Cloudy headlights.

Mikeyram

Mikeyram

New member
A friend of mine went to Wal-Mart to get an oil change and they asked him if he wanted his headlights clear again. They charged him $30 and his headlights are clear again. They were pretty bad too. Do any of you know what they may have used? The lenses on my sisters Passat are really bad and I want to take care of them for her.
 
Mikeyram said:
A friend of mine went to Wal-Mart to get an oil change and they asked him if he wanted his headlights clear again. They charged him $30 and his headlights are clear again. They were pretty bad too. Do any of you know what they may have used? The lenses on my sisters Passat are really bad and I want to take care of them for her.
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Depends on how bad they are but wet sanding and polishing will bring back most plastic HL...I do it here for my customers all the time...I charge 50 bucks...its one of the few services that I provide that I can make some money on with out a lot of work...also 50 bucks is cheap in comparison to replacment and that's what I based my cost on

Do a search here on DC and you will see that we have quite a few threads on it
 
I have seen some good results with the Wolfgang kit, no personal experience though. I have wet sanded and used meg plast x with good results.
 
Beemerboy said:
Depends on how bad they are but wet sanding and polishing will bring back most plastic HL...I do it here for my customers all the time...I charge 50 bucks...its one of the few services that I provide that I can make some money on with out a lot of work...also 50 bucks is cheap in comparison to replacment and that's what I based my cost on

Do a search here on DC and you will see that we have quite a few threads on it
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im sure you could get a decent set of older car headlights under 50 bucks but that is decent around 20 per headlight is a good deal with minimal effort !

permatex has a kit as well as 3M and a few other brands or you can use mothers plastic restorer, meguiars plastX or similar plastic/glass polishing compound etc or the classic wet sanding and machine polish works too
 
Wetsanding and polishing them will make them look new. If it's a process you feel comfortable doing yourself, it really won't take too long.
 
I've used PB's Pro Polish to clean up some cloudy lenses before on a Honda Civic. Followed that up with Plexus. Though the improvement was dramatic, it was not permanent. I have since picked up some Meg's PlasticX to try.

For those wet sanding, are you using a sponge or similar product as a "backing" for the paper in order to have a "consistent" pressure? Do you have a favorite paper product?
 
I don't use anything but the wet paper. I'm not applying much pressure and I am also using a high grit the few times I have done this. I will say I don't think it's permanent, because one of the vehicles I did this for clouded back up after a year or so. The lenses did not cloud back up nearly as bad as they were to begin with, but you could tell it was there.
 
The "clouding" on this particular vehicle came back within just a couple of months. The lenses were all but crystal clear after the treatment.

So I take it that you don't put enough pressure on the paper to worry about "pressure points". Yes, high grit paper would be all I would consider. Thanks!
 
No, I really wasn't concerned with creating a pressure point on the lenses like I would be if I were doing this on the paint finish somewhere. I wouldn't say I am total newbie when it comes to wetsanding, but I've never wetsanded an entire vehicle. Mostly limited to problem areas and paint touch ups, which I feel like I got pretty proficient at doing.
 
Mr. Clean said:
Have you used a couple/few/several different papers? Any one stand out as a preference?
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Yes, I have actually, which is kind of funny considering I don't wetsand all that much. Someone sent me a couple of pieces of the Meg's Unigrit (I believe that's the correct name). I have also used 3M from Wally World and an acquaintance who has ties to the bodyshop gave me a few different grades of some "no name" paper.

Just from my experience with the different papers, I'd have to say they all performed pretty much the same for me. I know some people will say the Unigrit is supposed to be "better" but I don't know how much difference there could be in something like 2500 or 3000 grit (if I recall the grades correctly) paper. Maybe under a microscope or something.
 
I decided to tackle the little bit of cloudiness I had on my SSR's HLTS. I used 3M rubbing compound, a regular micro pad, and elbow grease. I followed it up with Meguiars polish. I'd say it was about a 75% improvement. I was pushing really hard cause my first attempt didn't make much difference. My arms were burning!:strong: I was very happy but it could still be better. Next I will try it with my buffer and see how it turns out.

BTW - Just read the link, thanks Beemer!
 
Mikeyram said:
I decided to tackle the little bit of cloudiness I had on my SSR's HLTS. I used 3M rubbing compound, a regular micro pad, and elbow grease. I followed it up with Meguiars polish. I'd say it was about a 75% improvement. I was pushing really hard cause my first attempt didn't make much difference. My arms were burning!:strong: I was very happy but it could still be better. Next I will try it with my buffer and see how it turns out.
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Mike

You need to wet sand to take a layer off, compounds by hand will not do this...I've done alot of HL and some wet sanding...then you can buff it back with the compounds..
 
Beemerboy said:
Mike

You need to wet sand to take a layer off, compounds by hand will not do this...I've done alot of HL and some wet sanding...then you can buff it back with the compounds..
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I haven't tried this by hand but compounds with a buffer will take care of the problem. I've used PB 2.5 and an orange Edge pad with very good success. Literally turned a yellow lens to crystal. I've also seen some lens that had the yellowing on the inside of the light. I haven't felt the need to invest the time to seperate the halves of the light though I've seen some who have done this with some success.
 
Beemerboy said:
Mike

You need to wet sand to take a layer off, compounds by hand will not do this...I've done alot of HL and some wet sanding...then you can buff it back with the compounds..
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I'm scared to take sandpaper to my SSR!:scared:

I'll try it on my sisters Passat first.:lol2:
 
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