On 04/28/2012 12:22 PM, JIMMIE wrote:
On Saturday, April 28, 2012 6:34:54 AM UTC-4, Herb Eneva wrote:
On my 10 year old van the headlight lens are becomming real foggy.
It`s almost as if they have been sandblasted.
What can I do to make them clear again? Can I use a buffer wheel in a
drill with some sort of rubbing compound? Please help.

Ive used polishing compound on mine and it has worked great. I applied it by hand instead of a drill but I didnt start taking care of the problem after 10 years. I have been doing it about once a year starting at about the second year I owned my 10 year old truck.

Jimmie

what he said. the "headlight restoration kits" you see advertised are
basically just the same thing. Just sand them down with some fine grit
(1000, 1500 etc.) sandpaper, then buff with rubbing compound, polish,
then wax. Or just buy the kit - if you don't have a good auto body
supply around, and/or don't do body work and therefore have the need to
keep supplies around to cut and buff orange peel out of paint, then it's
not that expensive in the grand scheme of things. Just understand that
once you've done this, you've removed the UV-protective layer of your
headlights, so they will "fog" up that much more quickly again. A good
way to maintain them is to simply polish and wax them whenever you do
your paint.

What you're seeing is a combination of actual sandblasting by road
debris (which you probably won't get out) and degradation of the top
layer of the plastic due to UV damage (which you *can* polish out for a
nice improvement.)

nate

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