Failed MoT yesterday. Both lights "output severely reduced" due to abrasion caused by age/wear and tear. Can anyone recommend a successful polishing method please. Or is there no alternative but to bite the bullet and replace. If so can anyone help with part numbers/cheap suppliers. Thank you very much.

I'm sure I've seen headlight restoration kits on Amazon so that might be worth a look.  There are also a lot of how to videos on youtube.

 

Meguiars do headlight restoration kit https://groveshop.co.uk/exterior-valeting/20344-meguiars-2-step-headlight-restoration-kit-g2000eu.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9OX6wcKb3AIVrArTCh05-wXTEAQYASABEgJVGfD_BwE but I can't vouch for how good it is.

If they're really bad you may need to machine polish them but a cheaper alternative is a drill attachment https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=drill+polisher+attachment&index=aps&tag=googhydr-21&ref=pd_sl_7a56r04joo_b&adgrpid=56864095887&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=259013651946&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14022298758156252078&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006500&hvtargid=kwd-298110512359

Halfords compound around £4, a microfibre cloth and some elbow grease will bring them up like new. 

600 then 800 then 1000 grit wet and dry, used with plenty of water and elbow grease.

Everything you need to know is described here in this video

 

5 hours ago, Wino said:

600 then 800 then 1000 grit wet and dry, used with plenty of water and elbow grease.

id go to 2000 for the best finish . followed by a polish with compound will make them last a few more years before they need doing again

Edited 13 July, 20187 yr by JWvrs25

Wet and dry with lots of water. Tcut and a bit of wax polish. Not perfect but MoTable.

Meguires drill kits work wonders 

I used Mguires, £22 from amazon on my wifes micra a couple of years ago.

 

Worked brilliantly, using the polisher in a battery drill helped a lot.

The key is to use lots of elbow grease and follow the correct polishing order.

While this is not a 5 minute fix, it certainly restores plastic headlights well.

 

Im sure other compounds work as well, the kit had everything in it and can be used again.

Hi

I used to work in the AV dept at our local college and we used to use this polish on the Fresnel lenses on the overhead projectors when they became cloudy / scratched and it worked really well, restoring them to a high shine. It is also used by the RAF to polish cockpit canopies and helmet visors.

 

http://www.greygate.com/product/plastic-polish/

The thing is that they come up virtually like new but they fade again after a while, especially if the car is parked with the headlights facing the sun a lot as mine is. I regularly used Meguiars Headlight Protectant on mine but they still started to fade. I gave up and bought new lights which are amazing. Yellowed lenses seriously affect light output, it amazes me how many cars I see with badly yellowed lights. Have to say that I wish they'd stuck to making the lenses out of glass. Another backward step in the name of 'progress'. It's laughable how much they go on about safety and there are thousands of people driving around with two candles for headlights.

2 minutes ago, TMB said:

...two candles for headlights.

 

Four candles surely? 

2 minutes ago, sepulchrave said:

 

Four candles surely? 

 

Yeah

NAH- I swear some of the cars round here use five candles.

I’ve just polished my headlights recently they came up really good. 

 

I cleaned them first using muc off which i had lying around then wet sanded them to a haze using 800 wet dry and went up in stages 1200, 1500,2000, 2500 which was the smoothest grade I could find. 

 

I then used a compounding pad on my buffer (wet) with a small blob of compounding paste on until they were clear and a final polish with finishing polish and finishing pad on the buffer to bring them up like new. 

23 hours ago, VWD said:

NAH- I swear some of the cars round here use five candles.

Did I say five. i'm  now of opinion that it's six, but the one in head is permanently snubbed, and the other one gets a bit hot for the grease, but not hot enough to ignite.

Back on topic, I wonder how valve lapping past might do in the initial stages, rather than fine sandpaper ?

Edited 16 July, 20187 yr by VWD

I think grinding paste would be a bit  savage on a plastic headlamp lense. It would be more work than it’s worth trying to rub out the scratches you’d put into the plastic with the grinding paste. Wet sanding starting with 800 is definitely the way to go  in my opinion, it only took me half an hour to do each of my lamps.  

So if doing DIY with wet/dry paste... what polish/compound would you need?

Halfords rubbing compound works fine £4.70 for a tube. Use it with a hard compounding pad on a buffer Wet the pad first. Then a medium pad and then a polishing pad with polish to finish. If you don’t have a buffer you can find pads that work with a drill on eBay or they usually come in headlamp restoration kits along with the compounding paste.  I decided against a kit as I had most of the stuff already to do it just needed the rubbing compound.  Bare in mind I took my headlamps out if you do it whilst on the car mask around the edges to protect your bonnet, bumper and wing. It’s really easy to do I was surprised at how good mine came up and it really did make my car look 1000 times better. 

Edited 17 July, 20187 yr by SyVRS

try googling micro mesh kr70 kit, a product for aeroplane canopies - I've used it in a different application , b&o Perspex panels to great effect, it takes you down to about 4000 grit wet n dry then a polish.

I've used AutoGylm kit and a drill with great success. Cleaned them up perfectly. However it does not contain any sealant so you may have to do it again in a few years, but it comes with enough pads so you can.

On ‎14‎/‎07‎/‎2018 at 16:04, TMB said:

The thing is that they come up virtually like new but they fade again after a while, especially if the car is parked with the headlights facing the sun a lot as mine is. I regularly used Meguiars Headlight Protectant on mine but they still started to fade. I gave up and bought new lights which are amazing. Yellowed lenses seriously affect light output, it amazes me how many cars I see with badly yellowed lights. Have to say that I wish they'd stuck to making the lenses out of glass. Another backward step in the name of 'progress'. It's laughable how much they go on about safety and there are thousands of people driving around with two candles for headlights.

My car is parked with the sun on the headlights and they go yellow quite quickly, i have used nail vanish remover on mine to get them clearer but it doesn't last long. I was told to get them up as clean as you can and spray K2 lacquer on them to protect them from the UV . I must admit you don't realize how much it dulls the light until you clean them. It's just a boring monotonous job to do. 

Just done mine using 2000 then 3000 then 5000 wet sanding paper then a specialized polish cost in total £10 took about 20 mins total well worth the effort spent

sorry cant upload the after yet wont allow me as new member :(

You managed to get a before picture up so try again