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Old 10-08-2008, 10:53 PM #1
NDRYDEN123 NDRYDEN123 is offline
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headlight oxidation
is there any other way than wet sanding my headlight to remove the yellow haze/oxidation on my headlight housing. it seems that most of the haze is on the inside of my headlight houseing. thanks in advance for any insider info.
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Old 12-29-2008, 11:06 PM #2
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thats an easy one. take a terry cloth and dip it in mothers metal polish. polish the crap out of them. after your done...do it again and then burnish the surface with a microfiber towel to take off the residual. once they start to yellow they tend to keep yellowing so you will have to do it every so often. Ive found that by putting the headlight protective film on new lenses before the yellowing you protect them from harmful uv rays from the start.

btw, im a professional detailer. hope that helps
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Old 12-12-2009, 01:06 PM #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oneflat83 View Post
thats an easy one. take a terry cloth and dip it in mothers metal polish. polish the crap out of them. after your done...do it again and then burnish the surface with a microfiber towel to take off the residual. once they start to yellow they tend to keep yellowing so you will have to do it every so often.

btw, im a professional detailer. hope that helps
Thanks for the tip! I used this method on my daughter's '04 Corolla lenses that were in very bad shape - now they look like new.
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Old 12-13-2009, 12:18 AM #4
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The best protection I have found is to get the 3M "Clear Bra" paint protection material to cover the light. Plastic breaks down and you're going to get scratches on the road from debris.

It's only a matter of time before you have to polish them again AND if they yellow, you're out of luck.

The 3M stuff obviously protects against the smaller scratches. And from what I've seen on my cars, it protects from hazing/yellowing of the headlights.
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Old 04-18-2010, 01:47 AM #5
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haven't seen anyone post this tip, but i was watching horsepower tv on spike last weekend and they addressed this issue. there offered 2 options. one i've used before and one i tried this afternoon. 1st option was the rubbing compound. i've used this before and it works. 2nd option was toothpaste. same concept (rubbing a gritty paste on the oxidized plastic will reveal a clean layer of plastic.) tried it this afternoon on my acura and it works. takes a bit of elbow grease, but works. and smells good!
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Old 12-29-2008, 11:15 PM #6
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I just took it to a friend of mines body shop. He used wet sand paper on a high speed orbital sander and did that with both headlights. He then used a high speed buffer with some type of polish and they were done in 30 minutes. they look brand new! And he said I shouldn't have to ever do it again.
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Old 10-17-2010, 10:36 PM #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NDRYDEN123 View Post
I just took it to a friend of mines body shop. He used wet sand paper on a high speed orbital sander and did that with both headlights. He then used a high speed buffer with some type of polish and they were done in 30 minutes. they look brand new! And he said I shouldn't have to ever do it again.
This was done to my 4R but it's starting to happen again. It's not as bad as it was yet, it's been about a year, but it's getting there....
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Old 12-29-2008, 11:20 PM #8
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same things as a color sand...yup that works too. most people on here probably wont go through the trouble. Ive heard of clear coating the tail lenses to make them look new again. i wonder if you could do that on headlights...or would the heat not be good? i wonder
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Old 12-29-2008, 11:32 PM #9
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Quote:
Originally posted by oneflat83
same things as a color sand...yup that works too. most people on here probably wont go through the trouble. Ive heard of clear coating the tail lenses to make them look new again. i wonder if you could do that on headlights...or would the heat not be good? i wonder

To be honest, I've never heard of clear coating any lights. I don't think it would be good because of the heat that naturallt gets emitted from the headlights. I guess you could try it. But when I wash my car, I put that Nu Finish car polish on the lights and I don't know if that's good either but only time will tell.
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Old 05-26-2010, 11:10 AM #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NDRYDEN123 View Post
To be honest, I've never heard of clear coating any lights. I don't think it would be good because of the heat that naturallt gets emitted from the headlights. I guess you could try it. But when I wash my car, I put that Nu Finish car polish on the lights and I don't know if that's good either but only time will tell.
i cleared coated my tail lights after i sanded them and they look brand new. hope that helps
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Old 01-01-2009, 11:49 AM #11
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i'm lazy. In case my headlights oxidize, i'll just buy new ones.
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Old 01-01-2009, 12:17 PM #12
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Quote:
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i'm lazy. In case my headlights oxidize, i'll just buy new ones.
Haha that works too. I just didn't want to spend over $250.00 for the housing.
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Old 01-12-2009, 03:51 PM #13
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The only successful way is to remove the yellow and hazy material, leaving the good plastic as the outside coating. It does involve a lot of sanding, buffing and polishing, but it can be done. It just depends on how much time you want to spend doing it.
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Old 01-13-2009, 11:35 PM #14
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What about putting on the 3M type of plastic protection on it? Not only does it protect against chips as a physical layer, but the adhesive & plastic should prevent oxygen and an oxidizing reaction, no?
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Old 01-19-2009, 01:47 AM #15
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Quote:
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What about putting on the 3M type of plastic protection on it? Not only does it protect against chips as a physical layer, but the adhesive & plastic should prevent oxygen and an oxidizing reaction, no?
I put on some Lamin-X film covers over my headlamps. I chose the light-tint as to not lose too much of the brightness of the lights. I think that it really sets off my Driftwood Pearl LTD.
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