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January 6, 2010
Plastic Headlight Restoration
By David Belau
dartslantsix
When it started getting dark this winter, I noticed the headlights on my wife’s Neon weren’t shining very brightly. New headlights were simply not in the budget, so I looked into polishing the lenses. The picture below is what I started with. If you have a first-gen Neon, this looks familiar.
Continue reading after the jump!
I picked up one of those kits that’s in the parts store and to put it simply, it did not work. There wasn’t enough sandpaper and I ended up getting frustrated. Then I did what I should have done first and researched it on the internet (have you heard of it?). I found another kit that had good reviews. The company is called DoubleHorn and their kit only costs $30 including shipping. The kit includes an abrasive pad, a cleaner, polish and a spray-on UV coating. My headlights were extremely cloudy, so I bought some sandpaper to start the process. If your headlights aren’t as bad, the kit may be enough. I was just paranoid from my previous experience. I bought 400 grit, 600 and 1000. I also removed the headlights and the turn signals, so it would be easier to work on them. Below is an untouched headlight.
I wet sanded the lenses starting with the 400 and working up to the 1000. Below is the headlight after 400 grit. It’s a little less yellow.
Next is a picture after all the sanding is done. Note that it is hard to sand around the lettering and the little pins that stick up. Pretty cloudy still. Things should start looking better from here.
Here’s a picture of what comes in the kit.
The first step is to use the cleaner on the abrasive side of the pad.
This should take off all the damaged plastic. I had already sanded my lenses, so this step may have been redundant. The next step is the polish on the soft side of the pad. The lenses are still pretty milky.
After polishing, clean the lenses one last time with the cleaner and the soft side of the pad. Rinse well and let them dry.
The last step is very gratifying, I must admit. Spray on the UV coating. The lenses are immediately clear. It dries to the touch in about 15 minutes.
After they were dry, I installed the lights with new gaskets from Rockauto since they were also shredded.
They look almost new-I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. For only $30 and some elbow grease I think it was worth it.
In about a year, I’ll give an update on how they’ve held up. There’s enough in the kit to do multiple lenses-I think I’ll do my Dakota next.
Comments
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Otito
Jan 7, 2010 at 6:03 pm
Mohters ALUMINUM polish is great for this type of job used it many times and results are amazing
chevyman327nova
Jan 7, 2010 at 5:35 pm
you can get the same result wet sanding with the same fine sandpaper and just clear coat it no polish
PIchillin456
Jan 7, 2010 at 5:18 pm
If you have access to a power drill this whole process will take 5 minutes per headlight and do a much more thorough job. You can buy a kit that includes special pads designed to go on a drill as well as a couple of polishes to use. As a tip you can avoid having to remove the headlight lens by putting a couple of layers of painters tape on the paint surrounding the headlights. You would have to keep the drill pressed on one spot for around 3 or 5 seconds before it would reach the paint so the finish will be safe.
GTwildfire
Jan 7, 2010 at 5:51 am
Legacy Camaro… c’mon dude… enough spammin’
meltc
Jan 7, 2010 at 2:52 am
That is a big improvement!
RiceTicket
Jan 7, 2010 at 12:57 am
“moparcrazy69″ you are the very person that would freak out if you are not in the top friends list on someone’s myspace. Stop asking for SOTW because its not something that’s given to you if you ask for it. YOU GOTTA EARN IT!
silver99OZ
Jan 6, 2010 at 8:29 pm
I have used the kit by 3M and it worked well. My headlights were really bad and they looked almost brand new after using the kit.
GTwildfire
Jan 6, 2010 at 7:57 pm
I don’t agree with UnderYourSkin. I haven’t exactly been a fan of the Neon, but hey, it’s a car and it’s a good idea to see where you’re going at night. I guess the importance of that kinda went over his head.
thegarbear05
Jan 6, 2010 at 5:00 pm
i get the chrome silver packages with headlight retore used them 4 times and there lifetime warrenty
moparcrazy69
Jan 6, 2010 at 4:11 pm
Please vote my ’69 Roadrunner for Show off of the week! Thanks!
derkc
Jan 6, 2010 at 3:38 pm
fingernail polish remover does the same thing, u have to wax then after wards of course…..
UnderYourSkin
Jan 6, 2010 at 3:36 pm
That car wasn’t worth the money spent on the kit to restore the headlights
GTwildfire
Jan 6, 2010 at 2:30 pm
The Neon’s headlights did turn out great though! nice job with them…
PureBusiness
Jan 6, 2010 at 12:50 pm
;-all the same,Excellent work!
GTwildfire
Jan 6, 2010 at 11:47 am
For about $6.00 at Auto Zone, bottled Blue Coral Headlight Restorer is available.
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For 6 bucks, you get enough of thie EFFECTIVE formula to redo the lenses on at least a dozen cars.
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Better yet, I’ve discovered that this stuff is also great at removing rust stains, is an excellent metal polish, etc.
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Also, note that many plastic headlights develop many small surface cracks, and some lenses have a “cuticle” layer… and these things can make attempts at nice-looking restoration futile, so don’t count on your efforts turning out fabulous.
BoltZ22
Jan 6, 2010 at 11:34 am
Just did that to our Caravan back in October. They’re starting to get hazy again…
PureBusiness
Jan 6, 2010 at 10:13 am
I’d say it’s possible to achieve similar results with #2000 grit(wet)paper to remove the `scaling but from there it still requires a polish agent.
FordRulesAll
Jan 6, 2010 at 6:43 am
I’ve also done something similar to this, by using WD-40, or a plastic wax.
troutster52
Jan 6, 2010 at 5:12 am
I have had that same problem with my Ranger I used to have and the F150 I have now. Good article. I love all the straight six parts in the background as well.