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I have 40 000 miles on my car and the plastic cover over the lens is
looking pretty bad does anyone know what works to really strip the crap off
thanks
coop
Hows the car holding up with 40K? good? Also, I dont know about cleaning the plastic lenses, but if you do get em nice again you might wanna get the lamin-x shields for them. I have them and they have kept my headlights looking great.
1. Toothbrush and toothpaste (extra whitening?).
2. Cleaner designed for convertible plastic windows.
3. Very fine polishing compound.
I used a 2-part product designed to remove the yellow and scratches from old plastic lenses. The first part was a polishing compound, the second smelled like it had acetone - keep away from paint. The second part seems to melt the pits and smooths the plastic nicely.
You have to be careful when using any sort of solvent-based remover on plastic parts... but you may want to try Bug & Tar Remover. I have a bottle from Turtle Wax..."Bug & Tar Remover". It works well -- removes the stuck on bugs and small spots of tar from the paint WITHOUT removing the clearcoat/paint. Just don't let it sit too long, put a dab on a clean cotton cloth and rub it on the spot -- remove it quickly. There will probably be some light scratching/marks in the clear coat...use some 3M swirl mark remover and voila, all gone. This process should work on the lights. Or, if you want to be super safe, take some paper towels and douse them with glass cleaner (non-solvent based) and then leave them on your lights for 10 minutes or so to soften the gunk...then remove with a clean towel....
The best way is to just remove the grime more often -- weekly if not sooner -- that way the stuff won't get time to "bake on" the surface.
joe that windex idea sounds good since there is paint all around the lower foggs
i clean my car twice a week usually but here in az it is real hot so stuff cooks on really fast. :???:
Yet another source:
Griot's has a fine polish for plastic rear windows on covertable tops. If it's mild enough for a thin vinyl panel, it should be OK on the headlight lenses, too.
Detailing shops have wet-sanded and buffed yellowed/pitted/faded plastics lenses. But once the structural integrity has been compromised they will return to the yellowed condition within a short amount of time. Our suggestion is to get them cleaned up and immediately put our protective films on the lens to prevent the yellowing/fading from coming back at all. You can find our products at http://www.rspeed.net Hope this helps and good luck.
Zymol's Screen Clean kit works very well - cleaned up my 3-er's plastic headlight covers very nicely. It's a cleaner and protective wax bundled together.
>>Detailing shops have wet-sanded and buffed yellowed/pitted/faded plastics lenses. But once the structural integrity has been compromised they will return to the yellowed condition within a short amount of time. Our suggestion is to get them cleaned up and immediately put our protective films on the lens to prevent the yellowing/fading from coming back at all. You can find our products at http://www.rspeed.net Hope this helps and good luck.
On my 1993 Mazda Mx3 with 175,000 miles I used a dremel tool with polishing compound and got out the yellow and faded look of the plastic lenses. I know it may sound extreme, but it works and it's a tip that I got from a auto restoration specialist when he was doing so work for a friend.
