Headlight Restoration - My Take
 

First of all, I want to start with a little disclaimer.

**I highly recommend researching tips on how to properly wet sand, as well as how to properly use your Porter Cable buffer. Use this tutorial as a small guideline as to how to properly restore your headlights, but remember all results will be different. Use this how-to at your own discretion.**

Ok. This is my experience with restoring my headlight housing on my '03 Stratus. I would imagine that these results could be applied to any plastic housing on any car.

*Big thanks to Pcola and others who have posted tips on this same subject!*

I unlike some WOULD NOT do this without my Porter Cable. The amount of polishing needed would take a lengthy amount of time and I honestly don't know that you could get the same results without it.

1. Before
http://www.sn95forums.com/hosting/us...headlight1.jpg

http://www.sn95forums.com/hosting/us...headlight2.jpg

As you can clearly see, the headlights had some serious oxidation and hard water staining. Luckily for me, it was not covering the entire headlight. This was more than just a simple yellowed or stained headlight, you could physically FEEL the deformation of the plastic.


2. Preparation
http://www.sn95forums.com/hosting/us...headlight3.jpg

You should always start out with a completely clean surface to work with, especially when you are going to do any sanding. You may want to use a clay bar as well, but I had already recently clayed the car. I did use some dishsoap as well as my sea sponge to scrub and bugs/ road grime off.

**This should also give you an idea of how wet to keep the housing, I used warm water with a decent amount of dishsoap while sanding. KEEP YOUR SURFACE SOAKING WET THE ENTIRE TIME!.**

3. Sanding step 1 - 600 Grit.
http://www.sn95forums.com/hosting/us...cing/sp600.jpg

http://www.sn95forums.com/hosting/us...headlight4.jpg


As you can see, this is where that lump in your throat really starts to form.


4. Sanding step 2 - 1000 Grit
http://www.sn95forums.com/hosting/us...ing/sp1000.jpg

http://www.sn95forums.com/hosting/us...headlight5.jpg


The lump in your throat and heart beat should both be increasing at this point.


5. Sanding step 3 - 2000 Grit
http://www.sn95forums.com/hosting/us...ing/sp2000.jpg

http://www.sn95forums.com/hosting/us...eadlight6b.jpg


Now, you're having trouble breathing and you're asking yourself "Why the hell am I doing this?!?"


6. The fun part!
http://www.sn95forums.com/hosting/us...headlight7.jpg

http://www.sn95forums.com/hosting/us...headlight8.jpg

http://www.sn95forums.com/hosting/us...headlight9.jpg

Now, this is the part that you should be getting excited. I started out using Meguiars ScratchX on my PC Orange cutting pad and followed up with my Meguiars PlasticX.


The products that I used.
http://www.sn95forums.com/hosting/us...g/products.jpg

http://www.sn95forums.com/hosting/us.../products2.jpg

thats a lot of work. i just got this plastic cleaner,(my headlights were like that, but the whole thing.) i just put this plastic cleaner, says its for black parts like the side mirror plastic, or anything black. i was curious and tried it on a penny size spot on the headlight. pulled the deformation shit right off. i did it to the whole thing and they came clean, good as new, the test is, when i get back from college will they be foggy, ill update with results. nice post tho. "my" way is just a quick fix i guess.

i just noticed. the smaller picture in my sig to the lower left is of my car before i did it. the main/larger pic is of after, i kno its small but its clear that its a difference.

If that actually worked for you, that's awesome, but I personally have never seen a polish or cleaning agent that could remove oxidation, hard staining or sun damage. Maybe your headlights weren't too bad?

My choice was to either spend the $20 for the materials to attempt to fix it or $250 for a new housing! :rolleyes:

well, some people might have to buy a PC that power tool thing. im sure its pricey. mine were like your condition only the whole thing, i could feel it, the headlight felt gritty.

Not sure if thats supposed to be a picture of the sea sponge, but that isnt a sea sponge.

Excellent write up...that can easily be done with a mother power ball as well! You still have to sand it down and then do the buffing with the power ball! Thats what I did on my stang and it looked great..:)

nice write up!
i paid $0 dollars to have mine done! lol
the "headlight and bumper" guys were at the dealer when i bought mine. I just walked over and asked them to get the Mustang asap since it was being purchased :-D
cleaned up perfectly!

How much are the tools if you don't have em? Would it be cheaper to just take it to Ford like tsumi did?

Take it to the dealership for anything detailing related, YIKES!

You don't need the tools really, just need some elbow grease. I did mine awile back by hand and it turned out perfect, you have more control I think. Did one light one day, and the other the next, your arm WILL get tired lol. If I had to do it again, I'd definatly want the Porter Cable though.

But as far as cost, I spent just a couple dollars on the sand paper and the Plastic X (didn't use Scratch X on mine). Doubt you'll find a place to do it cheaper than yourself...;)

Brasso works great for plastic headlight covers. My brothers 96 Ram was so bad they weren't worth a damn at night. Really yellow. A shop rag and Brasso they became clear as a bell. They were actually usuable again. We hit em about 3 times with Brasso. Rag was really dirty. Didn't have to scrub them that hard.

yeah.. haha that's what I figured...


Sounds good to me! At least it's on a 98. Small headlights. : D

Haha yeah. I can see the pure white glaze on your dad's 98 in your sig lol. Show us how it turns out!