Cleaning headlights. What I tried and the results.

[TexasTruck]

My headlights are all yellowed out. I need to pass safety inspection. I saw a thread earlier about new headlights on Feebay. I would love NEW headlights. But no cash for that right now. I tried in the past on cars with the pricey headlight cleaning kits. Those were all pains, took a long time and $20 each go around because it doesn't last long. Then I saw the other day a Youtube about using Momma's aluminum polish ($5-ish) and a buffer. Just put some on and buff it out. I remembered I had a 2 year old can of it left from doing the lowers on my Harley. Anyway here's what happened.

 

[Cubey]

Toothpaste does a fairly good job too.

Not that I have to worry about it on my RV with it's $9/each glass lens sealed beams, but my truck is another matter.

 

[Fixnstuff]

I'm pretty sure that these plastic headlight housings have a factory applied (sprayed) clear coat as most vehicles do.
Toothpaste and many other methods on Youtube do not work very well and the results don't last very long.

On my 98 Dodge minivan I followed the method I saw on Youtube posted by a guy who does restoration work exclusively on very expensive and exotic cars, Ferraris, Lambos etc. = Sand the clearcoat off using several grits of sand paper down to a fine grit so they are nice and smooth. They will be completely clouded at that point. THEN mask off the lights and apply several light coats of GLOSS clear coat paint. Automotive gloss clearcoat would be best but I used Rust-O-leum gloss clear coat from Walmart. There is a Gloss Clear Coat 2X Ultra Cover and if you use that one spray it on very quick and light coats because twice as much paint comes out of those nozzles. Too much paint and it will run but if you have a rag you can quickly wipe off the run and re-coat it. Such mistakes cover up quite well and will be very difficult to notice. The completely fogged lights from the sanding came out crystal clear, like magic, like brand new. Perfectly restored and will probably last another 20 years

According to that auto restorer of very expensive cars, $250,000 and up, in NYC or New Jersey, that is the correct way to restore headlight lenses. It's also quite easy and inexpensive. That's the way I am going to do my truck headlights when I can get around to it. Would be a good job for this weekend.

 

[Black dawg]

Haven't seen a rattle can clear coat NOT yellow yet.

After the initial work to get them back in shape, doesn't take very much to keep them that way. I usually just polish them with a rag and some wax every couple oil changes.

 

[The_Josh_Bear]

My headlights are all yellowed out. I need to pass safety inspection. I saw a thread earlier about new headlights on Feebay. I would love NEW headlights. But no cash for that right now. I tried in the past on cars with the pricey headlight cleaning kits. Those were all pains, took a long time and $20 each go around because it doesn't last long. Then I saw the other day a Youtube about using Momma's aluminum polish ($5-ish) and a buffer. Just put some on and buff it out. I remembered I had a 2 year old can of it left from doing the lowers on my Harley. Anyway here's what happened.

I saw the same video, and have had amazingly easy and good success on my 2000 Corolla, and two 2005 S40 Volvo's. Admittedly the clear coat was already off these vehicles, so I can't say anything for clear coat. Ended up getting new lenses on my pickup before I knew about this trick, but the 3M kit didn't do anything to the clearcoat when I tried that before I replaced them.

 

[TexasTruck]

I know exactly what you mean.

 

[ttman4]

I replaced my complete headlite/signal lites on my '90 CCD bout 4 yr ago off of Amazon, also ordered some clear stick-on plastic that I put on over the new lites. So far so good, been happy.

 

[franklin2]

I have been using Blue-Magic metal polish for years the same way. If you happen to have your instrument cluster out, before you put it back in polish the lense with this stuff, it will look like new. And it does work well on metal and painted surfaces too. If you let it sit around a long time it will seperate, but all you have to do is stir it back up before you use it.

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Magic-400-Ounce-Polish/dp/B000BO8Z9I

 

[MikeM.]

I'm not sure why they certify new vehicles for sale with plastic lenses. I don't buy flashlights with plastic lenses either.

 

[Va_Mike]

The mothers aluminum polish is a very light metal polish because of how soft aluminum is. I have polished several set of plastic lenses including the ones on my 1990 f250. I use with great success the turtle wax heavy duty rubbing compound followed by the polishing compound, and they come out very good. if you want better than that hit them with some wet sand paper (600 then 800 and then 1200 grit) and then spray with several coats of clear coat and then polish the clear.