Headlight cleaning/polishing

Wet sanding (3m kit) should work.

 

Had a friend show me the proper way to bring the life back to these headlights. Tape off your paint around the headlights. Get some 3000 grit sandpaper and soak it in water, it almost feels like a sponge rather than sandpaper. Sand the crap out of it in small circles, and it will get really foggy and white. After it feels pretty smooth and looks like you've got it all covered, break out the heavy cut polish and use a PC polisher if you have one. Keep stepping down to a lighter cut polish/finishing polish until its really smooth and looks good. Then use a sealant/wax to protect it. Should keep you all shiny for several months. Worked awesome on mine!

 

I would just get new headlights on an 06. It is just as much work to try to restore them as to install new ones. To truly restore them you will need to sand down the whole outer lens (or use chemicals that will damage your clear coat, don't ask me how I know).
Restoring them will not make them look 100% and in a couple of years they'll need to be redone again. And the cheapy ways to clean the headlights like Deet or Pam spray or what ever other stupid ideas people can come up with do not last long. They do not truly remove or prevent further oxidation.

After both restoring mine and replacing some (on my 250), I'd opt to replace the headlights before restoring them again. Just because it's not too hard and honestly looks better for longer.

My 250 is 13 years old now almost 14. I had a buddy do my headlights in I think 2012 with the 3m sanding kit. They need to be redone again. I'm just going to replace them. I've helped other people replace theirs and it's not hard. Even aligning the lights isn't hard. Just get a sheet of plywood or dry wall up infront of the truck in the garage (or use the garage wall) and mark where the lights are with a pencil. Then just align the new ones up to those lines.

I'm getting some tint done on my new Taco next week and the guy also does a clearbra film on headlights to reduce oxidation. I thought about doing it to prevent ever needing to change the headlights on the Taco but honestly that crap just oxidizes too. I'll just replace the lights when they need replacing in 10 years. I won't worry about it.

 

That's not bad advice. It is possible to polish and restore, but mine have already faded again. Going new is a better option if you can afford it. Where's the best place to get new headlights for a decent price PackCon??

 

people are recommending "Depo" headlights from Amazon. Pretty reasonable price.

 

After seeing how some of my buddies and family have gone about their headlight shopping and repair, I honestly don't think you can go wrong with finding a good deal online and going by the reviews. My bestfriend just replaced his 4Runner lights and he just went on Amazon. He found ones that were OEM certified. I can't remember what the certification acronym was but those seemed to get the best reviews. My dad also got his on Amazon that were OEM and they are fine. My cousins who have Rams (which should foreshadow the outcome here) bought the cheapest headlights they could find on ebay and one has had moisture problems.

 

By the way, I went and did a close inspection of mine now that the sun in out, and it's dry. That spot I thought was on the chrome inside the cover on the driver's side is actually the cover itself!
It's SO badly abraded that it has actually turned almost solid white!
That ain't gonna polish out. it must have been like that when I bought the truck, but never really noticed it until now! Bummer!
I really appreciate ALL the input from everyone, but it looks like I'm gonna have to spring for some new lights in the...er...spring. I'll wait until the winter weather is gone. If we even get any, that is!

 

Problem with most of the polishing kits is that the UV coating that was once on the headlights is gone. So even if you clean up the headlights to like-new, they will yellow quickly thereafter. Two solutions are:

1) recoat the lights with a UV clear coat; and/or
2) install headlight protection film.

I install headlight protection film immediately on any new vehicle. Never had an issue with yellowing on any of them.

 

Oh, and I just feel like saying, I think people need to be careful about putting in super duper bright bulbs in their headlights to overcome the oxidation.
My dad used those mega bright Sylvania bulbs on his and honestly, I feel like it heated the inside of the lens which caused some melting and beakdown of the plastic which just worsened the problem.

 

How long have you owned a vehicle with the headlight protection film on it?
I have a clearbra on my 250 and honestly, it's oxidizing as bad as my headlights. I'm getting a new hood soon and will have someone strip the clearbra off the rest of the truck. I'm hesistent to do that to my headlights because I'm worried it won't last any longer than the headlights would.

 

On my wife's 2002 MDX the headlights were pretty foggy. I used Optimum Poli-seal (a light polish and sealant in one product) on an orange pad on my Harbor Freight dual action polisher (Porter Cable knock-off). A few minutes on that and the headlights were clear and shiny, and left with a coat of sealant on them.

If yours are really bad, you will need to wet sand before hand as another poster mentioned.

 

Actually, one of mine is so bad that something actually started to internally crack the plastic!
Replacement is the way I'm gonna have to go.
That light colored spot above the side light is actually in the plastic.

 

7+ years on my last Taco, lights still look like new

I buy the film from Xpel. I believe it's 3M's top of the line stuff. There are a few different grades out there, caveat emptor.

 

I had questions about this as well when I did mine. I made a thread and all that. Someone had responded that Sams does them and offers a warranty also. I never checked the validity of that but if there's a warranty then that might be a good route to go.

 

I've been down that road recently with my '06 Camry. I used NOVUS plastic polish, it made them look like new, a month later, they're yellow again! I did this for about 2 years, no matter what wax I used after the cleaning, nothing slowed the yellowing. I've read about the spray protectants and really could find nothing that provided any real long term solution. IMO, go to eBay and buy a replacement set and be done with it. I went that route with my son's ZR2 and never looked back, his were $40 each.

Thanks to a deer running out in front of my wife about a month ago, I now have all new headlights in the '06 ...... Problem solved ..... The hard way!

 

I use aerospace 303 once a month on my headlights. Works well as all 3 vehicles I own still have clear headlights.

 

Polishing alone is not going to do the job, and I know from personal experience. Like Dexter said, kits like the one from 3M does a very good job, but it takes time.

Think of it like color sanding a paint job. You sand the entire light with a find grit sanding disc, then you progress to finer and finer discs and end with a polish similar to polishing or buffing compound. I've used it on my wife's 2007 Camry and on my Honda Fit. The kits that don't use a drill just don't work, again, in my experience.

And like Rod said above, use something like 303 to protect it once you've finished.

 

If you have headlights that get really bad, a simple solution vs. replacing them is the 3M headlight restore kit. I worked on cars for a few years and used this quite regularly. If you keep a nice even pressure it comes out great. Just don't push hard against it, you will melt it and get a bad finish.

(

$15 3M™ Headlight Lens Restoration System 39008, 4/Case

http://www.amazon.com/3M-39008-Head...&sr=8-1&keywords=3m+headlight+restoration+kit)

 

If you want to keep the vehicle, get some affordable replacements. If the truck will be sold, I would just polish it. Like others said, once that UV coating is gone, it will yellow again in no time, don't expect permanent fix with it.

 

I used a Mothers Nulens Headlight Renewal Kit from O'Reilly Autoparts on both my truck and the wife's car. Chucked it up in a drill motor and it did a really good job. Took about ten minutes per vehicle and most of that time was spent taping off the stuff around the light then taking a handful of tape and newspaper to the garbage can.
http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/d....oap?ck=Search_N2402_-1_-1&pt=N2402&ppt=C0209