Headlight cleaning

S

Street5927

New member
I want to clean up the headlights on my company vehicle. I ran out of the Diamonite Headlight Restoration product. It doesn't have to be a real good job, but just want to get some of the haziness and yellow discoloration out of it. I thought I remember reading somewhere that someone used the Menzerna PO85RD to clean up the lenses. Could I use this (as I have much in stock) to just buff out the yellowness and haziness without causing too much "marring" or "scratching" of the headlight lense itself.
 
I've seen people take SIP to their headlights with an orange pad and get good results. It still may be worth checking out dedicated plastic cleaners too though. Meg's has M10 and M17 I believe which both are for plastic restoration.
 
I use Meg's 105. Works great. I experimented, starting some headlights with Plastx, or plastic polish & cleaners of different makes, but I now just skip all the preliminary steps and jump right to 105.

So I assume any paint polish will work.
 
M105 followed by PlastX with a rotary works pretty well. For really nasty stuff I use Meguiar's Unigrit and wet sand first with 1,500, then 2,500, and then do either M86 or M105 followed by PlastX. They look brand spanking new when finished.
 
To me, the cleaning up part of it is the easy part. It's the question of what to use to keep the lens clear for a while.

I've read on these forums that some lenses have hazed up after just a few months after cleaning, although I haven't seen that on my jobs yet.
 
to sum this up! ok a headlight has a uv coating on it. picture this like a clearcoat on top of paint. instead its a coating over palstic. now over time just like paint the headlight fades aand oxidises! just like paint. now the yellow or hazing can be removed with a compound. just like a scratch in the clear coat of paint. if you begin to compound and its not getting threw the haziness you will need to sand. at this point you can sand with 2000 if this isn't doing it drop lower i have gone as low as 400 and worked my way up to 3000 then at this point you compound and polish them out just like paint. at this point you completly removed the uv coating so in time yes the headlights will fade. i have never seen a permant fix to this. i have seen guys who cleared them or who have used it a sealent and used a wax. but the fact of matter is if not properly maintained after the fix it will fade just like paint. same stuff just ones a lense and ones paint! hopefully i have helped! remember all the work we do can completly be reveresed with out proplerly educating the customer!!! good luck!
 
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