Glazed Headlights, Cage.

[Hooter]

There was a post here a while back about clearing glazed head / tail light lenses (on your vehicle) using different methods / products and not the expensive "stuff" seen on TV.  My cousin did my pickup with the TV  "stuff" and it looked good till it rained.  Now the lenses look worse than they did before he did it. Sorry bout the redundant post. Suggestions. .

[Blackduck]

Last set of headlights I worked on we used wet and dry, think started with 1000 and finished with 2000. Then polished it with a fine polish used on 2 Pack finish's.
You can get a UV protective coating to go over the len's after polishing but have no personal experience with those

[old2soon]

On my friends Mazda I used that California purple metal polish and a good silicon wax/polish. Was starting to haze over after 2 years here in Southern Missouri. Once that factory finish is compromised on the plastic lens ALL bets are off. On the other side my 94 Oldsmobile is just slightly discolored from clear. RIDE SAFE.

[Jess from VA]

I bought a jug of headlight cleaner goop, followed the directions, and made it noticeably worse.

I used Deet bug spray, and it did not work.

Below is a Utube shows it done right with 2-3 grades of sandpaper and wet sanding with a spray water bottle.  AND they mask the finished lights and spray them with clear coat (or it won't last at all).

I looked online and found many aftermarket replacements;  for my Dodge at $104 delivered.  At that price, you can forget sanding for hours, buffing out, masking and clear coating.

FIX:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEJbKLZ7RmM&feature=youtu.be

REPLACE:

http://www.headlightsdepot.com/catalog/All/All/All/parts

https://www.ebay.com/b/Car-Truck-Headlights/33710/bn_584064

[Hooter]

Thanks guys.

[MarkT]

Yep.  I've done the polishing kits with marginal success and plenty of elbow grease - as well as the power methods.  I will only do that now if I can't BUY the lens. And would certainly want to preserve the work with clearcoat.  I miss the old way when headlights were standardized and when replacing the sealed beam, you got a new GLASS lens.  The spots on my main riders are glass.  Haven't had fogging on the OEM headlights, but both have been replaced from hard impacts. I still think they are better materials than most car lenses.

[BINOVC]

A number of years ago now I purchased the 3M kit, and I was very impressed with the results.
The kit provides a velcro foam-padded wheel for your drill, 3 (as I recall) grits of velcro-backed wet sanding disks, a velcro-backed foam polishing pad, and polishing compound.
I have to repeat the process once every year or two.  The kit gives you plenty of supplies for at least 2 operations.  I probably did about 3 (pair) before I had to buy a new kit (2002 Dodge Grand Caravan).
Nice thing about the Caravan is the headlight assemblies are easy to remove, which makes it alot easier to clean them up.
I'm sure there are many other kits out there these days, but I'll stick with my 3M.
You can probably replenish the sanding disks by purchasing sheets of same, and cutting into circles to fit the velcro pad, but I have no idea what that polishing compound would be equivalent.  I know that 3M has replacements for all those items, but when I shopped for the replacement kit it was no cheaper than just getting a new full kit.

[oldsmokey]

I was once told buy a body tech that he sprays them with a rattle can of clear, lacquer if I remember right. Reason I asked is I thought he had just replaced them on his 14 year old Suburban. They looked new, don't know how the light out put was.