Headlight Lens Cleaning

Theres a very good youtube video on how to it and make it permanent. Many kits you use won't last more than a few months.

Mandalay Parr wrote:

I checked on replacing them but $400 each so I passed on that. In my case I would have had to purchase the whole light assembly not just the lens.

Have you tried rockauto.com?

I replaced the headlight assemblies on several cars that were around 10 years old and I paid about $28-45 for each headlight assembly.

Yes, they are Chinese clones of the OEM units and are not as well built, but they have been working fine for years.

Steve

Polishing compound Flitz ... rag by hand works well. Amazon of course. :)

Grit dog wrote:

Rustycamperpants wrote:

eDUBz wrote:
Wet sand with 1500 and then polish with 3M compound. If you don't want to buy new lens take it to a body shop and have them clear coat the lenses. what ever you do it won't last a long time but will look good. Clear coating will be your cheapest option that will last the longest other than replacing them.

^ This X2, you need to remove the old clear coat that is on the lens with the wet paper going to finer grits as the old stuff is removed. I ended up with 2,000 wet paper. Tape off the area around the lens and use a rattle can of clear coat to finish it up. This will last a long time, I did my DW '03 Beemer two years ago and it still looks great.

Clearing them after polish is a good idea. Pretty sure there no clear on a lens to begin with though.
Wonder if 3 M clear bra would keep the shine on ? Easy to apply and durable.

Was clear on the beemer, I tried the polish stuff and it wouldn't work. Just throwing in my .02 :-)

Rustycamperpants wrote:

eDUBz wrote:
Wet sand with 1500 and then polish with 3M compound. If you don't want to buy new lens take it to a body shop and have them clear coat the lenses. what ever you do it won't last a long time but will look good. Clear coating will be your cheapest option that will last the longest other than replacing them.

^ This X2, you need to remove the old clear coat that is on the lens with the wet paper going to finer grits as the old stuff is removed. I ended up with 2,000 wet paper. Tape off the area around the lens and use a rattle can of clear coat to finish it up. This will last a long time, I did my DW '03 Beemer two years ago and it still looks great.

Clearing them after polish is a good idea. Pretty sure there no clear on a lens to begin with though.
Wonder if 3 M clear bra would keep the shine on ? Easy to apply and durable.

eDUBz wrote:
Wet sand with 1500 and then polish with 3M compound. If you don't want to buy new lens take it to a body shop and have them clear coat the lenses. what ever you do it won't last a long time but will look good. Clear coating will be your cheapest option that will last the longest other than replacing them.

^ This X2, you need to remove the old clear coat that is on the lens with the wet paper going to finer grits as the old stuff is removed. I ended up with 2,000 wet paper. Tape off the area around the lens and use a rattle can of clear coat to finish it up. This will last a long time, I did my DW '03 Beemer two years ago and it still looks great.

Wet sand with 1500 and then polish with 3M compound. If you don't want to buy new lens take it to a body shop and have them clear coat the lenses. what ever you do it won't last a long time but will look good. Clear coating will be your cheapest option that will last the longest other than replacing them.

I used to use metal polish until I used it all up now I just use cleaner/wax.
Works great.

Xflyhighx wrote:
I was in the car business for a while. My detail shop used to use bug spray with over 30 deat and it used to look good. Don't know how long it lasts, but the price is right. The deat does something to the plastic. I didn't believe it neither until I saw it done. He used a micro cloth to polish it.

Acetone on a clean rag will work also. Wipe in one direction only.

Fred

I tried a product made to clean lens, lots of elbow action for a few months of clear lenses. A friend told me to use 0000 steel wool then spray with clear coat. I'm into about 2 months on this fix so far and they still look good. A lot easier and cheaper if I need to do it again.

Deet idea even looks easier.