Restore Your Headlights
 

Ever since I bought my clear corners, I was not happy with how nasty my headlight capsules looked next to them. They were old and pitted from years of highway driving. I wanted to restore them to make them look at least fractionally better. I know they will never look as good as my corners or new capsules, but it sure beats spending 100 bucks for a new set.

This is what one of them looked like beforehand:

http://www.solsblog.com/temp/headlig...e/IMG_0001.jpg

This is what they looked like after I was done:

http://www.solsblog.com/temp/headlig...e/IMG_0005.jpg

http://www.solsblog.com/temp/headlig...e/IMG_0003.jpg

This is what I did:

Before starting I used masking tape to protect the paint.

1.) Wet sand with 800 grit sandpaper for about 5-10 minutes. Wipe clean. It will look hazy, but it will progessively go away with finer sanding.
2.) Repeat with 1000 grit. Wipe clean.
3.) Repeat with 1500 grit. Wipe clean.
4.) Use 2000 grit, but spend about 15 minutes on the lamp. This step is crucial.
5.) Wipe off all the residue as best as you can.
6.) Use Polishing Compound (I used Turtle Wax brand) and cake it on the lights and buff it in as best as possible. This will remove all of the haze if sanded properly.
7.) Apply plastic polish. I used Megiuars PlastX.

My arms are tired after doing this to both lights, but it was worth it. 10 bucks of supplies vs. 100 bucks of new capsules is a no brainer.

Are those glass or plastic.

Plastic

That is much better , I may try that.

You can do just as well with out half the sanding, just start out on 1000 grit for 5-10 min and then finish up with 1500 grit and then buff them out with some good polish.

That's what we did when I worked at the salvage yard. Made some of the worst headlamps I've ever seen come out new.

BTW I love that Meguirs PlastX stuff, I use that on my lights after every 2-3 washs....Wihich reminds me, I'm do for another treatment :)

hmm, good one for techinfo...

mine are glass, i just use windex...all better!

Ya, unless you're REALLY good with this method, I wouldn't recomend doing it to glass lenses.

I did this to my 00 ssei and it took about 3 hours per headlight.

Unless you have really deep chips just try the polish first. I've read that doing 2-3 passes with it will usually do the trick, and take less time.

Good writeup Sol. They look GREAT. Upload those pics to the GH PB account if you don't mind, and we'll move you up to Techinfo. ;)