The Civic I’m driving is the first I’ve had with a headlight bulb with the reflector and cover separate. The car is in its tenth year and the lenses have this brown road film over them, turning them a bit translucent. Plain water doesn’t touch it, nor does water with detergent nor Windex. I’m afraid more aggressive solvents will permanently frost the plastic, making the situation worse. Anyone have advice on how to get the lenses sparkly clean and transparent, or should I avail myself on the headlight cleaning service (price unknown) at the local garage?
Just a swag (I do have a long background in cleaning businesses), try Dawn dish detergent and water. This might loosen whatever is covering the lenses. Or it might not. But assume that part of that coating is oil based. Might want to let it soak for a while.
I’ve been told that the yellowing/browning isn’t a dirt and oil build-up, but old layers of clearcoat polish and wax. Every method I’ve seen to restore them involves removing those layers with a fine abrasive-- plastic polish, toothpaste, very fine sandpaper. Auto parts stores carry “headlight restoration kits” that are simply plastic polishes.
(A caveat: looking this up online, I see a few warnings that the clearcoat is necessary to protect the lenses from cracking or chipping from kicked-up debris, so polishing it off might be bad.)
I don’t think it is road film, I think the sunlight has reacted with the plastic turning it a yellow/brown.
I have heard there are specialized cleaners that will buff off the oxidized layer, but I have no knowledge of such a product.
I have this problem, myself.
Could be fine scratching, too.
Products for this?
Check the automotive section of your local Wal Mart. They have a kit of fine abrasive paper and sealer made for this purpose.
The idea is to use the least agressive substance that works. One thing worth trying is ordinary Turtle Wax (with a soft rag and some elbow grease). It has an extremely fine abrasive - milder than essentially any polishing compound.
I’ve seen this work well on various degrees of “clouding” in plastic. If it doesn’t, you can then step up to something more serious.
Meguiars Plast-X works well on old headlight lenses that are cloudy and scratched. You can buy it at any dscount or auto parts store for $8-9.
Novus plastic cleaner. Comes in 3 grits. Use a cloth buffer on a power drill.
I bought a kit from my local Advance Auto parts store - it’s not among the polishes, it’s with the repair section. The clerks were useless in finding it.
I can’t recall the name except it was initials, like CCR or CKR, or something like that.
It was a set of foam pads that glued to a supplied drill bit adapter. You sprayed the headlight lens with a little water and went over and over it with the buffer on a drill set at half-speed. It’s some sort of self-adjusting abrasive, probably a mineral that slowly dissolves and gets finer and finer as you work it.
It took about 5 minutes per light but the clarity of the lens was greatly restored.
I wish I could remember the product’s exact name but it shouldn’t be really had to find. Black box, yellow & white lettering.
You can get a kit from a Chrysler/Dodge dealer. It’s part #68043526AA. It involves sanding and buffing the lenses and reacoating them with a clear finish. It goes for 45.00 MSRP.
Novus: Yes
Drill: No
You can probably do all you need on the headlights with a small bottle of Novus #2 polish and a couple “kimwipes” (lint-free, soft paper towel-like wipes, or even kitchen paper towels. The #1 final polish is fairly optional It certainly won’t hurt to use it, but a perfect glass-smooth finish won’t last long on something that’s living outside and getting hit with gravel and bugs.
Chucking a buffer into a drill and going at it is a good way to cause more damage from melting the plastic if you linger a tenth of a second too long on a spot. Novus and a little elbow grease is all you need, unless the headlight lenses are so badly oxidized and scratched that they’re opaque.
missed the edit window…
- Yes, I know paper towels can scratch, but we’re talking about headlights that are going to be abused simply by being outside, and not something like a visor on a motorcycle helmet that you need to see through, or a turntable cover where scratches would be obvious.
Also forgot to say that you can go to a plastics place like TAP Plastic and get a small bottle of Novus #2 and more of the soft wipes than you’ll ever need for under ten bucks.
I forgot to add the kit from Chrysler is complete. No drill or buffer required.
That was the second step, Shib, only with Palmolive. I put it on straight, buffed a while, then rinsed it off; no effect.
Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I was leery of using a polish, afraid scratches might make things worse, but it would seem Novus or similar products are mild enough to use.
OK–I’ve been cleaning my headlights, with a commercial compound. Blue goo-stuff.
Results–so-so to OK.
Much of the road film gone, but not all.
I used a clean (used) towel from the rag box, & elbow grease.
I bought a bottle of Kitt Scratch Remover for a buck and a half. It’s for removing small scratches in paint but also said it was good for acrylic and Plexiglas (which is the same thing, really) as well. It was thick-bodied with a bit of texture to it. Reminded me of Glass Wax except it was white instead of pink*
Anyway, about fifteen minutes elbow grease with a rag and the stuff, and there was a marked improvement. Not good as new, but at least the overlying film was gone. I suspect to get thing back to pristine would be a multi-step process with Novus products like gotpasswords was mentioning. I’m too lazy for that.
*Was Glass Wax pink? I’m remembering it as so, but it’s been decades since I’ve seen the stuff.