Turtle Wax Headlight Lens Restorer

[occupant]

I FINALLY got around to doing the headlights on the Durango. After driving to/from Hillsboro at night and not being able to see anything other than fifty feet of road in front of me, I had to do something. Couldn't afford new capsules ($150/pair aftermarket or $250+ OEM). Still don't own a buffer of any kind and my cordless drill is pretty useless after a minute. Decided to try this out one morning when the toddler was sleeping in.

I paid $8.47 for this kit at a Wal-Mart store in Hillsboro, TX. You get what you see here plus a clear foodservice-type glove (one only, not a pair) for the little packet with a towelette sealer thing in it.

From left to right:
box with instructions in English and Spanish
bottle of spray lubricant for sanding pads (clear liquid)
bottle of lens clarifying compound (white lightweight paste)
packet with lens sealing towelette wipe
sanding pads (green is #1, brown is #2, purple side of third is #3, blue side is #4)

I started out with this, driver side:

I washed the couple of bugs off the light and followed the first of the instructions, which was to try and use the lens clarifying compound only with a terry cloth towel. Results, not very much of a difference:

So I brought out the rest of the kit and got started. Instructions said to spray the lubricant on and then scrub in one direction (I started horizontally) with the green #1 pad. After a few minutes, it said to immediately switch to the brown #2 pad and scrub in the other direction (vertically for me) and add lubricant as needed for a few minutes. After doing that, I had this:

Still didn't seem like much of a difference in clarity but I was still only done with the two roughest grits of sanding pads and all the yellowing was GONE. Next up was to rinse clean, apply lubricant, and use the purple #3 side of the third sanding pad, then rinse clean again, apply lubricant, and use the blue #4 side of the third sanding pad. After all that, I had this:

I can see the curvature of the reflector now. This is looking very promising! So the final steps are to use the lens clarifying compound with a terry cloth, then buff with the terry cloth, let dry, and apply the lens sealant with the glove on and let it cure for 24 hours. After the compound and buff, here's the result before applying sealant:

This was all done yesterday, and I just took a picture of the headlight after the sealant had 24 hours to cure. Not like it looks any different, I'm just darn proud that these headlights are good to go. Night driving is, literally, a night and day difference. There's PLENTY of life left in the kit to do it a dozen more times, but I might need to buy more sandpaper and I won't have the sealant again (one time use). That's when I break out the bottle of NuFinish in the trunk of my Torino and give it a coat every 6 months when I re-do the headlights. *IF* they need redone. So here's the ten-minute old pic of the light as it looks RIGHT NOW while I type:

I did the same on the passenger side headlight and I probably need to do it over because I got distracted when my daughter woke up and started tapping on the window to ask "why daddy outside NO FAIR". I didn't bother taking pictures either but it was as nasty and it is now almost as clean but there's some deeper scratches and I should have taken more time with #1 and #2 sanding pads, which I am GUESSING are 800 and 1000 grit (the purple is probably 1500 and the blue 2000, going by feel versus real sandpaper I have felt in the past, it's a wild guess, but oh well)

For $8.47, this gives the average Joe almost all he needs to get r done. A water supply for rinsing, a terry cloth (I actually used a clean crew sock, turned inside out, no joke) and a soft cloth (I used a couple of dried out baby wipes that were laying in the glovebox of the Torino, ain't I cheap?) were all I had to supply. I am impressed with the size of the lube/compound bottles and the sanding pads were kinda small but I was able to use them without complaint. Total time including two cigarette breaks, stopping to sign for a package from UPS, interruptions from my daughter, and talking to our babysitter was 1 hour 10 minutes for both lights. Could have done it all in 20-30 minutes if I was in a hurry and had no one to bother me. If I ever see these on clearance I'm buying them out.

 

[Beemerboy]

Nice write up and for those that don't have a buffer or know what to buy this sounds like a good kit for them.

 

[Mr. Clean]

Timely post occupant. I had just been calling to check on availability of sandpapers. One of the WM is on the way. I think I'll have my son drop by since it is for his car anyway.

Just yesterday he was in to get his car inspected at one of those car wash / oil change franchises. A guy came over to upsell windshield repair and headlight polishing. He was quoted $30 for both lights (sounded pretty reasonable to me, though I don't know the process), but he told the guy, "no thanks, my dad does it for free" :hmmm: Of course I've been telling him for months now he needed to get them taken care of. He let them go too far this time so we'll be sanding them.

 

[occupant]

1 month in. They look like this now (not a current pic, but they have started to cloud again).

Looks like approximately once a month use of the polishing compound will be needed to maintain the crystal clearness. I need to run back to the laundry room to locate a mismatched sock and I'll tackle it in the morning, see if it does the trick with no sanding.

If I had some form of wax available to me that wasn't eight years old and dried up (I checked, it won't even pour and it was 60 today), I would polish and throw a few coats on to see if it helps for the next month.

If nothing else, the lights are still very effective with the "clear" cloudiness. It's gotta be the yellow haze from oxidation that makes the lights become as useless as hanging oil lamps off the front bumper.

edit: so in theory, if all I had was this kit, I could keep these lights clean for one year with the one package and an ample supply of lonely socks.

 

[Addicted2Bling]

Well you definatly get what you pay for. If you are happy doing this once a month then by all means, Turtle Wax has always been cheap, effective and affordable...

 

[JaredPointer]

The Turtle Wax kit has nothing at all to do with the lenses clouding up again. You could have performed this exact same process with colorsanding paper, a PC, and topped it off with whatever brand of high-dollar sealant you choose and still wound up with them clouding again a month later.

It's got something to do with the light/housing losing a protective layer and allowing the plastic to cloud/yellow, because I've cleaned up lights in the past to only have them cloud up again later on down the road.

 

[mrclean81]

The Turtle Wax kit has nothing at all to do with the lenses clouding up again. You could have performed this exact same process with colorsanding paper, a PC, and topped it off with whatever brand of high-dollar sealant you choose and still wound up with them clouding again a month later.

It's got something to do with the light/housing losing a protective layer and allowing the plastic to cloud/yellow, because I've cleaned up lights in the past to only have them cloud up again later on down the road.

:bigups

 

[bimmermanic]

a good tip after cleaning is to spray a thin coat of UV clear coat over the lens. This will offer a UV protection that will reduce oxidation

 

[Addicted2Bling]

The Turtle Wax kit has nothing at all to do with the lenses clouding up again. You could have performed this exact same process with colorsanding paper, a PC, and topped it off with whatever brand of high-dollar sealant you choose and still wound up with them clouding again a month later.

It's got something to do with the light/housing losing a protective layer and allowing the plastic to cloud/yellow, because I've cleaned up lights in the past to only have them cloud up again later on down the road.

Suit yourself then, if it were me though, I'd throw those things in the trash and buy new ones. But if you want to throw 'turtle wax' on it and call it a day that's fine too...

 

[JaredPointer]

Suit yourself then, if it were me though, I'd throw those things in the trash and buy new ones. But if you want to throw 'turtle wax' on it and call it a day that's fine too...

You must have missed the whole text where the OP said he couldn't do that right now. Just because something is cheap and available locally doesn't mean it's 'crap.'

 

[occupant]

The way I figure it, there's enough product in this little kit to do them about 10-12 times over. With light output reduced to where I'm noticing it after six weeks, I could do this every six weeks, no problem. In fact I'll be out there in the morning to do it since my wife and I are going to Wichita Falls for the weekend. Figure it's a good time to sort out things, check the oil-coolant-atf levels, top off the power steering fluid, clean the windows inside and out, and do these headlight lenses.

I also have my Torino back from the mechanic. 351CJ is in, it runs goooooood. Wish my wife would let us take it up there but it needs tires before I go too far from home. They're nearly eight years old, not dry cracked or anything but they're not much better than your average Baldyear MayPop.

 

[JaredPointer]

a good tip after cleaning is to spray a thin coat of UV clear coat over the lens. This will offer a UV protection that will reduce oxidation

The way I figure it, there's enough product in this little kit to do them about 10-12 times over. With light output reduced to where I'm noticing it after six weeks, I could do this every six weeks, no problem. In fact I'll be out there in the morning to do it since my wife and I are going to Wichita Falls for the weekend. Figure it's a good time to sort out things, check the oil-coolant-atf levels, top off the power steering fluid, clean the windows inside and out, and do these headlight lenses.

I also have my Torino back from the mechanic. 351CJ is in, it runs goooooood. Wish my wife would let us take it up there but it needs tires before I go too far from home. They're nearly eight years old, not dry cracked or anything but they're not much better than your average Baldyear MayPop.

You might want to look into doing the above, as it might help.

 

[Bobcat]

Jared is right, that TW kit is fine - although some folks get a attitude whenever TW is mentioned, fine by me - it ain't my money you be spending.

Also - I hang out with a local detailing supply company and they have their own kit for lights, the guy at the store confided that I could save money just by going to an auto paint store and getting some clear with UV inhibitors added for the sealant.