headlight oxidation

oneflat83 said:
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
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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.
 
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.
 
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!
 
Techsan said:
I've had pretty good luck using Meguiar's PlastX. I used it on the headlights of my G35, and made quite a difference. It took a little elbow grease and a few applications, but it sure beats spending some cash and taking it to a body shop.

Meguiars PlastX
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I'm with Techsan on this one ... +1 for Meguiar's PlastX.
 
All of the solutions posted so far may work, but they are only temporary. Our plastic headlight lenses are coated with a special UV-blocking material that eventually breaks down and allows the plastic to cloud.

Sanding/polishing/compounding etc... will completely removed that coating and the cloudy/yellowish plastic that has oxidized, leaving your headlight lenses looking new again, but now that plastic is completely unprotected from UV rays and will tend to cloud up again much faster than it did previously. Some guys keep reapplying a protecting coating to delay the cloudy/yellow oxidation from returning, but it doesn't seem to work very well. Once that factory applied coating is gone, you'll find yourself with lenses that oxidize relatively quickly.

There are a few really good threads about this on Autopia.
 
why would they use plastic lens on newer 4runners knowing this problem, especially going from glass with the 3rd gens?
 
broncosi said:
why would they use plastic lens on newer 4runners knowing this problem, especially going from glass with the 3rd gens?
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I think every new car on the road today has plastic healight lenses. I can't think of any that have glass.

Glass is obviously more susceptible to breaking, which would be a big problem with the much bigger lenses on the 4th gen.
 
NDRYDEN123 said:
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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i cleared coated my tail lights after i sanded them and they look brand new. hope that helps:hello:
 
Jed said:
Sanding/polishing/compounding etc... will completely removed that coating and the cloudy/yellowish plastic that has oxidized, leaving your headlight lenses looking new again, but now that plastic is completely unprotected from UV rays and will tend to cloud up again much faster than it did previously. Some guys keep reapplying a protecting coating to delay the cloudy/yellow oxidation from returning, but it doesn't seem to work very well. Once that factory applied coating is gone, you'll find yourself with lenses that oxidize relatively quickly.
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Very True. if you want to completely "be rid" of your headlight oxidation, get another pair (OEM or whatever). If you don't mind buffing the plastic regularly, go for it then!

broncosi said:
why would they use plastic lens on newer 4runners knowing this problem, especially going from glass with the 3rd gens?
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Realize the 3rd gen headlights are very "flat" so manufacturing glass covers is very easy. The 4th gen headlights are very curved so making a glass "replica" would be incredibly difficult to do. Plus plastic is much cheaper (i would imagine)
 
I used the TurtleWax Headlight Restoration Kit ($8 on sale at Target). It worked perfectly and took about 10 minutes per headlight. My 03 hadn't been taken care of prior to me, so the oxidation was horrible. Now they pass as new.
 
Pilotmatt said:
I used the TurtleWax Headlight Restoration Kit ($8 on sale at Target). It worked perfectly and took about 10 minutes per headlight. My 03 hadn't been taken care of prior to me, so the oxidation was horrible. Now they pass as new.
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Wow, just $8? Is it one of those one step kits, or do you have to sand with several different grits?

Any before/after pics?
 
On my first go round I used the 3M method involving polishing compound and 3-5 different polishing discs. Outcome was great and after 45min per headlight they both looked like new.
Unfortunately after 9 months oxidation quickly started to set in.
So I hesitantly took the advice from the kid at the auto parts store to use the CV Headlight Restore kit Headlight Restoration | Headlight Cleaner in the silver bag. I was skeptical but thought it was worth a shot and still cheaper than new headlights.
WOW... I was really impressed! Where the CV kit differs from all the other kits on the market is that you apply a sealer to fill in all the tiny pits and scratches in the lens. The sealer REALLY made the headlights look like new and hardens so they are impervious to future pitting and scratches.
Just this past week we sold this vehicle and got a 4Runner !!!
So over 12 months after I used the CV kit on the headlights they still looked like new. For the money and the time you will spend, which was much less with the CV kit, it is the only way to go in my mind.
 
message said:
On my first go round I used the 3M method involving polishing compound and 3-5 different polishing discs. Outcome was great and after 45min per headlight they both looked like new.
Unfortunately after 9 months oxidation quickly started to set in.
So I hesitantly took the advice from the kid at the auto parts store to use the CV Headlight Restore kit Headlight Restoration | Headlight Cleaner in the silver bag. I was skeptical but thought it was worth a shot and still cheaper than new headlights.
WOW... I was really impressed! Where the CV kit differs from all the other kits on the market is that you apply a sealer to fill in all the tiny pits and scratches in the lens. The sealer REALLY made the headlights look like new and hardens so they are impervious to future pitting and scratches.
Just this past week we sold this vehicle and got a 4Runner !!!
So over 12 months after I used the CV kit on the headlights they still looked like new. For the money and the time you will spend, which was much less with the CV kit, it is the only way to go in my mind.
Click to expand...

Yea but can this or any of the other suggestions be used on tail lights as well?
 
message said:
On my first go round I used the 3M method involving polishing compound and 3-5 different polishing discs. Outcome was great and after 45min per headlight they both looked like new.
Unfortunately after 9 months oxidation quickly started to set in.
So I hesitantly took the advice from the kid at the auto parts store to use the CV Headlight Restore kit Headlight Restoration | Headlight Cleaner in the silver bag. I was skeptical but thought it was worth a shot and still cheaper than new headlights.
WOW... I was really impressed! Where the CV kit differs from all the other kits on the market is that you apply a sealer to fill in all the tiny pits and scratches in the lens. The sealer REALLY made the headlights look like new and hardens so they are impervious to future pitting and scratches.
Just this past week we sold this vehicle and got a 4Runner !!!
So over 12 months after I used the CV kit on the headlights they still looked like new. For the money and the time you will spend, which was much less with the CV kit, it is the only way to go in my mind.
Click to expand...

on what kind of car did you use the CV Headlight Restore kit?
 
The headlights were on a Ford contour. My understanding is the plastic is the same for all the vehicles regardless of headlight or taillight.
 
No, sorry no before pics. It was the multi step. Compound, heavy grit, medium grit, light grit wet sanding, compound, sealer. Sounds like a lot of work, but it wasn't bad at all and the difference is immediate. The kit should last for multiple sets of lamps, but the sealer is only comes as a single "wet nap" type wipe. Compound is plentiful and the small sandpaper pads didn't take much abuse.

Jed said:
Wow, just $8? Is it one of those one step kits, or do you have to sand with several different grits?

Any before/after pics?
Click to expand...
 
Pilotmatt said:
No, sorry no before pics. It was the multi step. Compound, heavy grit, medium grit, light grit wet sanding, compound, sealer. Sounds like a lot of work, but it wasn't bad at all and the difference is immediate. The kit should last for multiple sets of lamps, but the sealer is only comes as a single "wet nap" type wipe. Compound is plentiful and the small sandpaper pads didn't take much abuse.
Click to expand...

I decided to go ahead an buy some of this. I've been using the Meguiars Plastix headlight cleaner but it doesn't last very long. I did a search for the CV restorer mentioned in the thread trying to find the cheapest place to purchase it. I noted that advanced auto sells it for $22.99 but what really stuck out were the reviews. Like our t4r colleagues, everybody loves this stuff.

The best price I found was from a new eBay seller: $15 shipped. I just ordered a kit.
 
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