Here I used the Cera Kote headlight restoration kit (about $15 from Wal-Mart) and i was really surprised at how much of a difference it made on my OEM headlights. All factory from 2002, so I didn’t expect them to turn out that great, but it’s amazing what a little smoothing and sanding can do for old headlights. I wish I had taken better before and after pictures, to be honest, but this speaks for itself!
I’ve also been very impressed with Cera Kote trim restore products before, maybe I’ll show some pictures of what it did to my engine-bay plastics. Stay tuned!
Update: it’s been 7 months so far, and still looks great. I’ll see what it looks like after a year and post pictures of that too. My car gets a lot of UV exposure since it’s not in a covered environment, but it holds up well. I think the coating you apply at the end must have great UV protection
You’ll want to apply some clear spray paint to them at the very end, otherwise they’ll get super yellow again in like three months.
I did this with two different UV resistant clear sprays and both yellowed and faded in a relatively short amount of time. And I didn’t buy super cheap bottom shelf stuff or anything. I believe I got rustoleum and another brand I don’t recall.
Simple fact is plastic is going to deteriorate in sunlight. I miss square glass headlights. Get off my lawn.
UV resistant film, like the Clear Bra stuff that 3M(?) makes. Some companies make them pre-cut exactly for your model’s headlights. A little tricky to put on, like window tint, etc. but the film is good for like 5 years, then you peal it off and put new film back on, never need to polish the plastic ever again. Some people put the film on BEFORE the plastic goes bad, even on new cars. EDIT: also adding that spray paints are a bad idea because they actually will mess with the light patterns and output and stuff. I forget all the details exactly, but something something do your own research 😉
Yup. The real trick is to get a 2K clear coat. Pricey compared to “UV resistant” 1 component sprays but it actually does hold up. It’s less like spray paint more like an epoxy coating, tough as nails when set and actually keeps the plastic from yellowing.
The perfect middle ground happened for me with my 2001 E46. Modern headlight shape but with easily replaceable lenses. Gluing the damn things together is BS.
That looks great! Good work.
BTW +1 for making sure you look into some sort of protective coating otherwise you can expect to do this job again in another year.
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I use a polishing cloth attachment for my circular grinder with toothpaste and it definitely does the trick
I tried this without the power tool and it didn’t work very well. I have a much newer car now, but I’ll keep this in mind for the next time I need to clear up old headlights.
Didn’t do much for me. I tried a few different things and they were mostly a waste of time. I did recently pick up the Sylvania restoration kits and that shit was like night and day difference.
The only trick is that their “3 step” process is bullshit. It’s a lot of sanding and cleaning and sanding and cleaning and before you know it you’ll be on step 12 of 3 and only halfway through. But it works and the difference at night is definitely noticable.
I tried this on my old wrx and it worked great. I just bought a stiff bristled brush and then a tube of colgate and it was a huge improvement.
Does this actually improve performance or is it cosmetic?
I mean the fact that you can see through it better should indicate that more light will pass through. Might give you an extra 3hp too.
For headlights specifically: both. A cleaner/clearer lens will greatly improve headlight brightness assuming everything else is working as intended.
If you have a car that has headlights like the before pic on this post, I’d highly recommend grabbing a kit.
Also the box said 10 horsepower.
I used the Walmart stuff on my headlights while I was selling my car and can confirm it improves the performance of the headlights. But I had read the oxidation which causes the yellow plastic will come back pretty quick. I didn’t get to see since I sold the car. Maybe someone else can chime in about that.
This has a lifetime warranty, so as long as you’re willing to email the company when the oxidization comes back, you can get another kit free
magic eraser sponge, followed by rag clean up, followed by a thin layer of turtle wax. ezpz.
