Best fix for yellowed/ discoloured headlights?

Postby **JUS4SHO** » January 17th, 2008, 1:25 pm

meguires plastic polish jed pick that up on my honeymoon in antigua... does real wuk

RBphoto · Postby **RBphoto** » January 17th, 2008, 2:42 pm

I don' think that any of the plastic polishes would be better than any other. Meguires, Mothers et all use a fine polymer abrasive which is gentle to the surface of the plastic. The only thing we have not heard someone do as yet is the use of heat. A high speed buffer (not the price smart kind, the one that looks like a hand grinder) should produce a surface melting effect to congeal the scratches on the surface (I think).

Here is the link I found earlier with the blowtorch method.
http://www.pupman.com/listarchives/2003 ... 00378.html

ilovebeti · Postby **ilovebeti** » January 17th, 2008, 3:37 pm

Mothers didn really work for me

RBphoto · Postby **RBphoto** » January 17th, 2008, 4:27 pm

http://www.autopia-carcare.com/inf-glass.html

The same site in the car polishing 101 sticky has this info, but is mostly a pitch for their products.

RBphoto · Postby **RBphoto** » January 17th, 2008, 4:29 pm

ilovebeti wrote:Mothers didn really work for me

What was the end result? any improvement?

RBphoto · Postby **RBphoto** » January 17th, 2008, 4:35 pm

I don't know if anybody remember this from about 4 years aback, it used to have a orange R33 or something parked outside Tatil building. The thing came with tinted headlights, but after the shop by FCB paint it black the headlights get polished clear with a minimal amount of swirl marks (but they were still visible, like they use some rotaty tool). Anybody know what clean them lights? Had to be powerful to remove old faded decomposing tint.

Postby **nervewrecker** » January 17th, 2008, 8:34 pm

if is a glass headliht heat can help remove tint, not the best or most effeicent way but it sort of works. you can sand it off with fine sandpaper too till you reach the glue and remove the glue with gasoline.......

RBphoto · Postby **RBphoto** » January 18th, 2008, 6:39 am

slacker_jack wrote:if is a glass headliht heat can help remove tint, not the best or most effeicent way but it sort of works. you can sand it off with fine sandpaper too till you reach the glue and remove the glue with gasoline.......

Yes, but I was kinda askin if anyone know of this particular vehicle since I consider that headlight makeover a real good restoration. I never thought you would get any light out of those lamps again.

idlemind · Postby **idlemind** » January 27th, 2008, 10:40 pm

ok i tried toothpaste, brake fluid, bug and tar remover, car polish, amor-all plastic protectant....and nothing!!!

i tried the mothers plastic polish for the heck of it and it worked okay
headlights are now clear not yellow anymore but there is a fuzz that i cant get completely out. any suggestions other than a buff/sand?

Postby **nervewrecker** » January 28th, 2008, 9:10 am

try the autoglym microfine.

bushwakka · Postby **bushwakka** » January 28th, 2008, 9:30 am

go by someone who buffs vehicles with the machine, they'll buff out the yellowness of the lights....it works...or buy the machine urself.....iz a good investment

RBphoto · Postby **RBphoto** » January 31st, 2008, 10:04 am

^^^^^The car polishing sticky say that only the high speed professional buffers worth shite. The pricesmart buffers doh have the RPM's to make a clean clear surface.

Postby **jeepers** » January 31st, 2008, 2:23 pm

Brake fluid?!?! Shocked where allyuh does come up with these brilliant fluid substitution

i was wondering this myself

^^!SPAWN!^^ · Postby **^^!SPAWN!^^** » January 31st, 2008, 10:53 pm

The best solution is to paint your vehicle yellow , that way it will bring out the contrast of the headlights ...

UML · Postby **UML** » February 1st, 2008, 12:07 am

brake fluid and a very fine sand paper will do the trick.....might want to cover your bumper to protect it from being damaged though.

*Nebula* · Postby ***Nebula*** » February 1st, 2008, 8:41 pm

bushwakka wrote:go by someone who buffs vehicles with the machine, they'll buff out the yellowness of the lights....it works...or buy the machine urself.....iz a good investment

how much they take to buff out the yellowness of the lights?

RBphoto · Postby **RBphoto** » March 31st, 2008, 7:01 am

I try a thing and it working good. I used rain clear two part system (for automotive glass) on my lights and I think it working aight. My lights are already clear from using the mothers. I used the rain clear glass scrub gently on my lights and then used the protectant gel. It gave the same "RainX" effect to my lights and water just slides off like water off duck back. Only done one week now, so will report any problems I get in the future.

Marct · Postby **Marct** » March 31st, 2008, 8:19 am

There is a 2 step process to clean it, firstly you get the orange clean wipes (sold in $10 stores) & after that you take toothpaste and work it in properly then wash off, will look brand new

Postby **nervewrecker** » March 31st, 2008, 2:14 pm

crossdrilled, that rain clear glass scrub sound like a plan there man.

Marct, the toothpaste is a cheap solution, it will work as it has basically the same physical property as polish, but imo toothpaste was made for teeth, i dont kno if it will hav any side effects on the lights due to chemical properties like. I eh go lie to you, i use toothpaste on my silver chain & ear rings & it wuck noice :mrgreen:

buh thas silver not plastic.

Razkal · Postby **Razkal** » March 31st, 2008, 2:26 pm

So at the end of the day, which is the MOST effective method without any questionable procedures? I hadda admit, i with Patchie on this one, i eh really too presuaded by the sandpaper on mih head lights, brake fluid also in that boat

So the plastic polish? Autosol? Autoglym fine grit? toothpaste?
Any before and after pics of users of the above methods?
Would using a buffing machine get a better result than regular cloth-and-hand?
If so, could i use rubbing compound and a buffer lightly?

Postby **nervewrecker** » March 31st, 2008, 2:39 pm

^^^

I hav some after effects of my headlights somwhere in this thread, it wasnt badly off to begin with but the after effcets were rather impressive. i never continued with that project cuz i changed the headlights 2 weeks after.

I used the autoglym & it made a big difference to how it was b4.

I hav seen some suprising results from rally as well.

Pirate · Postby **Pirate** » March 31st, 2008, 7:58 pm

d joke it some who does wash car tell me to use brake fluid on meh lights...not sure from where...was a while ago.
good thing i didn't try it!

Postby **nervewrecker** » March 31st, 2008, 9:11 pm

it hav man using brake fluid on thier lights in here :roll:

slow323 · Postby **slow323** » March 31st, 2008, 9:19 pm

some guy used some product called glycol he stopped me in town an applied it to my headlights he told me that its the petroleum base in the polish that make the lights go back worse after the polish wears off so to stay away from applying them cause they degrade the plastic i doh knw what he say is tru but my headlights much cleaner now though