DIY headlight restoring, worth it?

FoxEye

FoxEye

FoxEye

Caporegime
Joined
17 Feb 2006
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Location
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Had an advisory on my last MOT, headlights are badly oxidised and scuffed up. Probably the original lights (53 reg).

Replacement Yaris Mk1 lights are £70 each and a PITA to install. On a 12 year old car I'm really not inclined to spend £140 on new lights.

So having seen various YT vids where they use a cutting polish, etc, they all seem to have rotary buffers and a variety of products that I don't have (and all cost money!)

Other people are using a hand cloth and toothpaste, but I'm told that kind of fix doesn't last more than a month before it starts clouding up again. And obviously isn't as effective either.

I'm not sure if places like Hi-Q will do headlight restoration for you; will need to phone them tomorrow.

But has anyone restored their headlights themselves, cheaply and without a rotary buffing machine? Did it last?

I'm also going to need some new H4 bulbs... the Osram Silverstar 2.0 are a safe bet, yeah? Sorry total newb at car stuff ;)

(Seriously considering scrapping the damn thing, the reverse lights aren't working either and the bulbs are working, so the electricals must be shot somewhere :/)
 
You can wet sand and buff but it will go yellow after a few months depending how much of the clear came off.

IMO the best is wet sand and clear with 2k. It's a permanent fix.
 
I wet sanded the ones on my old Passat and they came up braw. Just kept them wet, and a bit of elbow grease, then polished them up once finished, and they were almost like new. Total cost was around £5 from Halfords for the sandpaper. I did start with toothpaste, and it worked to a degree, but if they are bad enough to have been picked up in an MOT, I'd just go straight onto the wet sanding.
 
I did the ones on my Civic last weekend, it's made a noticeable difference the the light output. However, you are basically removing all the old anti-scratch coating and exposing the soft polycarbonate underneath, so once you've done this it won't stay looking perfect for very long.
 
pepsilol said:
You can wet sand and buff but it will go yellow after a few months depending how much of the clear came off.

IMO the best is wet sand and clear with 2k. It's a permanent fix.
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Yeah that seems good enough for what I need.

What grade of sandpaper you use? 1000, 2000, more?

Checked out the clear coat, seems to only come in amounts sufficient to paint a bloody house :p Jetseal is £25, random 2k clear is £25, anyone spotted anything cheaper?

Cheap is good :p
 
Dinnae bother. Just polish them up with whatever you have lying around, and polish them regular. How long you planning on keeping the motor anyway? I did the Passat over a year ago, and it's fine still.
 
Depends on how bad really. If mega bad go 1500 very wet then 3000 very wet, then polish.
 
I spent a couple of hours on one of mine with 4 grades of wet sanding, and polishing. Made no difference... Just wasted time!

Dad managed to restore one of his Audi headlamps, but he spent the best part of a day on it...
 
Acme said:
I spent a couple of hours on one of mine with 4 grades of wet sanding, and polishing. Made no difference... Just wasted time!

Dad managed to restore one of his Audi headlamps, but he spent the best part of a day on it...
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Obviously not aggressive enough sandpaper then. Mine came up a treat.

From this.



To this.



Maybe 45 mins per side.
 
3M do a kit that you use with a drill (sanding pads, polishing pad and buffer).

I've done it on mine and it came up lovely, but has gone back to cloudy again after a couple of years.

Make sure you mask up well and go careful, it can scuff the hell out of your paint if you miss :)
 
xs2man said:
Dinnae bother. Just polish them up with whatever you have lying around, and polish them regular. How long you planning on keeping the motor anyway? I did the Passat over a year ago, and it's fine still.
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The only thing I have lying around is toothpaste, WD40, washing up liquid, shoe polish :p

As for how long I'm keeping it, probably a couple years. Until I win the lottery and can get something better :p

Skeeter said:
3M do a kit that you use with a drill (sanding pads, polishing pad and buffer).
Click to expand...

I don't own a drill. Yup, you heard right, I am a man who does not own a power tool of any kind :p
 
xs2man said:
You have a car and no car polish? Get some...
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It's a 12 year old car ;) I haven't even washed it once in the 12 months I've owned it :eek:

Probably should have done, mind.

But I figure it'll probably be dead as a dodo in another couple years. A lot of its electricals are on the way out, and once they go I'll just scrap it.
 
FoxEye said:
But I figure it'll probably be dead as a dodo in another couple years. A lot of its electricals are on the way out, and once they go I'll just scrap it.
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There's no evidence of this at all. You've just stated that some of the bulbs are gone. Have you even checked them before jumping to the conclusion that the electrics are broken in some way?
 
FoxEye said:
It's a 12 year old car ;) I haven't even washed it once in the 12 months I've owned it :eek:

Probably should have done, mind.

But I figure it'll probably be dead as a dodo in another couple years. A lot of its electricals are on the way out, and once they go I'll just scrap it.
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12 years old is hardly an old car. That makes it a 2003 yeah? There are many nice cars that age, in good condition, so long as they have been kept well.

Anyway, regardless, its your car, and if you want to destroy it by not looking after it, that's your issue. You don't sound like your too "into" cars. But either way, get some polish and sandpaper for the headlights.
 
Have used the 3M kit for both our cars, came up a treat. Some kits don't have the UV sealant in, supposed to be worth putting some on.
 
Tinders said:
Have a look on eurocar parts, they do aftermarket lamps. The below are facelift units, which i guess your car is?

http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/c/T...6b50cee6c1c9ba4673b5e8c358ec066b85f19b&000176

ECP normally have a 10% code flying around aswell.
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Even cheaper for some unbranded ones on ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TOYOTA-YA...s/Vitz&hash=item19fff01e27:g:VeIAAOSwuMFUlBJy

No idea if they're any good mind.

If you're buying new, you may as well try to sand and polish the old ones, as it'll only cost a couple of quid. Would lacquering them or something afterwards protect them?

Worst case scenario, the sanding doesn't work and you buy new lights anyway.
 
Get the 3m headlight restoration kit. It's not expensive and works really well. Borrow a drill if you don't have one - you must know people who do! ;)
 
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