Toothpaste and plastic lenses.

biko

Had to give the lenses a go today and took a couple snaps.
Mind, I only scrubbed for 2 mins for the "after" pic but it still goes to show the massive difference.
Another couple minutes and they were be back to new.

Just spray some water on the lens before you start scrubbing.
Rinse thoroughly afterwards.

joujoujou

Well done!

And smells nice.

mfceiling

Mental.

I was about to post this tip to the guy who's lights were poor on his honda accord in the main motors thread!!

Fair play Biko - great job done.

langdang

There's a job for me during the week - any particular brand/type better than others, one of the slightly abrasive tooth whitening ones maybe?

randy hickey

Bikorbanate of Soda.


Sorry, I couldn't resist!

dgt

langdang wrote: »

There's a job for me during the week - any particular brand/type better than others, one of the slightly abrasive tooth whitening ones maybe?

The toothpaste


The result!

biko

Sweet, there's a tiny bit of yellow left. I'll try that Tesco stuff.
Apparently whitening toothpaste isn't as good as regular.

Dord

Will have to try this, have a bit of a scuff on one light... maybe this will help.

georgefalls

I'd say the scotchbrite on the sponge did more to clean the lens, than the toothpaste.

biko

It was an old one so the brite was very soft although it may have had some effect.
Usually people use microfibre cloths with the same results.

MetzgerMeister

Do not use toothpaste with whitening agents as it will leave a fog on your headlights

JohnBoy26

Cutting compound is much more effective than toothpaste in my experience.

Ronnie Beck

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

Cutting compound is much more effective than toothpaste in my experience.

Leaves a bad taste in your mouth I find

Is it t-cut or something like that you use?

dgt

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

Cutting compound is much more effective than toothpaste in my experience.

Indeed it is but at 45cent for a tube of Tesco's finest value toothpaste and the results it can produce I'd be inclined to save the cutting compound for it's intended purpose

Sofiztikated

Well that's me out to the Clio tomorrow then so.

Mmmmm, minty lights. 9 out of 10 dentists say so.

IK09

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

Cutting compound is much more effective than toothpaste in my experience.

Such as T-cut or that mantis x stuff?

biko

Toothpaste is a cutting compound really as it's "an abrasive suspended in a paste" but I'm guessing most similar products will do, toothpaste is just easy as it's already in the house.
I'm a big fan of using household items for stuff like this since it encourages the diy spirit.

Be careful if you're using an orbital buffer, they can melt the plastic in places if you're not moving it around enough. Eric the Carguy did that on video lol.
For regular guys elbow grease is plenty to bring that shine back.

IK09

I have used toothpaste on my gf's clio headlights before and it was brilliant but now they look shocking again. might try the t cut this time.

haha i have far more t-cut lying around the house than i do tooth paste

biko

You can google www.google.ie/search?q=t-cut+plastic+headlight and see how others fared.

Once you've got them nice you can add something that will keep them from getting exposed to the elements again.
Car wax or similar will add protection.
Once the lenses are damaged from road grit and then abrasive compounds it's not much you can do but to keep after them every once in a while.

Esel

mfceiling wrote: »

Menthol.

I was about to post this tip to the guy who's lights were poor on his honda accord in the main motors thread!!

Fair play Biko - great job done.

FYP

randy hickey wrote: »

Sodium Bicarbonate

And yours! Aka 'breadsoda'.

MetzgerMeister

Esel wrote: »

And yours! Aka 'breadsoda'.

Did you not see that he was using biko's username as a pun???

Esel

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

Did you not see that he was using biko's username as a pun?

No, that went right over my head...

Chimaera

Sorry for the necro-post but a product I've found excellent for keeping plastic headlights in good shape after polishing is Meguiar's Plastix.

Once you've polished them back up a rub of Plastix after each wash keeps them in good shape.

For really badly scuffed headlights, a more agressive repair is to wet sand them. Start with 400 or 600 grit emery paper (depending on how bad they are) and work up through successive grades up to 2000. You'll probably need about 10-15 minutes per grade per headlight but it's worth putting in the time.

When you've gotten to 2000, rinse and dry the headlight and finish with an application of Meguiar's Plastix.

Top Dog

Does anyone know, or care to guess, if the toothpaste might have similar results on other faded/scuffed plastics like wind deflectors and rear lights?

YbFocus

Top Dog wrote: »

Does anyone know, or care to guess, if the toothpaste might have similar results on other faded/scuffed plastics like wind deflectors and rear lights?

I Think wind deflectors are perspex kind of material, so the discoloration is within the material itself.
Don't think it would work but it won't do any harm to try should work on the back lights though!

Top Dog

YbFocus wrote: »

I Think wind deflectors are perspex kind of material, so the discoloration is within the material itself.
Don't think it would work but it won't do any harm to try should work on the back lights though!

You may be right about the discolouration, but thats not actually the issue with these. They're covered in fine scratches from branches & leaves which has left them very very dull.

Sure can't hurt to try anyway

Now - will cheap Lidl toothpaste do grand as the nearest Tesco is 17 miles away? :pac:

YbFocus

Top Dog wrote: »

You may be right about the discolouration, but thats not actually the issue with these. They're covered in fine scratches from branches & leaves which has left them very very dull.

Sure can't hurt to try anyway

Now - will cheap Lidl toothpaste do grand as the nearest Tesco is 17 miles away? :pac:

realistically anything smugly abrasive should work, I've used Silvo in the past with great effect.

Top Dog

Well I did the front lights, bonnet protector, wind deflectors and rear lights today. Gonna reserve judgement until tomorrow when I can get a coat of wax over them all to shine them up a little, but initial impressions are positive