Been watching some YouTube videos showing how to restore cloudy headlights. Basically sanding the headlight with progressively finer grades of sandpaper then applying a sealant. The headlights on my wife's vehicle are mostly clear not a lot of cloudiness really. So question is it is a good idea to sand the whole headlight now or wait unil it's worse ?

Thanks



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Doesn't matter, it's only a bandaid where stitches are needed. In other words, it'll only last a little while because you also just sanded off all the UV protection Ford coated them with. Replace the lamp assemblies is the only long lasting fix..

Been there done that have a plaque to commemorate the event.

 

Thats kind of what I was thinking, I would be sanding off all of that uv protection to "fix' the small(ish) area that is oxidized

 

Hard pill to swallow but reality is never easy or cheap. I wasted $$ on those kits, figured hey it's made by 3M it must be good. Ha. WRONG.

 

I had secess restoring a set of headlights on an old mustang of mine. Sanded down and had a buddy of mine who is an automotive painter spray a couple coats of clear on them.

Unless you have said buddy... better off to replace.

 

On real bad lenses I have used rubbing compound followed by polishing compound. If they are not in very bad shape, polishing compound alone has worked for me. Just by hand, no power buffers.

 

The headlights are really not too bad, it's just one area the rest of the lens is clear as a bell. So I think I will leave them alone for now. If they get much worse then I will try the restoration kit
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Why not just get a can of polishing compound for a few dollars? The whole process of polishing it will take ten minutes and get rid of the foggy area.. I am not talking a restoration kit here.

 

If they are bad, wet sand out to 800 grit and use a 2k clear coat. Permanent fix. If they're not not real bad, compound and polish with a buffer, then apply a ceramic coating to them. Semi permanent fix. You can also wet sand out to like 2500 and polish with a buffer, but you need to use a ceramic coating to seal it. If you just wax them it wont protect against uv rays which is why they're turning yellow in the first place.

 

I just did the whole treatment to my son’s old Caddy Seville. If the lenses aren’t yellow, just hit them with a polishing compound, a good cleaning solution, and then treat with Meguiars Headlight Coating. I have started using the headlight coating as a preventative measure to guard against UV damage on all our vehicles.


This is what I used for polishing and coating:

Amazon

Amazon

Amazon

Amazon