Scratches in plastic headlight lens

S

snaxg

New member
I hope someone can help me here.





I was cleaning the front of my 2007 Pathfinder tonight. I had taken a tip through the mountains and had gotten clobbered by a ton of bugs.



While trying to remove a very sturborn spoy on my headlight, I managed to scrape my fingernail several times across the lens. I ended up with about 5 4" scrapes across the lens that are very noticable.



I'm nuts about my car (as Im sure most of you are) What can I do short of buying a new lens? (yes...that crazy)



I can actually feel the scratches and cant beleive my fingernails could do that.



Any help would be appreciated.
 
You could try something like plastX (plastic X??) or possibly scratchX from meguires? Others might chime in as well.
 
I'd give PlastX a try...Just remember, though, that you're having to remove material around the scratch to level out the scratch. This might take off any UV coating you may have on the headlight that is protecting the cover. This is going to be something you'll have to worry about no matter what product you're using.



PlastX, however, is the best thing I've found so far to fix scratches in plastic. It did wonders at cleaning up my gf's hazy headlight covers, and it polished up the backs of the mirrors on her car that had that nasty old haze & scratches in the plastic (She's got a 1999 Toyota Corolla with the standard black plastic mirror housings for the side mirrors). She was more amazed at how it came back than I was, because there were several scratches that both of us thought were pretty deep. But PlastX applied by hand with a Terrycloth towel did wonders.
 
I had some pretty deep defects on my BMW 325i lenses. They even looked decent overall but the weathering was plane to see. I went at them with some 600 grit sandpaper with some claying lube..I moved up to 1000 and then 2000 grit that I got at Autozone. I used those with the lube as well. I polish with a Flex and some Mernezna SIP w/ Orange pad and some Finishing polish with a white pad. I used a little scratchX as a finisher/filler for what was left.



I can't believe I might have to go back for a second round since there is still some pitting thats visable.



The headlights were my work up for tackling the car with the buffer. The headlights were a tougher job than I thought. I guess it really depends on the condition they are in.
 
Go to Dvelup Intro and order a small headlight restoration kit. Start out by stripping the lense with 600 grit then 1000 then 1500. Use the buffing compound they supply then mix the 2 part UV layer 1:1 and appy it with a lint free paper towel like a blue shop towel. I guarantee they will look like new!!! I do headlight restorations all the time with thier products. You can go to my website to check out my results on the worst lenses imaginable.
 
plastic x is more for removal of haze, not full-on scratches though, so i don't know where to point you to, just to say that plastic won't do what you need
 
I just wanted to update this thread.



I pulled into a really good detailing shop on my way to work. (I'm not a pro)



The guy in charge hit it with his P/C and had me on my way in a matter of minutes. I had ordered the Novus kit in my time of panic and it looks as if that may have done the job as well.
 
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