Headlight restoration?

-Mike- · 27 May 2012 at 12:23

Hey,

Just wondering what you guys have used (if you have had to) to get rid of the dull haze/yellowing on your plastic headlights.

I started using Plastrx but I think I need something a little more heavy duty as it doesn't seem to do a great deal to the more severe parts.

Thanks for any help

SoliD · 27 May 2012 at 12:41

Used the 3M headlight restoration kit, worked absolute miracles, although had to get it from ebay from USA.

Irish_Tom · 27 May 2012 at 12:59

I used a rotary polisher — worked a treat.

-Mike- · 27 May 2012 at 16:50

SoliD said:
Used the 3M headlight restoration kit, worked absolute miracles, although had to get it from ebay from USA.

I was looking at this on the uk rainforest. I assume its the same thing?

SoliD · 27 May 2012 at 17:56

-Mike- said:
I was looking at this on the uk rainforest. I assume its the same thing?

Yes that is the one.

canman · 27 May 2012 at 18:34

mine was really bad, i had to wet and dry them first then used Meguiars Scratch X, i made a buffer attachment for my drill so it was less work/time

Housey · 27 May 2012 at 18:47

I bought a new car, brilliant.

rjk · 27 May 2012 at 18:57

Lol Housey.

The headlights on my civic have a sort of delamination thing going on where there is a bit of a rough area. I am tempted to use some really fine grit on them and get it off would I need to do anything else to refurb them? Like to protect them from doing it again once I have them shiny again

SoliD · 27 May 2012 at 19:40

Housey said:
I bought a new car, brilliant.

You could have got new headlights rather than a new car, then you wouldn't have to drive a diesel?

Housey · 27 May 2012 at 19:53

SoliD said:
You could have got new headlights rather than a new car, then you wouldn't have to drive a diesel?

Some people are just cruel

SoliD · 27 May 2012 at 20:04

Housey said:
Some people are just cruel

You started it by showing off you immense, er, wealth!

ganesh · 27 May 2012 at 21:27

I just bought a couple of upgraded lenses, very pleased with the result.

-Mike- · 28 May 2012 at 00:29

They from what I can see, don't do them for the bora

Lordgrayone · 28 May 2012 at 01:56

toothpaste

Gaijin · 12 Aug 2012 at 22:53

Rather than intrude on rjkoneill's thread I thought i'd update this more generic one.

Like him and So Solid Krew, I got the 3M kit from the US. I couldn't find a UK reseller at the time. If only I knew someone who worked at 3M who could help out. Nope. Don't know of anyone like that. Maybe Solid does.

So here's what I did. Rather than do things I should have been doing, such as Wedding preparation and dealing with tenancy issues, procrastination set in and decided to mince around with the car after months of neglect after moving to potato land.

The lights are a retrofit from either an 8 MR or a 9 and were described as being in "excellent condition". However upon picking them up from Maidenhead I discovered that the seller had just slung them in his boot and they had been sliding around and were scratched considerably. Took it on the chin

How gash it looked. Dull, Pitted, Scratched.

6 Inch scrape from the previous car they were in.

More grimness

Taped up with Blue 3M goodness.

Duct Taped and attacked with the 500 Grit

After

With dipped on

It isn't perfect but it is so much better.

Suggestions:

Drop the front bumper if you can
Take your time on the first two stages as going back is a pain
Be careful of bits that are tough to access (like the bottom left corner of mine as you look at it)
Don't ask Minxy for help
Blame her anyway if you screw it up

I'll do the other one another time.

Much love

xxx

P.S. I'm aware the rest of the front end needs a respray.

SoliD · 12 Aug 2012 at 23:33

Looks so much better, great kit, just make sure to put some uv protection on now. Shame you can't take the headlights out on their own, make it much easier.

Gaijin · 12 Aug 2012 at 23:51

I could have done but I largely couldn't be bothered. To be honest I should have just dropped the bumper (which I'll do for the other headlight) and that would have given all the access I needed. That's just 6 bolts and cutting the cable tie job on the undertray.

I've just slapped a couple of layers of Collinite 915 on for now - not really sure what to do for UV. Any suggestions?

Kutter · 13 Aug 2012 at 00:35

some places over here charge $65 per headlight to restore them. a new oem headlight for my car is $40.

-Mike- · 13 Aug 2012 at 00:58

You're lucky doofski - mine are £110 each

Gaijin · 13 Aug 2012 at 08:41

That's cheap. Mine are £920 each and I don't think that comes with bulbs or the ballast.

I think the 3M kit was about £15 from memory.