Cleaning Yellowed Headlights

Before shelling the $$$ for new headlights, What do you guys recommend doing for cleaning up the headlights?

2000 Tacoma

 

Buffer with Mothers aluminum mag polish...just turn it very slow...then wax afterward
https://youtu.be/pq7RV0U0XH0

 

I've had luck with the mag polish as well. It's not a final solution but it will get you by for a while. I usually have to do it once every 6 mo.

 

If you follow up with a couple of coats of a quality two stage clear coat (i.e., clear plus catalyst), the repair will last more like two to three years before it starts to show any signs of dulling or yellowing.

 

It depends on how badly pitted the surface is. You can usually sand down the surface of the lens with progressively less aggressive sandpaper, starting with maybe 600 or 800 grit and ending up with 3000 before you spray. If the lens has only yellowed, it's a much less labor intensive process.

 

This has worked well for me. Follow the instructions and they come out new.

 

Just save yourself the effort and get new housings. I tried for years with so many different kits. I even have a proper DA polisher I took to them. The external surface looked great, but as mentioned above, the interior surface was still crap and threw the light everywhere.

 

Any headlight cleaner is just a Band-Aid so save up while you polish and clean. It's inevitable you will have to replace them at this point.

 

Here is one I did about six years ago with the two stage clearcoat...

Here it is when I finished wet sanding with the 3000 grit paper:


Here it is after the two coats of clear:



Only the passenger side lens had yellowed because of the orientation of the car with respect to the sun, in the way it was usually parked. If the lenses are too far gone or pitted, you cannot bring them back.

The relatively new kits that use a nanocoating instead of clear coating get good results too, with a lot less prep, but they haven't been around long enough to judge the durability of the process, IMO.

 

I could use a set of used headlights if anyone has them for sale

 

Update...so threw some polish and used a buffer. They look way better and like normal headlights now. However, I do think they shine Yellow.

I am at 300,000 miles. Its ok to buy headlights at this point lol.