how to polish a light?

[Jronman]

So I recently had the complete headlight housing replaced and it looks all clear and nice but only the one light. Any suggestions on getting the other side clearer/more new looking to match the new light? I read toothpaste could work. I tried it and felt it didn't do much. Maybe I was doing it wrong.

[JimboS1ice]

I bought a kit from mother’s that does a decent job, I need to do it to my right headlight


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[Kato]

Toothpaste works, but you need the kind that doesn't have any abrasives in it. Rub it on, then buff the hell out of it, put some elbow grease into it. I used to do this with our old cars, worked great. I put a good scuff in my headlight on the new car, just used a wet sand technique and took it down to 3000 grit, then buffed it with Mother's headlight restore to finish it up. Worked perfectly, but I've done this sort of thing before. The proper technique is what counts, a good buff pad on a buffer or angle grinder and use various grits and keep it wet, going up to 2000-3000. I used a buff pad on a drill when I scuffed my headlight, worked great.

[Jronman]

my rotex 150 supposedly polishes but I don't got the polishing pad for it. Would it be a good idea to get the buffing pad for the rotex?  I'll have to look into mothers headlight restore. 

@Kato so I use 3000 grit first then the mothers? 

 

My neighbors son in law or something was thinking about oreos instead of looking behind his pickup or backup camera and backed into my car. From a short distance you wouldn't even notice and closeup the bumper looked out of place but apparently was enough damage to be worth over $1000 which surprised me. the lights worked but the back of the housing apparently had damage. 

[Kato]

I took it from 400 to 800 by hand, wet sanding to get rid of the major scrapes. I keep my leaf blower over the car, one day while taking it down it smacked into the headlight and put a pretty good scrape across it. Since I've done headlights and stuff like it before I knew I could just sand it out. Depending on what you have the process is still the same. If all you're doing is trying to remove yellowing you can use 1500 up to 3000 sanding wet, then hit it with the Mother's. Everything is meant to be done with high speed but you can do it by hand if you don't mind running out of steam and stopping to rest. Just make sure you're removing surface stuff and not using any grits that will remove actual material, otherwise you're gonna hate yourself. Doesn't ruin things but makes it that much harder because you to do more work.

 

I use the drill with a Velcro sanding disc attachment for 800 to 1500, everything else I do by hand. The Mother's kits are good, that's where I got my sanding discs and holder. Not that you'll be using them a lot but they come in perfectly handy for headlights when needed. Beats the hell out of the doing-it-by-hand method.

 

 

You can also try toothpaste again, just smear it on and rub the shit out of it with some muscle. It'll take the yellow off but it won't last because you're not really "treating" the lens. The Mother's kit will actually do more of a restore to the lens rather than just a cleaning.

[Jronman]

@Kato it isn't yellow yet just more just cloudy from wear and tear. I suppose Menards would have the supplies?

[Kato]

Try the Mother's kit, it should be enough.

[BMack37]

I have the Meguiar's kit, it was about $20. I think it's roughly the same as the Mother's kit but I like how Barry Meguiar supports the car community so I try to buy their stuff to support them. It works extremely well but even with the protectant, expect to do it again in a year.

[jtkendall]

I should probably get around to doing this on my truck. Hit a deer in 2012 which resulted in replacing everything except one headlight which is cloudy/yellow and annoying.

[Jronman]

the Mothers kit helped some. Its still a bit noticeable but better than it was.