Cleaning 'Foggy' Headlights

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I looked at the kits they have at Wal-mart for about $30. I wrote down the instructions and I bought some of the cleaner and some protectant.

Then I went to the automotive paint section at Wal-Mart and bought the 1,000 and 2,000 sandpaper the kits have.

Saved me a lot of money over the price of a kit.
 
the kits work well; or you can sand with various grades and then finish it off with polish. you will have some time invested, but it works.
 
The Meguiars kit was my favorite and worked great. Enough to do several cars. The power buffing wheel used at the end really sped things up.
 
I use "old dutch" powdered cleaner, water, and paper towels. I'd find a UV protectant (wax etc) for cars I cared about.

This picture is still kinda crummy; I wasn't done on the driver's side. But you can see it cuts through.

taurus013.jpg
 
If you have foggy headlights the UV coating is shot, almost any headlight kit will work, pick the cheapest, the issue lies with protecting the absent UV coating lens. A tradition wax will not last, and you will be polishing them again in 4 months. You need to apply UV resistant clear coat or clear urethane after the polishing.
 
My brother came to town one weekend and he wanted to do his headlights. He was about to buy a kit and I told him I had an idea. I wanted to do the project on my vehicle too. I got my palm sander and some fine sand wet/dry sand paper. Applied some making tape to body area around the lens to keep from scuffing up any body or trim parts on the vehicle. I applied some water with a spray bottle to the lens and some rubbing compound after that. Turned on the sander and laid it gently onto the lens and moved around. Five minutes later it looked great. Did both sides like that. Did it again and made a bit more improvement. All stuff I had laying around. We didn't apply a UV protection layer but I am thinking of doing the sander project again on my vehicle and doing the protection procedure now that the weather has improved. Still looks pretty good from the last time but I do want to keep it looking great.
 
An interesting discovery: Solvent softens the plastic. I buffed one headlight after applying a solvent. The other I buffed with normal heavy compound and a 3 inch Blue Point buffer. Both looked similar when finished.

The headlight that had solvent applied remains clear. The other fogged up rapidly.
 
Originally Posted By: Cujet
An interesting discovery: Solvent softens the plastic. I buffed one headlight after applying a solvent. The other I buffed with normal heavy compound and a 3 inch Blue Point buffer. Both looked similar when finished.

The headlight that had solvent applied remains clear. The other fogged up rapidly.

That's interesting. Which solvent?
 
My Corolla headlights were really bad so I bought he 3M kit. Worked great. Now, I use Scratch-X every few months to maintain and in 5 minutes they are back to clear.

I wouldn't mess with bug spray.
 
Originally Posted By: krismoriah72
Bug Spray.

It works..

https://youtu.be/yH8-IMvtmo0


I did it on my car, made a post about it last year. It worked pretty good, could probably use another coating. I would NOT do this on a nice car though. I drive a beater so it was good enough for me.
 
Originally Posted By: Oldmoparguy1
Originally Posted By: Cujet
An interesting discovery: Solvent softens the plastic. I buffed one headlight after applying a solvent. The other I buffed with normal heavy compound and a 3 inch Blue Point buffer. Both looked similar when finished.

The headlight that had solvent applied remains clear. The other fogged up rapidly.

That's interesting. Which solvent?


I used a spray can of "brake magic". It's a flammable version of brake cleaner. I suspect any carb/intake manifold/throttle plate/spray solvent will work.
 
Originally Posted By: Leo99
My Corolla headlights were really bad so I bought he 3M kit. Worked great. Now, I use Scratch-X every few months to maintain and in 5 minutes they are back to clear.


That's what I use, and what I do...works well...
 
Originally Posted By: callbay
I looked at the kits they have at Wal-mart for about $30. I wrote down the instructions and I bought some of the cleaner and some protectant.

Then I went to the automotive paint section at Wal-Mart and bought the 1,000 and 2,000 sandpaper the kits have.

Saved me a lot of money over the price of a kit.


+1 Depending on how badly fogged over they are I would recommend wet sanding. Like polishing a car I would stick with the least aggressive and go heavier. I would start with a Plast-X and more up to wet sanding if need be. Either way once you get them to what satisfies you remember to put a coating of protection over it.
 
I know this is an older post, but what I used to do on my '94 Ford Tempo was soak a cotton buffing wheel in water then put a light coat of polishing compound on it. I'd chuck that in my drill driver, and with light pressure, go to town. I'd wipe off the lense every now and then to check on my progress. When it was as good as it was going to get, a nice coat of UV protection wax kept them looking good for a few months or so. Then I would do this all over when I saw them yellowing again. It took a little bit of time, but was way cheaper than buying new headlight lenses.

L8R,
Matt
 
You have to completely remove the failed UV coating in order to make them clear again. Start with 320-grit, then go progressively finer until you get to about 2500. Then you can use a compound (such as Meguiars M100 or M105), followed by a finishing polish (such as Meguiars M205 or Optimum Hyper Polish) to perfect. Unfortunately the retail market does not have any long-term, viable options for replacing the factory UV coating. You can try Optimum Opti-Lens but I am not sure how long it will last. Meguiars does make a headlight sealant that may be worth looking into.
 
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