do headlight cleaning kits work ??

Neon4Life · Post by **Neon4Life** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 10:18 am

so i was wondering if anyones ever used one of those headlight restoration or cleaning kits that they say works exceptionaly well. ive seen vids that show how it works and what it does. but i was just wonderin if its worth the $20. just wanting to use it on a 99 pontiac grand am.[/b]

Post by **racer12306** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 10:30 am

moving to exterior since this info will help all cars.

patton98 · Post by **patton98** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 10:37 am

i tried it on my sisters first gen...it worked for about 8 months and then they fogged back up again

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 10:52 am

my dad just buffs them out. like anything, it will only work temporarily. once they are damaged they will never be like new again.

Neon4Life · Post by **Neon4Life** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 10:56 am

hmm well ill try buying it just to see how much it clens it up. i was just wondering because im going to get some new brighter bulbs on it and wanted them to shine with a good clean headlight.

ill do it later today and take pics to as what results in the end. thanks.

LionheartedSXT · Post by **LionheartedSXT** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 11:07 am

After every wash, apply a thin layer of car wax on the headlight and buff it out with a towel, and do that every so often to leave a coat on the headlight. It makes it last a lot longer, that is keeping the foggyness off of the lamp surface but like said earlier it is a temporary fix...

latief · Post by **latief** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 11:14 am

wet sand them with the finest grain sanding paper, then wax them = brand new again !!!

of course, this will need to be done every couple of months because plastic headlights are garbage regardless of the manufacturer

Neon4Life · Post by **Neon4Life** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 11:29 am

LionheartedSXT wrote:After every wash, apply a thin layer of car wax on the headlight and buff it out with a towel, and do that every so often to leave a coat on the headlight. It makes it last a lot longer, that is keeping the foggyness off of the lamp surface but like said earlier it is a temporary fix...

alrite ill do that after i get to cleaning them.

Tam · Post by **Tam** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 12:52 pm

It didnt work for my headlights, and i felt ripped off lol.
So I just bought projector headlights.

MyNeonSaysHi · Post by **MyNeonSaysHi** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 1:01 pm

If you take your time, it worked good. They didn't come out like new, but man it looked 100x better. This was on my 96 Neon.

Post by **occasional demons** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 2:30 pm

As latief said, I have sanded them, then used metal polish, plastic polish, and finally wax. But that was on headlights for a Sundance. The ones on my 2gn never yellowed, but the coating was beginning to come off. Then a van took care of that problem. Now I have new Depots.
But as said, you have to redo them occasionally. If you catch them when they begin to haze over, it is a lot easier to keep them clear. If the car is still around by the time you rub through the lens, it deserves a new set of lights!

jetas · Post by **jetas** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 2:46 pm

I "restored" The headlights from an 03 Altima a while back. i sanded them with 600 grit to get rid of the haze then i put 2 or 3 coats a duplicolor clear to prevent the haze from returning. It takes way longer because of the wetsanding required at the end to get them perfectly smooth for the final polishing. They looked dam near new. Been like 4-5 months now and they still look good

Neon4Life · Post by **Neon4Life** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 2:49 pm

cool cool. thanks.

supermike · Post by **supermike** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 6:27 pm

600 grit? I wet sanded with 2000 grit. Takes a while but it makes them look better. Then I polished them with Meguire's plastic polish. That stuff is like magic, found it at Wal*Mart. It even shined up my third brake light. Hmmmm... saying that just gave me the idea to try it on my gauge cluster...

jetas · Post by **jetas** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 7:55 pm

I used 600 to get it done faster and so the clear would adhere better to the surface. the final sanding i used 1500 then 2000 to get it nice and smooth

supermike · Post by **supermike** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 7:56 pm

That works.

Post by **jonnymopar** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 9:29 am

Good info. Mine are just starting to haze up near the top of both lights. Restoring the head lights is one thing that is going on my spring time Neon list.

Man, this is becoming a long-ass list.

Sykora · Post by **Sykora** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 10:52 am

sweet info- I bought my bro some stuff from O'Riley's for his '02 Jetta. I was told they work really well.

And I noticed the other day that my fog lights had started to get a little yellow- so when I went to get it cleaned, I just used the power washer on it and that seemed to work pretty well

I would advise you to make sure you don't have any holes in it if you do that though!