How to: Permanent headlight restoration

Pov06

Hi all,

Today I decided to try and do a permanent fix for yellow/hazy headlights. This methods involves wet-sanding the headlight, spraying it with clear lacquer and then polishing it.

You will need:

1. Sandpaper (2000 grit, 1000 grit for worse situations)
2. Clear lacquer spray (I used Simoniz Clear Lacquer)
3. Polish (I used Autoglym Super Resin Polish)
4. Finishing product (I used Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection)

The headlights:



These lights weren't too bad. There was a bit of a haze but originally they had a yellow haze. I used to use the toothpaste method of cleaning them but it wouldn't last long.

Step 1
Decide whether you will want to do the job with the headlights in the car or if you want to take them out. I decided to take the headlights out instead of masking the bodywork around the headlight.

If you want to keep the headlight inside the car be sure to mask it off.

Step 2
Clean the headlights properly with water to make sure the surface is 100% clean. When you have them clean you can begin wet-sanding with the 2000 grit sandpaper.

Basically dip the sandpaper into a small bucket of water and keep sanding until the headlight doesn't have anymore yellowness to it.

After a bit of sanding here's what my headlight looked like:


So YEAH, the headlight will look a lot worse than it was after sanding. This is normal and don't be scared to continue.

Step 3
Lacquering time. Wash the headlight again to remove any sanded particles off the headlight. Follow the instructions on your lacquer.

I did a total of 4 coats. The first coat was very light. I applied each coat with a 15 minute drying time in between. After the 4th coat I allowed the headlight to dry for 2 hours.

Here's the lacquered headlight:


As you see the headlight now has a matte surface too it. Looks a lot worse than it was, still.

The surface will be quite rough looking with dots from the spray of lacquer.

Step 4
The next step is to wet-sand the lacquered surface with 2000-grit sandpaper. You pretty much have to keep wet-sanding until the little dots have gone away from the surface.

You need to make sure to do all 4 coats of lacquer properly to have a thick enough lacquer layer left after sanding.

If you don't sand down the lacquer enough in this stage you won't have a 100% clear headlight after polishing.

Step 5
Time for polishing. Apply your polish and polish the surface properly until it's transparent. After applying the polish make sure to wipe the surface down with a clean microfibre cloth.

You may have to repeat this step a few times. I did it 3 times.

If after polishing the surface the headlight isn't clear you will have to repeat step 4.

After I was happy with the finish I applied my Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection as I would with bodywork.

This is what the headlight looked after polishing:


Finished headlight VS lacquered headlight:


Both headlights back in the car:


The clear lacquer should provide permanent protection, or at least a lot better protection than just polishing the headlight.

If any of the more experienced detailers have something to add, please do. I'm quite a newbie with this and I decided to take the plunge and try it.

I was really happy with the results :P