Headlight restoring?

[The Chubby Pirate]

Afternoon folks,

I’m trying to find a thread someone in the last few months posted about a product they used to restore headlamps, can anyone kindly point me in the direction please?

cheers!

 

[JamesBryan]

The Autoglym kit from Halfrauds works well Danyul.

 

[Sir Nancy Flowers]

As above. The autoglym kit is great. Shove the attachments onto a drill and you get gradually finer grades of sand paper. Takes most of the hard work out of it.

Pro Tip. Buy some clear coat to go over the top after you've finished as otherwise they'll fade again in a few months time!

 

[Jack!]

Toothpaste.

 

[Colin-S]

https://cliosport.net/threads/headlight-restoration-duxback.837952/#post-12087859

was it this thread?

 

[Louis]

Toothpaste.

Jimmy?

 

[The Chubby Pirate]

https://cliosport.net/threads/headlight-restoration-duxback.837952/#post-12087859

was it this thread?

Thats the very one mate! Couldn’t for the life of me remember what it was!

 

[imprezaworks]

Have you a polisher

 

[Rich-D]

I've done a set on a BMW E39, it was a massive improvement, followed some youtube guides and it turned out very well

 

[The Chubby Pirate]

I've done a set on a BMW E39, it was a massive improvement, followed some youtube guides and it turned out very well

What kit did you use Rich?

 

[Darren S]

I've used a number of kits over the years with varying degrees of success. By far the best option for me has been a more regular treatment using this.

Chemical Guys - Headlight Restorer and Protectant

Chemical Guys - Headlight Restorer and Protectant Chemical Guys Headlight Restorer & Protectant is a one step polish designed to both restore and protect plastic headlights in just one step and can be applied by both machine or by hand Repairing faded headlights can be very expensive. Headligh

www.cleanyourcar.co.uk

 

[Rich-D]

What kit did you use Rich?

I didn't use a kit as such, I followed a couple of guides online, which just used progressively finer grades of wet & dry, followed by polishing with a DA to get that final finish. Will see if I can find what I followed.

When you start at first and the lenses are all hazed up from sanding, you think "fcuk I've ruined this" but as you keep going things improve and suddenly they're crystal clear, just a bit dauting at first.

The difference was massive though, they were a right mess before, looked almost new after, will upload some pics.

 

[Rich-D]

Here you go…

Before & after for comparison:

Mid grade stage, when I thought they were never going to be recoverable:

But ended up looking like this:

Just take your time, it's not difficult and that was my first attempt.

 

[Sir Nancy Flowers]

Yeah, its proper panic stations when you're half way thinking 'oh well, theres always ebay' 🤣

 

[Rich-D]

 

[Colin-S]

I used the 3M™ Headlight Lens Restoration Kit. Think it was around £20 a few years ago.

I did regret not closing the bonet before polishing as it went everywhere...lolol

 

[Daniel]

1500 wet and dry
2000 wet and dry
Trizac 3000

machine polisher with a hard pad and some generic polishing compound.

Machine polisher with a soft pad and Scholl swirl remover.

 

[Stefan.]

@Jekyll

He makes headlights look better then mint...share your secrets

 

[Darren S]

Went out this afternoon and did the headlights on both cars. No idea where my 3M tape ended up, so just used standard masking tape - better than nothing I guess. Just used the combination of Chemical Guys headlight restorer that I mentioned previously and the Porter Cable set to mid-speed.

The 182 ones came up well, but those on the ASX were much more impressive.

 

[GrahamS]

from a while ago now

You need to seal them with some kind of ceramic coating or lacquer otherwise restoration will actually worsen the issue long term and after 12 months you'll be back in the same position. I know because I didn't seal mine....