Do headlights get better than this???

So I've finally decided to "restore" my headlights. I used sand paper to do it. Went from 800 to 1000 to 1500 to 2000. Then I used rubbing compound and a drill with a mothers headlight ball on it. There's a definite improvement but idk if they could get better. What you guys think?

 

You should be able to restore them to crystal clear again. Keep working! An actual buffer helps a lot instead of the drill.

 

They're still a bit dull. Keep going!

Off topic but is that your wallet?? Talk about back pain

 

You can get it back to crystal clear, but it takes some time. I have a 2002 VW GTI and the headlights were awful. I got the meguiars headlight restore kit and used a drill. I did it almost a year ago and they still look great. Below are the before and after.

Before


During


After

 

Yeah the wallet is a bit much. Way past due for a clean out.

Man if I could get them like that I'd be stoked! I'll keep working at them. PITA!

 

It took me several hours to get it right on both headlights but I was very please with the results. Are you using the meguiars kit?

 

I just went and bought sandpaper. I have a mothers kit but decided to do it that way.

Idk how much I should sand them and which grit of sanding will be the most effective and important.

 

The Megauiars kit has a couple different grade sanding pads and it walks you through the steps. I just youtubed some videos with people using the kit. Its all really straight forward, just takes some elbow grease.
http://www.meguiars.com/en/automotive/products/g3000-heavy-duty-headlight-restoration-kit/

Auto geek has 15% off and free shipping today.

 

You should be wet-sanding them, at least when you get to finer grits. Keeps the paper from clogging so it's more effective for longer. Does a better job.

 

I'll look at some vids and see how it goes.

 

godspeed

 

Yeah I've been wet sanding them. I've wet sanded through the whole process from 800 all the way to 2000.

I guess I should sand for a lot longer and then focus on polishing them.

 

yeah, you want to sand long enough to get them down to fresh plastic, and then polish the crap out of them.

 

That makes sense. Back to the 800 grit it is.

 

I went to Walmart and bought the motheres Nelens for like $30. It used 800 then 1500 then a special 3000 grit disk then the polishing compound.It worked great and really only took me about half an hour to do and they are crystal clear now

 

Well I went and sanded one light for an hour. Working my way up to 2000. Then polished for a while. It looked like there was a haze on the inside so I took the light apart and polished the inside. Idk if I can get much better.

 

That's pretty good now you need to use a lens compound. That why I like the mothers. It comes with a a polishing ball for a drill and the compound

 

Yeah that's what I've got. The ball is lookin pretty raggedy now.

 

I did the "new headlight mod" on my wife's 4Runner. They were pretty beat and in a desperate attempt to clear them up I used acetone which actually did clear them up, but ended up fucking up the plastic. I planned on new headlights anyways. They're 11 years old in the AZ sun.

 

If your a member of SAM'S Club they will restore your headlights for $29.88 +tax, and it carries a 5 year warranty. It takes them about 45 minutes to do the job.