A quick headlight restoration

[dontsleeponit]

Hi everyone, Ive been wanting to do this for awhile and finally got around to it today.

Awhile ago, before I was into detailing, I wanted to clean these headlights up because you could barely see the lights working on the highway at night. I tried that flitz stuff with the flitz polishing ball on a cordless drill, it barely made a dent. So today I went at it, and I was surprised how quickly I got results. I would recommend that any of you pro retailers out there offer this service to your clients. Its extremely fast and easy to do, and even if they dont come out perfect, which mine didnt, the results will be night and day...

UDM
3.5" yellow pad
3.5" White pad
Meg's PlastX
Menz 106ff
DP Plex All
50/50 Alcohol spray

Wiped down with 50/50 IPA to remove any grime. Yellow pad with the PlastX, white with the 106ff, on speed 4. Final cleaning with plex-all.

I had my crappy camera and I was in the garage so the pics aren't the best, but you can see a huge difference, and for about 20 min of work they came out great IMO. Never mind the poorly cared for car theyre on, its my beater, and I dont take care of it at all.

http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa225/dontsleeponit/headlights/headlightstuff.jpg

http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa225/dontsleeponit/headlights/1.jpg

http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa225/dontsleeponit/headlights/2.jpg

http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa225/dontsleeponit/headlights/3.jpg

http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa225/dontsleeponit/headlights/4.jpg

http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa225/dontsleeponit/headlights/5.jpg

http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa225/dontsleeponit/headlights/6.jpg

http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa225/dontsleeponit/headlights/7.jpg


For those of you that would like to try this on your nicer car, I would tape around the area to avoid the paint, or even remove the headlight if its easy.

Also when polishing, avoid the little nubs that stick out on plastic headlights, they'll rip up your pads. You can go back oer the tight spaces you cant get the polisher inot by hand when you are done.

[ehuth1]

Very nice!! Thanks for the post and the pictures, it really shows drastic improvement!

[AL417]

Big difference with little time invested. Thanks for your post and pics.

[HighEndDetail]

Thanks for taking the time to show your results

[dontsleeponit]

thanks guys, it really is simple, should have done it awhile ago.

[P1et]

Huge improvement, thanks for posting!!!

[dontsleeponit]

Huge improvement, thanks for posting!!!

thank you sir, I was happy with the results too...

I should add to this, for anyone that wants to do it, you can use a regular paint polish that is on the heavy cut side, and have good results. I used SSR 2.5 on another set of headlights, and got similar results as the PlastX, and I finished them up with 106ff nano, a finer polish.

[MrBenz]

I've been using Menzerna Intensive Polish followed by Final Polish II with excellent results...I also have a Mercury Tracer that had clouded lenses.....I also put an application of 303 Protectant on my Merecedes lenses after every wash...just takes a minute...