Hazed Pontiac Headlights

P

pgp

Member
The headlight lens on my 2001 Pontiac are getting hazed over. I guess it's the UV coating coming off. It's not smooth to the touch. The car is outside 24/7. I sanded a small spot with 1000/1500/then 2000 wet sandpaper. Next I applied scratch-x a few times. I can still see small scratches in the lens. I guess I should have started with 1500 or 2000 first. Can this be fixed by hand?(getting them clear again) I don't have a PC. Should I do the whole thing?
 
pgp said:
The headlight lens on my 2001 Pontiac are getting hazed over. I guess it's the UV coating coming off. It's not smooth to the touch. The car is outside 24/7. I sanded a small spot with 1000/1500/then 2000 wet sandpaper. Next I applied scratch-x a few times. I can still see small scratches in the lens. I guess I should have started with 1500 or 2000 first. Can this be fixed by hand? I don't have a PC. Should I do the whole thing?
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Rotarys work best for this, without a doubt. I was in that boat once, without any polisher. Even if you wetsand, you're going to want a rotary to polish it effectively. Hand-polishing, especially on headlight housings, takes way too long to be worth it. If you do use a rotary, tape EVERYTHING around it off, I can't stress that enough. Use a smaller pad as well, no larger than 6.5" - preferably spot-pads. Compounds are up to you, but with the smaller pads come faster speeds, because you've got less leverage as you would with a pad thats farther away from the center of the rotary. This is one of the rare instances where the speed should be turned up a bit.
 
Did the sandpaper and scratch-x make a noticeable improvement? Or did it make it worse?



I assume the headlights are plastic?



You can safely polish them with fairly agressive polish, something like 3M even.



Personally I just used some scratch-x and polished by hand.. but mine were only mediocre hazed.



Yours seem to need a stronger action.



The sandpaper should be taking care of it though, but it will induce the scratches on the plastic -- I think I might get some intermediate polish and try to break it down by hand, or some rubbing compound .. Then follow up with some scratch-x.



A machine would really make this job ALOT faster and procure better results, but you have to work with what you have , right =)



Others should chime in with agreement or disagreement hehe..
 
Charles what polish would you recommend?



And what if he used a Random Orbital?



Bottom line, if he is doing this by hand,.. What do you recommend as his best chance?



I'm actually thinking some rubbing compound and elbow grease followed by the scratch-x might be the best way. But can't say for sure.
 
I did a small spot , I taped it off. Probably was too small of a spot. It seems the same or a little better;but not perfectly clear like I wanted or hoped for. It was hazed over after the sanding as expected, scratch cleared it up a bit scratches can be seen if you look close.
 
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