

Fast forward about 3 months and the headlights started to yellow again. I expected this, but I guess not this quickly. I guess it will be something I will need to do every few months? I am considering wet-sanding them, but I want to remove them to do this.

I was at an auto parts store, getting some supplies for an oil change and I saw the Turtle Wa kit on sale for $8. I am not a fan of Turtle Wax products. The only thing I used from them in the last 10 years is the ICE liquid wax and I only used it on my e36 M3. It has this textured plastic that as hard to keep black and I found the ICE worked great on it.



Anyways, I'm a little skeptical, but $8, right?

10 minutes on each side, by hand, just the polishing fluid, and had better results.

Here are some before & after shots:







I might try the polishing paste from the Turtle Wax kit with the foam ball from the Mother's kit.


Has anyone had any better experience with something else?

[— Agent☣Orange —]

I've used the 3M kit with good results for little time. The best results are with wet sanding with different grade sandpapers up to 2000 grit and/or compound. The thing that makes them pop out clear is a coating of SEM headlight spray as the final step. It's not technically called headlight spray, have to go find the can.

[— kung fu jesus —]

yeah, please do! I want to save these lights.

[— Agent☣Orange —]

It's called SEM 21013, Solaray Headlight Lens Clear Coat. You're supposed to cure it with a fancy curing lamp but a black-light bulb from Spencers Gifts works fine. It just takes a little longer.

[— kung fu jesus —]

Awesome!

[f86sabjf]

let me know how this works . I've been looking for a reliabe fix. I usually just wax them and it holds 3-6mths

[Neocataboi]

everytime i do mine, it would last only like 2 months and look worse after. you've seen how mine look. it is atrocious!

[— Agent☣Orange —]

Without that last step of clearcoating with a UV protectant or at least filling the micro abrasions with something, all headlight polishing jobs revert back to haziness I think.

[—RotorNutFD3S—]

Without that last step of clearcoating with a UV protectant or at least filling the micro abrasions with something, all headlight polishing jobs revert back to haziness I think.

Yep, they will. When I did my retrofit I used the 3M kit and it worked well. To prevent the haziness from returning, I run a dab of Meguiar's Rubbing Compound over the headlights when I wash the car and they've stayed very clear. When I swap out projectors I'll be clearing the lenses with the SEM coating.

[— Agent☣Orange —]

Can't wait to see that retrofit project.

[★ revlimiter ★]

http://www.amazon.com/3M-39002/dp/B0...ref=pd_cp_hi_3

I use regular rubbing compound. It works incredibly well.

[Eix]

I've been happy with Meguiar's Plastx, my headlights were pretty hazy and yellow but after wetsanding with some 2000 grit then applying the plastx by hand, it turned out great. About every month I'd just go over the headlights with plastx to keep them nice and clear.

[LostSoulMiata]

I've used this stuff with good results being most offroad headlights are plastic

[Small White Car]

Headlamps are made of polycarbonate so they are fairly porous and will always return to a hazy finish unless properly sealed.

I am not certain but i would think a clay bar every other wash may lengthen the time between serious polishing by removing as much debris from the pores as possible.

I always used Plast-X on the Altima and it would last for a month or two but her car spent a good deal of the day sitting in the sun and then working in a heavily industrial area, it picked up a tremendous amount of road dirt. I had heard but also never tried, although recommended to me by a good friend who worked in signage for decades was a shot with a heavy duty hair dryer AKA a heat gun being careful to find that fine line between done and done!

[— Agent☣Orange —]

I haven't tried that with headlights but it makes sense if you don't do the clearcoat method. I've polished my instrument cluster lens and then a few passes with a heat gun to melt the polish into the micro fissures I figure. Even just the polish made a big difference though. I hated it when the sun hit it just right and showed all the scratches but after polishing it, it was fine.