Which headlight polishing kit?

i just bought brand new headlight assemblies for my 2001 Grand Prix GTP from Rockauto... the total for both sides was around $70 to my door, then spent about 10 minutes putting them on the car and aiming tham before work.. i didn't know how bad the old lenses were until i drove home from work at 1am tonight and could see stuff a mile away..

yeah, it's a bit more expensive than the polishing kits, but maybe Subarus are just as cheap?

The 3M kit with the different stages of sandpaper(wet) and buffing compound you use with a power drill.

I once bought a cheap kit from Wal-Mart that came in a mylar envelope that was vague about the contents. Inside was instructions, a few bits of sandpaper and a water tray for wet sanding.

I spent hours, and gained nothing. Beware.

I used Meguiar's later. It still took hours with a drill, but it eventually gave a B- result. If I have to do a set again, I'll try 3M.

Oh, and I paid the Headlight Hero guy $50. That worked well, and looked good for a while. His technique involved cleaning, then wet sanding using Velcro sanding discs on a cordless drill, followed by swiping on a clear that smelled like Testors enamel. If you really looked, you could see the strokes. He suggested waxing the headlights to keep them looking good longer.

I poured this stuff onto a paper towel, rubbed it onto the headlight and then wiped it off. I did it twice with each product. Really fast and easy.

My favorite headlight polishing was the opening scene of "Cool Hand Luke"...

^

Woody wrote: I poured this stuff onto a paper towel, rubbed it onto the headlight and then wiped it off. I did it twice with each product. Really fast and easy.

Any of the products will give you great looking lights initially. The factor that you didn't seem to specify is how long do you want that look to last? Please let us know how long it stays clear.

The basic waxing or toothpaste will only last so long and you have to factor in the potential affects of weather plus heat from the lamp being on causing a solidified opaque film to form. My cousin ran into that with the wax stuff. It turned into a snot green film that we had to sand off. Best case is you have to rub them again with compound and paper towel in a few months.

I started with a 3M kit and added in more compound and pads from the local paint distributor. I did the whole sand/wet sand thing as I had to clear off tree sap not just remove scratches in the plastic. Then went down to the rubbing compounds and finally a plastic polish all with a Dewalt polisher. It has lasted for 1 year so far with only one spot I can see now where I didn't get all the swirls out.

Someone posted the sanding and painting which is probably the optimal if done properly.

Otherwise purchase the new headlamps for $100-$300 a side for a Legacy.

RockAuto lists headlamp assemblies for DD#1's 2002 Impreza at $100 a side. I'll invest a little wet sanding time before I spend that. But I agree, for $35 each, I'd replace them too.

And SWMBO's TSX has the best headlight optics I've ever seen, so I don't really want to move away from OEM on that.

You're assuming that I care about this a lot more than I actually do. If I need to spend another 15 minutes on these every six months, I'm okay with that.

Washed my car today and was annoyed by the haze so I tried toothpaste. Worked surprisingly well, we will see how long it lasts.

What kind of clear coat are you all using?

Lancer007 wrote: Washed my car today and was annoyed by the haze so I tried toothpaste. Worked surprisingly well, we will see how long it lasts.

Told 'ya!

Spitsix wrote: What kind of clear coat are you all using?

Most people don't use one with any success, simply because unless you use a specifically UV-resistant coating, any clear you use will stay clear while the plastic underneath starts to yellow again. Once you sand/polish the OEM lens, the UV hardcoat is gone. There are UV coats (the aforementioned testors-smelling one) and another made by SEM, but you also have to have a UV curing light to apply them correctly.

In reply to sobe_death:

The sun is a great UV curing light.

In reply to series8217: I agree ;). Though it seems that it takes around 48 hours for the hardcoat to fully cure in sunlight. It's similar to the UV/Blue curing light that dentists use to rapidly set fillings, so it's pretty much highway-ready after 10 minutes or so under the light.

Would covering the headlight after polishing with like a clear bra/lamin-x type product help?