Found a Good plastic headlight restoration kit.

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cudaspaz

cudaspaz

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As some of you may know, I work on crappy Mercedes benz vehicles for a living.
Well, some of them are crappy, some nice.

Anyways, I decided to start cleaning up some of the yellow, faded headlights on some of the older models as part of the major service intervals for an extra charge of course.

I went to Advance auto parts and asked them what was the best stuff they had and they recommended CV headlight restorer/defogger kit.
Crystal View.
www.myheadlight.com

I decided to use it on my first victim, a 2002 E-320 with horribly yellowed lenses which made it hard to see at night.

The finished result was phenominal.

They actually looked brand new by the time I was finished.

The kit includes, and requires wet sand paper and alot of elbow grease.
It has a two stage wet sand procedure with different grit paper, and two different types of liquids to apply.
Helps to have a spray bottle of water near by.

The first liquid seems to be a gritty-like paste which you rubb into the freshly sanded surface.

Then once that is washed off, you apply the second milky liquid really quick over the entire surface and let it air dry.

Before the last liquid is applied, you think the lights will look like crap, but once you apply that stuff, it's like magic.

My customer was very sceptical and thought for sure she was wasting her money, but she was really, really happy at how nice they looked.

So now, I can sell these jobs for $100 a pop easy, but my shoulders hurt like a mother the next day from all that sanding.
I guess it's something I don't do every day so I really felt it. LOL.
 
Here's how I do it.
Step 1: WET sand with 800 grit
Step 2: 1000 grit
Step 3: 1500 grit
Step 4: Cloth buffing wheel on a cordless drill with green stage 5 polishing compound (jeweler's rouge)

Total cost about $15 and you can do a bunch of cars. The cloth wheel and the stick of polishing compound last a long time.

Total time about 10 minutes per side.

headlights.jpg
 
I would love an update in about 6 months from both of you. I need to do some myself. But I have heard the the results are only good from a few products that coat the lense with a protective coating after polishing.
Keep us posted please.
Frank
 
Good to know. My dodge ram is starting to do the same thing. I can get new head light assemblies for $120 and just install them however. Not cheap. lol
 
66aCUDA said:
I would love an update in about 6 months from both of you. I need to do some myself. But I have heard the the results are only good from a few products that coat the lense with a protective coating after polishing.
Keep us posted please.
Frank
Click to expand...

This stuff claims to do that with the last liquid you apply.
The guys at the auto parts store showed me their cars that they did with it and they are still holding up well after a year.

However, the guy is doing it wrong in the video.
He was supposed to just wet the sand paper and sand before applying the first packet of stuff.
Apparently he did not read the directions.LOL.
 
We polish head and tail lights all the time.

Taillights are easier, as they don't have the clear coat on them. Just a little wet sand with 1500 grit and polish with Maguiers Mirror Glaze #9 Swirl Remover. If it's really badly scratched we'll use the Maguiers MG #2 Cut Polish then the #9.

Process is the same for lightly damaged/discoloured headlights, but if the clear coat is starting to come off we'll use an orbital sander with 800 grit(dry) to take off the clear coat, then proceed with the wet sand, etc.

They come out like new.
 
I used the kit you are talking about, it's the best 20 bucks I ever spent. Wally World also sells it, comes in a silver pouch.

For those who have a talent to pinch a dime, you can use buffing compound with a buffer, then hit them with a clear coat and get good results, too. Without a good coating, you'll be back doing it again about every 6 months.

I am hitting the age where my night vision isn't as good as it used to be, and I swear, the light output DOUBLED after I cleaned the headlights, and they didn't look that bad before I started. I don't see how people with headlight lenses that are opaque can see after night.
 
DANG! missed another patent!!!
I didn't know anyone else was doing the wet sanding thing!
Been using wet sand buffing compound and rainx for years, the stuff was always sitting around the garage!
First set I did was on a NEON!
Have you seen those cars headlights!!! They are almost always the worst!
 
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