Headlight restoration?

[danlightbulb]

Hi guys,

My headlights are quite yellowed and spotted, so need restoring. I've watched a few you tube videos of people doing this.

As I understand it the basic process is wet sanding 1000 grit, wet sanding 3000 grit, buffing with a buffing wheel on a drill with added polishing fluid, and finally applying a protective wax of some kind.

Do I need to buy a 'kit' like the Meguiars kit or something similar, or can I just buy all the various bits separately and would it be cheaper than buying a kit for £20-£30?

I have also read several reviews stating the yellowness comes back after a couple of months?

Anyone got any views/advice/tips? Thanks. I'll try and post a photo of my yellowed headlights soon.

[chimp427]

You can use a cutting compound such as farecla g3 scratch remover from halfords but you do need quite an aggressive rotary polisher to remove it.
Ive had one of these for years and its very useful, you do need to buy the mop heads but they are inexpensive.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Silverline-1200W-Sander-...

[danlightbulb]

The videos ive seen all show the headlight being sanded first then buffed after. Im not sure about spending £37 on an electric buffing thing as i might not get the use out of it? The kits seem expensive for what they are though.i can get the fluid on its own for about £8 and a buffing pad for the drill for about £4. I could sand by hand rather than with drill attachments? The UV sealant on its own is about £8 which the kits dont seem to come with anyway.

[Magic919]

I've used the 3M kit to good effect. They are a convenience, rather than a bargain.

I think some people wimp out at the sanding stage and it's a very important one. Mine were ok a year later when I sold the car. I can see that a UV coat would make sense. How well stuff in a bottle would bond I don't know.

[Winky151]

I did my dads 51 plate Astra & IIRC started with as low as 400 or 600 grade wet & dry then worked up to 2500 with a final quick machine polish. The difference was day & night.

[Craikeybaby]

I could do with restoring the headlights on my MR2, but my main concern is that they'll look good for a few months, then haze up even more.

What UV protection products are people using and how often do they need reapplied?

[gmporsches]

There's some videos with people using toothpaste to clear the headlights and revive them.

[Squiggs]

Craikeybaby said:

I could do with restoring the headlights on my MR2, but my main concern is that they'll look good for a few months, then haze up even more.

What UV protection products are people using and how often do they need reapplied?

Not cheap and you'll need a compressor and a spray gun at the very least .....
http://www.brownbrothers.com/products/headlamp-ref...

[mikeyr]

Winky151 said:

I did my dads 51 plate Astra & IIRC started with as low as 400 or 600 grade wet & dry then worked up to 2500 with a final quick machine polish. The difference was day & night.

Agreed, I've used 600 on badly faded ones and worked way up, 1200 then some T-cut style polish worked fine for me. One thing to note is that the initial pass can be done dry if they are really horrible but def alternate left-to-right, top-to-bottom for each stage. There was a great video on the subject on the Drive youtube channel but it's now marked as private.

[Downward]

I used Quixx restoration kit on the wife's Honda headlights.
Come out really well