Want to restore your headlights using common hand tools? If you have issues with yellowing headlights or you just want to make your lens more clean and scratch-free, then this blog post is for you!
The most common issue with car headlight lens is yellowing, which makes its appearance hazy, blurred and quite colored yellow which is not good to look at. Plus, yellowing headlights can also reduce the effectiveness of light output at night.
So yeah, you need to fix your headlights as soon as you see the first signs of lens degradation! Now can you actually restore headlights using simple technique and common hand tools? Lets find out.
Why Headlight Lens Turn Yellow?
Cars from the factory have perfect headlight lens that is made of polycarbonate plastic (yes, not glass okay) and comes with UV protected coating from the factory (some believes it’s clear coat but it’s actually a UV coating).
Overtime, with overexposure to sunlight and acid rain, that UV coating wears off and the polycarbonate structure of the lens is starting to degrade or break off.
This lead to the lens becoming color yellow and if not treated, the lens will become even worse as the yellowing will cover the entire headlight lens.
If you see your headlights starts to have scratches and is yellowing rapidly, you need to restore them as quickly as possible to prevent the damage from reaching the deepest portion of the lens which is known as “crazing”.
Crazing is the cracking of the lens due to overexposure to sunlight, very low temperature, debris hitting the lens, and acid rain.
How do you restore headlights? Read on.
How to Restore Headlights the Simple Way
The tips that I am about to show you doesn’t require any special tools or products (restoration kits) that you often found in auto shops. So this means that you don’t need to spend more just to restore your headlight lenses.
You need the following for this job:
- Masking tape
- Two high grit sandpapers (preferably 1500 and 2000, depends on your lens damage)
- Bucket of water
- Rubbing compound (water based)
- Polisher with pads or
- Cotton cloth for lens polishing
Protect the Surrounding Panels with Masking Tape
First is to protect the surrounding panels of your headlight using masking tape. Pop the hood to save some tape okay.
Masking the painted surrounding area of your headlights will help prevent unwanted damage once you start sanding the lens. And speaking of headlight lens.
Sanding Your Lens
Next is to sand your headlight lens. Start with the more aggressive grit like 600 or 1500 sandpaper though this depends on your needs of course.
You may use a backing pad for sanding and if you have a cordless drill or polisher, you can use a backing plate for the drill and simply attach the sandpaper and start sanding.
But of course, since I am promoting “simple tools” for this DIY tutorial, you can go ahead and use whatever tools or products you have in your garage as long as it can produce similar results.
Spray some water on the lens and on to your sandpaper then start sanding. Always do the sanding in one direction like horizontal with overlapping passes to cover the entire area of the lens. Spray more water as needed and keep a light to medium pressure on the sand paper.
Once the lens becomes milky white, wipe the lens with a clean cloth and you should see a white haze on the entire lens. Now use the higher grit sandpaper and start sanding all over again. You may follow this up with a higher grit if you think you need more sanding. But twice is a charm for me!
Apply Rubbing Compound
After the final wipe down of your lenses, you may now start applying rubber compound on to your headlight lenses. You may either use a cotton cloth or a rubbing pad with a polisher. Of course, you may use the old manual technique if you wish to.
Just apply an even amount of compound on to your lens and start rubbing. As always, buff in consistent, one direction, and apply a moderate pressure to get a smooth finish.
Wipe the entire lens once the buffing is done. Some may opt to use a polish to further bring back the stock shine of the lens, but I feel that it’s optional especially if your lens is not that yellow.
And you are done!
Summary
So that’s how you restore headlights the right way! Share your thoughts about this tutorial by commenting below.
