I had suggested
To Ms X that she switch to the higher color temperature lights, and possibly use a 3m kit to shine up her frosted headlamps.
Mine have been getting pretty bad, lately, predominantly due to the sandblasting effect of 395,000 miles of driving the old girl. So I picked up one of the kits I reccomended to her- they’re on sale at Hardly Freight, for $19- and went to work.
In about five minutes per lens, I managed to get the sandblasted, old lenses clear as new again. Well, as clear as they’re ever going to be again. You can’t get to close to the alignment nubs, of course, and you’ll wear out the sandpaper if you try to sand off the lettering.
The kit consists of three grades of sandpaper and a foam buffing pad. The first grit of paper is super fine, and is made to remove deep scratches and sandblastiness. The second grit is MUCH finer, and brings the surface down to smoothness, though it’s still frosty looking when you get done. The third grit is mondo fine, and has to be used wet, and it just about leaves the lens perfect. The last step is to buff the lenses with a dab of buffing compound, which makes the lenses clean and sparkly. Like I said, five minutes or less per headlamp, and i still have enough materials to do another pair of lenses.
best $19 I ever spent, and there’s plenty left to do it again, or do the wife’s when it needs it.
If you know a friendly body shop, there is also the option of a quick 1000 grit sand off and shoot them with clear.
Other than that, I buff them by hand as you describe, often, or go after them with a buffer when I have it out and handy.
Luckily my vehicles all have glass headlight assemblies.
I wondered if those kits were a ripoff, and finally came across someone who bought and used one. My covers are hazed over, and this will do wonders for visibility – for them to see me, especially the tail lights.
There’s an issue that Carteach sort-of referred to. When you remove the “haze”, you open up the plastic’s surface to RAPID degradation, so you will be re-doing shortly, etc, etc.
Some sort of clear-coat is in order to make a scratch-resistant surface, but the kits don’t even advise on that.
You’re thinking glass, Dog. Most headlamp lenses are polycarbonate, and polycarbonate is a monolithic material whereas glass has a surface tension. Glass is tougher on the surface than in it’s interior, and polishing it sometimes removes the surface tension, exposing a softer material within. Polycarbonate lenses (like the ones on my truck and the wife’s truck) can be sanded and polished without affecting the lens, all you’re actually doing is removing the already compromised bad surface. The lens once polished is exactly as scratch resistent as it was when new, which is to say, not very much.
I’ve done the sand/clearcoat thing, it’s actually a very nice way to Earl Scheib a car for sale, I never followed one long enough to see how well they lasted.
Take a felt buffing wheel. Chuck it into a drill. Press firmly while keeping the buffing wheel moving back and forth and up and down. One minute per lense makes it slicker’n snot. Repeat yearly. The key is to keep the wheel MOVING. Don’t ax me how I know.
I was wondering about this just the other night. Forgot about it till seeing this. Cool, an easy fix that will brighten things up. Thanks!
I’ve been buying the Super-white Krypton bulbs from these folks for awhile. Good to deal with, and they have the higher-wattage bulbs. The original owner turned it over to his son last year.
http://www.competitionlimited.com/
Haven’t had any faith in a HID conversion as they sell, but doubt it’d be as good as factory.