Cleaning/polishing the headlights

[9mm]

Has anyone done this? I'm assuming they are plastic or would that be wrong?

If right, what products and materials did people use?

Thanks

[TheEnd]

If plastic, you can try ferecla, Tcut, or scratch X which should do it after a while. If glass, you'd need jeweller's rouge, and it'd take forever

[belleair302]

If done professionally you use a rotary polisher at a low speed with a light cut pad and a decent polish.

By hand it is not very effective and very hard work. If you have a DA (Dual Action) polisher it can be doen with a little patience and a decent plastics polish. Meguiars Trade range has some decent plastic polish. T Cut etc are rubbish.

[NickXX]

What car? You can buy replacement polycarbonate lenses for the e46 (think they're around £30 for the pair) and they're easy to replace.

e39 has glass lenses, so you'd be looking at new headlamps unless you fancy trying to polish them.

[9mm]

NickXX said:

What car? You can buy replacement polycarbonate lenses for the e46 (think they're around £30 for the pair) and they're easy to replace.

e39 has glass lenses, so you'd be looking at new headlamps unless you fancy trying to polish them.

Sorry, should have said it's an E39 M5 so I think my questions have been answered.

[MarkwG]

NickXX said:

e39 has glass lenses, so you'd be looking at new headlamps unless you fancy trying to polish them.

curious: my e39s are original & polycarb: here's a link, if you fancy a go DIY: http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=...

[humpbackmaniac]

Mine are plastic too, I used toothpaste. Looked a wally but worked a treat. And with a nice minty aroma.

[W1TAK]

A combination of hand sanding and then rotary polisher to finish the job can get rid of all the little stone chips/marks on the headlights and make them look new again. I did this on my 530d and it worked, a little bit worrying when you first take the sand paper to them though !!!!