Experienced Headlight Cleaners…

[Brian Kent]

I have watched videos and read product descriptions, so I am asking for a couple of people with actual experience. I have yellowed headlights on a 2009 Accord. I want to clean them up.

I expect to mask it off, wet sand from about 600 to 2,000 grit, and then use a polishing compound and maybe a coating.

First - is that the right grit range?
Second - would you use hand-held sand paper or use a slow speed drill with a 2-3" disk?
Third - what polishing compound? Or should I just keep using finer micro-abrasives (anywhere up to 12,000 available)?
Fourth - what coating if any?

Thank you for your experience.

[Bruce Page]

Don't over complicate. This stuff works great: Meguiar's G1900K Headlight and Clear Plastic Restoration Kit

I mask around the headlight with blue tape and polish with light pressure using a hand drill. It takes only a few minutes on each light. It can be a little messy so plan on washing the car afterwords.

[Brian Kent]

Thank you. Just ordered it.

[Barry McFadden]

I have used any type of polishing wax ...Turtle Wax for example... and rubbed it on with a damp cloth and it works great...or any one of the products advertised to restore a cars dull paint...

[Matt Day]

I use a kit like Bruce suggested but mine is Mothers I think. Spend the extra bucks and get the drill attachment, you'll thank yourself later.

I've used it many times on my 04 Forester and when my wife had her 01 CRV.

[John McClanahan]

I used extra fine rubbing compound with a bit of water and a slow speed buffer. It worked good. I saw You Tube videos of people using tooth past and a buffer. I don't think sanding is necessary.


John

[Brian Tymchak]

I' ve used the Meguire's kit and also the RainX kit. Results have been the same - Ok. Don't know if my experience is normal or abnormal, but I have to do this every year now. I would have thought it would take longer for the yellowing to recur.

[Tom Stenzel]

Sounds like there's a bunch of ways to do it. I used 3M Car Car plastic cleaner. Professional Formula, says so right on the bottle!I felt like a real pro.

The bottle came with no instructions. Being cautious, I first tried putting some on a towel and rubbing by hand and got nowhere. Then tried a buffing wheel on a drill and got somewhere pretty quickly. It really made a difference at night.

The headlights yellowed quickly after that. While I owned the van I had to re-polish the headlights twice more or about every 6 months. The van is now gone but the bottle of cleaner is still 2/3 full.

I've seen the headlight kits with the UV protectant and wondered how well it worked.

-Tom

[Bruce Page]

I guess a lot depends on the type of plastic they use. We had a 2004 Infinity G35 that yellowed terribly and required polishing at least every 6 months. We have newer Infinity EX35 that is not yellowing at all. I have needed to polish out my 2009 FX35 only once.

[Chris Padilla]

Don't over complicate. This stuff works great: Meguiar's G1900K Headlight and Clear Plastic Restoration Kit

I mask around the headlight with blue tape and polish with light pressure using a hand drill. It takes only a few minutes on each light. It can be a little messy so plan on washing the car afterwords.

I have this same kit at home. Works great.

[paul cottingham]

I have heard that toothpaste works very well as well. Might be worth a try.

[Bruce Wrenn]

I use Mother's Mag Wheel polish on 94 Areostar van with good success. But I still need a UV protective coating afterwards.

[John K Jordan]

I expect to mask it off, wet sand from about 600 to 2,000 grit, and then use a polishing compound and maybe a coating.
First - is that the right grit range?
Second - would you use hand-held sand paper or use a slow speed drill with a 2-3" disk?
Third - what polishing compound? Or should I just keep using finer micro-abrasives (anywhere up to 12,000 available)?

Brian, I haven't done headlights but I did an entire plastic aircraft windshield on one of our Cessnas. The plastic was so crazed and scratched that flying into the sun was most unpleasant and a hazard.

I used a MicroMesh kit sold for restoring aircraft windshields. It started with a coarse grit and believe it had sandpaper grit up to 12000 grit. Once you got to that grit the surface was polished. I have used this recently on a piece of turned acrylic with the same results. Then I turned some other acrylic, sanded to 1200 or 1500, then polished. I got the same highly polished surface. I experimented with several types of polish and they all worked - two were metal polishes I had on hand. I also tried the Tormek honing compound and it worked as well! Based on that, I don't think special plastic polish is needed. I didn''t use any coating.


All the sanding and polishing on the windshield was by hand with the sandpaper stretched over a soft rubber pad.

JKJ

[Dick Adair]

Toothpaste does work well.

[Erik Loza]

You gotta' physically remove the yellowed layer to get through to clear plastic. I've tried toothpaste, various "wipe-on" chemicals, and Plastix. They might smooth out the surface but none of them remove the yellow layer. The only thing that has consistently worked for me is the 3M headlight restoration kit. I've used it on several cars and always had great results. In fact, made the lenses look like new. It is time consuming and messy but it works. As with anything where you are removing material, the amount of time you spend with each progressive grit is the the key. And masking the car paint. There must be some Youtube videos of it.

https://www.amazon.com/3M-39008-Head.../dp/B001AIZ5HY

Erik