Headlights on the little lady's Mazda CX-5 are starting to get hazy. Figured its time to bust out something to fix that. What's the best product out right now? 3M still have a good polishing system? Buffing wheel and cutting paste? Bug spray?
Also, if you have suggestions for something to put over the lights after to help protect them, please include that.
Ive had major success with the 3m kit, followed by rustoleum wipe new as a topcoat. Holds up well, and really does a good job.
Your results are directly proportional to the effort though.
But, ill be doing this exact process to the new to me prius sometime in the very near future.
Just used the Sylvania kit last week.
What I learned: this is a good kit, however do know that while it is very good at dealing with discolored lenses it is not so good at dealing with crazing (micro cracks). So if you see some light spider webbing in your lenses you're going to need to put more elbow grease into the sandpaper process than the kit's box allows you to as you have to physically remove the damaged layer to make it perfectly smooth again. So if you care about that go ahead and buy yourself a few extra sheets of high quality sandpaper for the wet sanding step.
But if you just want to knock it out quick you should still get decent results. If you get up close and look at mine there's still some visible, but not nearly as bad as it was.
Also, keep in mind that a "kit" isn't really entirely necessary here. It's basically just a collection of sandpaper, polish, and a finish sealant. You can buy all of that stuff separately if you'd like and get great results.
I've had success with any of the buffi g processes, but trying to keep them shiny becomes an annual thing.
Having said that, I'm too frightened to use the clearcoat, for I am a paint-paranoiac, based on a lifetime of ruining everything I've ever painted that didn't involve a roller.
For headlights that aren't all that bad, I just polish with a mild rubbing compound, then wax them. Finding something better than wax to seal and give UV protection will extend the time before re-polishing is needed. But unless they're really bad, some compound on a rag generally clears them up pretty quickly in my experience.
Streetwiseguy said:I've had success with any of the buffi g processes, but trying to keep them shiny becomes an annual thing.
Having said that, I'm too frightened to use the clearcoat, for I am a paint-paranoiac, based on a lifetime of ruining everything I've ever painted that didn't involve a roller.
Have you tried applying a wax or sealant every so often? Nothing fancy, just some random bottle of whatever you'd use if you washed and waxed your car. Any basic spray wax or sealant that's designed to add UV protection at a big box department store should work just fine.
MrFancypants said:Streetwiseguy said:I've had success with any of the buffi g processes, but trying to keep them shiny becomes an annual thing.
Having said that, I'm too frightened to use the clearcoat, for I am a paint-paranoiac, based on a lifetime of ruining everything I've ever painted that didn't involve a roller.
Have you tried applying a wax or sealant every so often? Nothing fancy, just some random bottle of whatever you'd use if you washed and waxed your car. Any basic spray wax or sealant that's designed to add UV protection at a big box department store should work just fine.
That involves me paying close enough attention to my car to know when they need to be done...and that's extremely unlikely.
3m Ultra headlight kit. One per headlight.
Took about an hour per side. Went through 3 batteries on my Bauer 20v drill.
I used to use the 3m kit but it goes on a drill and I found I was always spending extra time removing imperfections I put in with the drill.
Then I started using the mequiars severe duty (yellow box) and it's the best I've found. It has a soft handheld sanding pad that conforms to weird shapes better. Even though it's done by hand it always ended up being faster for me. The finally coating I'm not a fan of so sometimes I didn't use it. I think this kit has been discontinued.
Last time I used the griots ceramic kit which is essentially the same but doesn't have the polishing step of the mequiars so I polished them and then applied their ceramic coating.
In reply to RevRico :
I just used this kit yesterday on my 2010 Tahoe PPV. The headlights were nearly opaque and the clear coat was coming off in sheets. I had to charge my 20v lithium drill 3 times but I used every single sanding disk that came in the kit plus 220 grit in my palm sander. These were the worst headlights I've ever dealt with. I wish I would have taken a before pic. It turned out really good. Not 100% but probably 90% transparent.
I noticed the color of the light emitted from the headlights had changed from a pale yellow to more of a white light.
I still plan on replacing the assemblies but this buys me some time.
Edit for after pic:
After some research on the internets, I have used the Turtle Wax kits on three cars. Takes some time to sand the haze out, but a year later my 3 still looks good. Tried polishing compound and some Nu FInish wax, didn't last. The Turtle Wax kits are the cheap and easy solution - should be about twelve bucks at your local auto parts store.
Industrial floor polish can make the real nasty ones look ok. It settles into the cracks some. And its cheap. And works great on faded fiberglass too.
First time I tried polishing headlights. Used a $1 Aliexpress pads for a drill and $3 polishing paste. (I know I should have used special polishing paste for plastic, I thought I had it at home but didn't)
The old car lot way is toothpaste, and while that (and the cheaper kits) will take the yellow away, it does nothing for baked in haze or protection.
The Sylvania kit is the only one I've used that has a chemical to remove the old UV coating first and the new coating they give you is amazing!
Starting at 12:00
I too used the sylvania kit for my Impreza and it worked very well.
Spend a few bucks on LaminX or similar if you want the hard work to last.
I know this doesn't always apply based on price, but my favorite way to restore headlights is Rock Auto or Amazon. I just get new buckets. I did that for the Van I bought from NC. $38 each and came with new Sylvania bulbs in them. Under $100 with shipping and tax. Sure beats a day of masking, sanding, polishing, clearcoating.
I do realize that prices for body parts are all over the map, but it's worth a look if you haven't already. I ended up sanding/polishing the ones on the B4000 because they were $60 each and there are limits to my laziness when money is involved.
Don't use DEET. It can turn the plastic into something like rock candy, or broken safety glass. DEET doesn't play well with many plastics.
3M kit, before and after on my 2005 Ram 2500. The photographs don't do justice to how hazy they looked or how fabulously they cleaned up. I spent under an hour on the whole project.
Hot tip: use painters tape on all the painted panels around the headlight so you don't accidentally polish off some paint.
After sanding and buffing mine, I put Weathertech LampGard film over them last August and so far they're holding up well with no sign of peeling off.
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