I have been meaning to sort by headlights out for quite some time now. They had become very oxidised - yellow and cloudy in places, and were letting the overall look of the car down quite considerably.
I spent a while deliberating over what to use to get these back up to scratch. In the end I opted for a product that required a lot less elbow grease than continual sanding with different grades and then polishing - Meguiars two step headlight restoration kit.
(http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160502/3f9686c37d60aae63c4d1f3169c256f6.jpg)
I know there are a number of different kits out there, and I'm sure there are some which produce brilliant results. I opted for this because of its ease of use and the fact that it incorporates a UV coating which lasts up to a year (apparently). I was sceptical, but had seen some good reviews so decided to give it a go.
You don't get much in the pack - two abrasive pads, a bottle of cleaner, and a coating spray.
(http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160502/51002c8af9d8eab9238b462942033b40.jpg)
I have to say, this was very easy to use. Mask up the paintwork well, wet the surface of the headlight and then rub with the abrasive pad and cleaning compound. I went for around 2-3 minutes, then dried off to see what the headlight looked like. I repeated this about three times on each light - waiting until the whole light had a hazy, uniform look, with no sign of oxidation.
Basically the light is scuffed up at this point, and it doesn't look great... However, that was all the elbow grease done. The final stage was to spray the coating on to the light. I made sure my masking completely covered the paint (to make sure I didn't get any overspray) and then gave each light a light coat. Immediately I saw the difference. I waited 5 mins for the coat to dry, and then repeated - ending up putting three coats on each light.
I am very happy with the result - the car looks so much better. Cloudy, yellow appearance is completely gone now and the lights look almost new. If I were to nit-pick, you can see a slight Orange peel effect on parts of the light, but this certainly isn't noticeable unless you're specifically looking for it.
Before:
(http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160502/d7de5d48497f8bfc5f3f34bc20df176e.jpg)
After:
(http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160502/c23f84d7bb4b069a0e40bced14f586f1.jpg)
Not sure how long this finish will last - it is supposed to be up to a year, but we'll see. I'll come back to this post and update with progress if I remember to! But so far so good - I have been pleasantly surprised!
Looks a million times better than my efforts with a Meguirs multi stage kit and some UV laquer!!
I would love to have my lights 'crystal clear' but I have to accept I'm past the point of no return with them now. When (if) I have some spare cash floating around in future I'll be buying a better set.
Looks great, was the kit expensive ?
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It was £30 from halfords, you could probably find it cheaper online somewhere I guess...
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I used this kit on my car last month. I thought all was great at time after spaying the lacquer on, but it appears that the lacquer need some time and heat to dry in or it will run. That night it rained and all the lacquer ran.
I will need clean mine up again. s:cry: :cry: s:cry:
I would advise you get the headlights into some sun light to dry off and keep them out the rain.
It's been over a year since you did this, any update on how well they lasted?
TF 212 is in my garage now and the head lights are still okay.
Quote from: "minimike"TF 212 is in my garage now and the head lights are still okay.
Thanks for the reply.
Have they clouded at all or do they still look like the "after" images?
They are by no means perfect, but are absolutely fine. I am a perfectionist and they don't concern me. I need to take some pics for you to see for yourself.
Thanks for that post, worked a treat on mine!
Just tried to polish up the lights with T Cut. Did an OK job but still left a slightly yellowish tint. Then tried Brasso, just using a paper towel and they have come up brilliantly. Just as good as the Meguiars kit I bought a few years ago (that I can't find anymore).
Meant to post this in a different thread!