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My dad owns a Detail shop and we have found the best way to get rid of that horrible haze that headlights tend to build.
You will need to buy:
-Mirka P1500 sand paper
-Allbrite One Step Polish Wax
-100% cotton buffer pads
-100% cotton towels
-Microfiber cloth
1.) Wet the sandpaper and rub in circles on both headlights. 3 minutes a piece should do. (Don't rub to hard.)
2.) Wipe the headlights with the cotton towel.
3.) Put a little of the Allbrite on the headlights and rub it around with the buffer until it covers the whole light.
4.) Try and use the center of the buffer and buff until all the polish is gone.
5.) Wipe with the microfiber cloth.
This can also remove some large scratches. You can find everything at your local Walmart, Autozone, or any other Auto parts store.
If you live in North Houston, TX then I can do it for you. Most places charge you $70 for both headlights. I charge $20 per light.
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I want to make a jigsaw puzzle with 40,000 pieces and when completed reads "go outside!"
If worried about scratching the lens (or the near-by paint) with sandpaper. I suggest first just trying to remove the hazing with metal polish. I have had great results with just metal polish. Using sandpaper then polish will probably get the job done faster but I prefer the harder but safer method of just metal polish.
Headlights can be polished out without sanding as well. Here I'm showing a side by side before and after-- I just used Meguiar's PlastiX and a small 3" orbital polisher. Sanding is a good solution but you need to be careful especially on coated headlights. I have yet to see a MINI headlight looking this bad. This was about 15 minutes of polishing. Most of the time when headlights look this bad the rest of the car is also neglected.
Here's the same light without the tape
__________________ 5548 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim, CA 92807 866 707 9292
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Yeah, the crappy plastic headlights on my Town & Country were so badly pitted that only significant wetsanding would do the trick. Followed by a good polish, of course. So it just depends on what you're up against. I did a writeup on this a while back.
kenchan - I think it's just the crappy plastic some lights are made from. Most of my cars have had no issues - but the van sucked after about 4-5 years. Garaged and fairly well cared for...
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My new neighbor has a white Volvo wagon with broken lights, scratched and oxidized paint, and the whole car is just a mess....oh and the headlights are all fogged, lol. I thought about clearing the lights for them, but the rest of the car isn't fixable through polishing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BlimeyCabrio
Yeah, the crappy plastic headlights on my Town & Country were so badly pitted that only significant wetsanding would do the trick. Followed by a good polish, of course. So it just depends on what you're up against. I did a writeup on this a while back.
kenchan - I think it's just the crappy plastic some lights are made from. Most of my cars have had no issues - but the van sucked after about 4-5 years. Garaged and fairly well cared for...
__________________ 5548 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim, CA 92807 866 707 9292
Looking for Prima?? Buy Prima at ShowCarSupplies.com
11% off everyday discount code: MINI11NAM 2010 Midnight Black MCCSa
i see... hummm... i suppose the xpel headlight protectors would be a
good investment not just for rocks, huh?
Quote:
Originally Posted by BlimeyCabrio
Yeah, the crappy plastic headlights on my Town & Country were so badly pitted that only significant wetsanding would do the trick. Followed by a good polish, of course. So it just depends on what you're up against. I did a writeup on this a while back.
kenchan - I think it's just the crappy plastic some lights are made from. Most of my cars have had no issues - but the van sucked after about 4-5 years. Garaged and fairly well cared for...
My taillights had some slight hazing on them, and I used Megs PlastX on them, did it by hand and it worked great Also took some light scratches on the A pillars with it.
It was no where near as bad as some of the pics posted above though.
I just recently had Glass heads and tails imported in from Europe, I hope I don't get a ticket for them. They are illegal in TX, but I don't have to worry about haze in the future. I do have to worry about rock chips though. eek
The sand paper is such a fun grit that you don't have to worry about damage to your lights nor your car. We've worked with a lot of products and this seems to be the fastest and most effective, from what we have noticed. There is always a better way. We just haven't tried everything, but we have gone through, roughly 27 different products and methods. We like this one the best, so far.
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I want to make a jigsaw puzzle with 40,000 pieces and when completed reads "go outside!"
Hmmm, you know 27 different products and methods to remove the fog from a headlight? Mind sharing some of them? I know of only one method--and that's polishing.
As for the fine grit being safe that's not exactly true. I can take some 3000 grit sand paper and still sand through the clear coat on my paint--though it will take longer than using 1500 grit. Some headlights have a UV protective "skin" that if you sand it off, will get fogged up again even quicker than before you attempted to fix it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aero88
The sand paper is such a fun grit that you don't have to worry about damage to your lights nor your car.
There is always a better way. We just haven't tried everything, but we have gone through, roughly 27 different products and methods. We like this one the best, so far.
__________________ 5548 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim, CA 92807 866 707 9292
Looking for Prima?? Buy Prima at ShowCarSupplies.com
11% off everyday discount code: MINI11NAM 2010 Midnight Black MCCSa
Last edited by OctaneGuy; 10-25-2007 at 11:52 AM.
Reason: sandpaper grit comment wasn't clearly written
Nice info. My wife's G35C headlights are starting to get a haze on them. I used the PlasticX and it looked awesome for about a month, and now it's starting to come back...
my G's headlights are clear still looks new (3yrs old 18k miles)...
hummmm... maybe it's the person washing the cars making all the swirlage.
or Best of Show is doing an INCREDIBLE job hiding the haze.
HA! Try 88,000 miles of weathering, and we'll see what your headlights look like then Actually, we bought her car with 82,000 miles and the car came looking that way. It was worth it though for the price we paid. I wish I had a small buffer to hit the lights with, but all I've got is a 10" buffer...
my employee's 10 year old Ford Contour was well kept....clean, shiny.....the headlights though were like those in the picture in post #3 of this thread: all hazed, foggy looking, and slightly yellowed. I do not know wjhat type of car wax/polish he was using or if it had a UV protectorant but I doubt be was applying it to his headlights.........I am assuming the haze is not from swirling scratches at all but the polycarbonate plastic being cheap or just failing and reacting to UV rays......he polished them and they were like brand new, but now look just a little hazy.
I'm an optometrist and I've seen a few polycarbonate eyeglass lenses over the years become hazy, sometimes the cheaper ones provided to us by various insurance plans, but even the so called premium brands occaionally will fail and become very hazy ....UV is the culprit, I think
The headlights on my '97 BMW look like poo. Formerly clear plastic hazy pitted poo, but still poo. I'm hoping the stuff they make the MINI headlights out of is a bit better.
__________________ Boris Badenov \ '07 MCS \ CR/W|Sport Stripes|16" White Bridge-Spokes|Premium Pkg|Cold Weather Pkg|White Turn Signals|Sport Suspension|DSC|LSD|Rear Fogs|Rooster Red/Black Seats|Rooster Red Color Line|Brushed Alloy Dash|Chrome Line Interior|Anthracite Headliner|Alarm|Hi-Fi|HD Radio|Illuminated Door Sills|Clear Bra|Grille Badge Holder \ Ordered 10/25 \ Completed 11/9 \ Delivered 12/17 \ "Smokey, this is not NAM. This is bowling. There are rules." -Walter Sobchak
I recently repaired the headlights on my friend's Civic with a kit that utilized various grits of sandpaper and polish. The results were just OK but it was a vast improvement from before. I'm planning to try out some of the plastic polish I used on the plastic rear window from a Mazda Miata I used to own this weekend.
I recommended that he apply the headlight film to prevent future hazing. I understand the hazyness is due to UV rays. Would the headlight film help block out the UV rays? Or the film just protect the lens from abbrasion.
Wait, isn't that because you only have like 3,000 miles on this 4 year old MINI ??
Quote:
Originally Posted by kenchan
on the MCS it's fine.
i have xpels on mine. they look brand new.
__________________ 5548 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim, CA 92807 866 707 9292
Looking for Prima?? Buy Prima at ShowCarSupplies.com
11% off everyday discount code: MINI11NAM 2010 Midnight Black MCCSa
Also took some light scratches on the A pillars with it.
or Best of Show is doing an INCREDIBLE job hiding the haze.
Actually, we bought her car with 82,000 miles and the car came looking that way. It was worth it though for the price we paid. I wish I had a small buffer to hit the lights with, but all I've got is a 10" buffer...
