There seems to be a new wave of products and infomercials surrounding headlight restoration. They charge around 20-25 bucks for their products usually.

Last weekend when I detailed my G, I did a once over on my hazy headlights with a buffer pad and rubbing compound...now the haze is gone and they look brand new.

Save yourself the cash on expensive headlight restoration kits...use the stuff you already have!

 

polish and compound will work on some headlights. its usually the first thing i try before going deeper than that. there are some where you just have to get nitty gritty and do some manual labor, never bought a kit tho

 

i just bought the kit from autozone, use light sand paper then polish.

 

i used 1000 then 2000 depending how bad the haze is

 

I've used both the wet-sand kits, the "scratchX" crap, and just the standard polishing method. In fact, just did both my headlights and my wife's headlights on her G sedan this weekend. Here are some before and afters.... all of this by hand, I just don't trust myself taking a power buffer to plastic. lol

Just a good rubbing compound, then polish, then hit it with a synthetic wax, all on microfiber towels. We'll see how long it lasts like this.

Mine Before, pics don't do it justice about how bad I had let it get.




After:






Wife's G before (her's wasn't as bad, but they were starting to get cloudy):




After:

 

^ That is perfect evidence of what I'm talking about! Thanks for posting those up. They look really good.

 

My Headlight Restoration Job

 

That job came out really nice! Though I never really support taking sandpaper to headlights...

 

I'm glad someone made a good thread about headlight restoration. The past couple of threads I have read contained bad news. " The WTF did I do to my headlights" Thread
Keep posting up your HLR jobs and the steps that you took. This thread can help others in need.

 

yeah thats true lol.. my process took a month or two to perfect by practicing on my own headlights, but i have it down.

 

I'm glad that this thread was able to help some folks out. I'll see if I can snap some pics of my HLR job pretty soon and get them posted. All I did was hit them with a yellow pad on my buffer with some Z-PC Fusion I was using on the rest of my car at the time. You'll be amazed at how good they look for taking approximately 5 seconds on each light

 

wow that came out really good nice job. what grit did you use mine didnt come out aas shiny, but i didnt want to over due it

 

do you guys see better results with wet sanding first?

I have an 08 and have a small amount of haze/cloudy forming ill try compound/polish since its just a small area.

What do you guys apply for protection after the cleaning?

 

If it's a light amount of hazing, just use a little rubbing compound to remove it (I used Z-PC Fusion because I alredy had it). For protection, just hit it with a coat of polish (I used Z-2 because I already had it.)

Good luck

 

for heavy hazing, like mine, definitely recommend wetsanding first... Meguiar's also offers a sealant now to follow it up with. Can't attest to how well it works, but the PlastX that comes with their kit works wonders. I've used it on my '04 G35, an '01 Lexus SC 430, '97 Honda Accord, and '98 Ford Contour with the same great results. I've been taking pictures of all the cars (except the contour, didn't have a camera at the time), and they've all come out looking fantastic.