Vehicle headlight lens restoration.

Trade

Well-known Member
Tomorrow my 2009 Honda Accord will be officially a 10 year old car. And the headlight lenses had gotten pretty cloudy over the years.

So I decided to try this:



And it worked! It cleared up at least 80% of the cloudiness, maybe more.

I just used my 99 cent a tube cheap Pepsodent toothpaste. I did use a bigger scrub brush. One similar to this:

hdx-scrub-brushes-261mbhdxrm-64_400_compressed.jpg

And I used a bucket of water and a big car wash sponge to clean it off instead of the spray bottle and paper towels.
 

I tackled the badly fogged lenses on an 06 Corolla last summer. I used an inexpensive 3M kit that I picked up from the NAPA store. Though not a big fan of DIY, when I do things like this I follow the instructions exactly and work carefully. It took the better part of a day - mostly waiting for batteries to recharge for my cordless drill - but the results were worth it. The lenses looked absolutely new!

After polishing them, I treated them with a Maguires sealant that supposedly will keep them clear if used yearly.
 

I tackled the badly fogged lenses on an 06 Corolla last summer. I used an inexpensive 3M kit that I picked up from the NAPA store. Though not a big fan of DIY, when I do things like this I follow the instructions exactly and work carefully. It took the better part of a day - mostly waiting for batteries to recharge for my cordless drill - but the results were worth it. The lenses looked absolutely new!

After polishing them, I treated them with a Maguires sealant that supposedly will keep them clear if used yearly.

Mine did not look like new. But the improvement was significant.
 
If your car is parked outdoors a lot, these plastic lenses will cloud up due to the sun's ultraviolet rays. Therefore, in order to keep decent nighttime headlamp performance, it is almost mandatory to clean and polish these lens every 3 or 4 years.
 
I used a paste made from baking soda and a little water. After that, I used some 2000 grit sandpaper. Like new!
 


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