How To: Headlight Restoration

esfan · Post by **esfan** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 2:12 am

i just saw there are whole bunches of cars needs headlight restoration on this site, here's just my experience of how to do headlight restoration and i did it successfully on my car. i did remove all the yellow oxidized stuff away and got an almost brand new headlight cover FREE!!!

so we need several tools: 800 grid sandpaper, 2000 sandpaper (these numbers are critical, 1000 or 400 won't work or may damage the plastic. too high will have no effects at all.), Turtle Wax ICE liquid clay bar (this thing is a little bit expensive, but i cannot find anything sub, sometimes it's on sale in target about 10 usd, walmart has it about 13 bucks), Meguiar Plastix (or 3M polishing compound, turtle wax and polishing compound works ok but not that good).

1. took off the headlight cover, rinse it in any sinks at home until all the oxidazes are wet.
2. soak both 800 and 2000 sandpaper in the water for about 10 mins.
3. use the 800 sandpaper to sand the surface of the headlight cover evenly with the water rinsing. (BE AWARE: the headlight and the sandpaper have to be wet, otherwise damage will occur!

). sand the headlight in the horizontal direction.

4. until the headlight appears to be evenly white and foggy, stop sanding and rinse with water. wash away all the plastic powders left on the cover!

5. use the 2000 sandpaper to sand the surface of the cover evenly with the water rinsing (same as 800). BUT, sand the headlight surface in the VERTICAL direction instead! if u sand in horizontal again, it will cause scratches (that's why one of my headlight has to be resanded in order to get rid of them...)!

6. the headlight should appear more crystal after step 5. still foggy but even. rinse it with water in order to wash all the plastic powders away.

7. use the sponge provided by ICE clay bar, put about half the sponge liquid clay bar and polish the headlight in horizontal direction. press firmly and evenly.

8. after the polishing, the headlight should appear almost brand new crystal. if some small scratches appear on the cover, or the headlight is not clear enough, repeat step 7 but polish in vertical direction. if still not good enought, repeat 7 and 8. (always use liquid clay bar in line motion, DO NOT polish in circle motion! otherwise swirl marks will occur.)

9. put meguiar plastx onto the headlight and polish it in circle motion (same as waxing) or use a waxing machine which will result better. after it hazed, remove it by microfiber cloths or cotton cloths fast or use the machine to wax off it. your headlight should appear brand new now!!!

HEADLIGHT RESTORATION KITS ON THE MARKET DO NOT WORK OUT INDIVIDUALLY! DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THEM!!!

Sykora · Post by **Sykora** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 2:13 am

no pictures?

esfan · Post by **esfan** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 2:15 am

i know

bit sorry when i was doing it i forgot to take pictures... i will take some pictures when i do my friends car next month maybe...

Sykora · Post by **Sykora** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 2:43 am

^^ hehe

lol ok

esfan · Post by **esfan** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 10:51 pm

some pics of the result: just imagine before is like a yellow filmed

ing stuff.

Passt · Post by **Passt** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 11:01 pm

I'll have to try this on my 1gn I just picked up. The headlamps could definitely use some love.

lilnicko11 · Post by **lilnicko11** » Thu May 07, 2009 3:05 pm

instead of taking out the whole headlight out of your car. just use a water bottle sprayer and be careful not to scratch your paint while sanding........

PhillyLS1 · Post by **PhillyLS1** » Thu May 07, 2009 5:50 pm

It helps if you have a porter cable or orbital buffer. Otherwise they won't get crystal clear.

esfan · Post by **esfan** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 1:52 am

orbital buffer helps a lot actually. but if you put enough effort...(e.g. have a steak dinner and a lot of cheese with high calorie before then try to lose those fat by working on the headlight), you will get a nice result also...

not recommend for people on diet...

lilnicko11 wrote:instead of taking out the whole headlight out of your car. just use a water bottle sprayer and be careful not to scratch your paint while sanding........

advise: one thing about doing those on the car is that if you took off the headlight, you can actually put it into the sink and wet sanding with a lot of water rinsing. otherwise you have to have someone helping pouring water onto it.

sullivan · Post by **sullivan** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 5:58 am

ive always sprayed ppg clearcoat on afterwards keeps em clear!

NickKo · Post by **NickKo** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 10:14 pm

sullivan wrote:ive always sprayed ppg clearcoat on afterwards keeps em clear!

I know someone else who does this.... he says IT WORKS..... and the headlamps stay clear.

- Nick

esfan · Post by **esfan** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 10:01 pm

^^good idea! i'll try to do that

Gnuserup · Post by **Gnuserup** » Sun Feb 27, 2011 2:13 pm

A few pictures of today polished headlights:

Before

and after

OK - with spending more time ...
We just used a cork sponge, a dishtowel and polishing compound.

Post by **occasional demons** » Sun Feb 27, 2011 7:26 pm

Now that's a cork brick!

Clear paint has actually held up the best for me. I used Duplicolor's wheel paint. Not really on the neon, but the Sundance, as they were re yellowing after less than a month; after sanding and polishing each time. (18 years old) It's been 4 months, and winter roads, and they are still clear.

g_force58 · Post by **g_force58** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 7:07 pm

I did this with a rag, water, Kit Scratch out, and a bit of elbow grease. Finished the polishing with 3M scratch remover.

Xployted77 · Post by **Xployted77** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 11:22 pm

I used turtle wax resto kit and it worked amazing. Check out the before and after pics. And yes i resed an old topic...

Before

After

At night

This is what I used

Cost me $11 and it even worked great on the 3rd brake light and tail lights as well.