Headlight lens restoration

YLWFVR

YLWFVR

Club Member
Time to get the headlights polished again on my daily driver. was There someone on Motown that did this?
 
I used the Mother's headlight restore kit on some ridiculously gnarly OE Camaro lights (put it this way, they were so badly hazed they were given to me for free). Look great now!
 
Take the lights out, sand them down with 800 grit and have someone clear coat them, they will never yellow again
 
YLWFVR said:
Have you used this yourself ?
Click to expand...


I've been using this stuff for decades. I've used it for automotive
and non-automotive projects. It even works well on speedometer/
odometer clear plastic faces.





smooth said:
Take the lights out, sand them down with 800 grit and have someone clear coat them, they will never yellow again
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Hmmm, may have to try this one.
 
I usually mask off the outside of the lamp and body, and wet sand them with 1000, 1500 and then 2000. After that hit them with rubbing compound and a high speed wheel set to 2500rpm.

When you sand them, you will see the yellow coming off them. When that resides and you start seeing white, change to a finer paper to just remove the marks. You can do this a few time on a street car until the lights get too thin. Eventually they will fracture from the road debris.

If you go the paint route, they will eventually chip up from rocks ect., but you will have to completly knock the clear down to renew them. For a show car, this is the best route. For an everyday driver, I would just rub them out and repeat when needed. Just my 2 cents. Good Luck!!

BTW,

This works great for tail lights too. Sand them, buff them and then retrim them out with trim black paint.
 
Last edited:
my89notchback said:
I usually mask off the outside of the lamp and body, and wet sand them with 1000, 1500 and then 2000. After that hit them with rubbing compound and a high speed wheel set to 2500rpm.

When you sand them, you will see the yellow coming off them. When that resides and you start seeing white, change to a finer paper to just remove the marks. You can do this a few time on a street car until the lights get too thin. Eventually they will fracture from the road debris.

If you go the paint route, they will eventually chip up from rocks ect., but you will have to completly knock the clear down to renew them. For a show car, this is the best route. For an everyday driver, I would just rub them out and repeat when needed. Just my 2 cents. Good Luck!!

BTW,

This works great for tail lights too. Sand them, buff them and then retrim them out with trim black paint.
Click to expand...

I have 170k on my DD that I drive 86 miles one way to work, no a single rock chip and they were done like this 3 years ago..... I can show you lab testing to debunk your theory
 
smooth said:
I have 170k on my DD that I drive 86 miles one way to work, no a single rock chip and they were done like this 3 years ago..... I can show you lab testing to debunk your theory
Click to expand...

It's just my opinion. Not everyone has the ability to paint like you. This is just simple.
 
YLWFVR said:
Thanks for all the info. Going to torxila's this weekend to get it done.
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You really don't even need a buffer. If you don't know what your doing, you can melt the plastic pretty easily. I had a 99 Ram, which were notorious for hazing head lamps and did them by hand. I probably ended up with a 90% improvement over what I had. Good luck!
 
Went by torxila's house this morning. He did an awesome job. Thanks again for volunteering your time. :)

Here's a before and after shot.

e2ybuza9.jpg
 
If you want to prevent yellowing after sanding, use Minwax Helmsman Urethane and mineral spirits (50/50 mix).
 
The headlight in my CTS-V are hazy. I tried one of those autozone kits, I think the Meguires. They're better but far from good.

Looks like I might need to stop by George's...:lol:
 
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