just polished my Headlights! (Update w. Pics)

IslanderTsi · Mar 25, 2006

With mothers mag and wheel polish. All I can say so far is that I am very impressed with the outcome for $10. I masked off one before I started polishing and I will take some pictures tommorow when there is enough light and post them up to show the difference.

I really reccomend this to all you 2g guys with yellowish hazy headlights. I can actually see my lights through the lenses now :thumb:

Ok here are some pictures. You cant see the difference as well with the pictures but it is still there. I should have masked down the front of the lens where the haze was the worst. But anyways here they are

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Notice how clear the lens is on the top left compared to the right. The whole left is actually like that but you cant tell due to glare.

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And here is a pic of what the cloth looks like after the first rub with the compound.

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Pretty nasty all that crap covering the lens. i cant wait to see how much better my lighting is during the night now

ImJustaGirl · Mar 25, 2006

i was wondering how to cfix that. any pics yet?

1SLWTSi · Mar 25, 2006

On my old 92 I used 2000 grit sand paper, a "flitz" ball deal, and some mothers. It turned out excellent.

IslanderTsi · Mar 25, 2006

ImJustaGirl said:
i was wondering how to cfix that. any pics yet?

It will have to wait till tommorow as its to dark out right now. I will post them tommorow and bump the thread up though.

xveganxcowboyx · Mar 25, 2006

I'm anxious to see this. I tried acetone nail polish remover on my fogs with no luck. I'd love to get them white again.

DSMcrazy3 · Mar 25, 2006

xveganxcowboyx said:
I'm anxious to see this. I tried acetone nail polish remover on my fogs with no luck. I'd love to get them white again.

Any rubbing compound, including regular car wax should get the job done. You need to use a bit of elbow grease when you rub though. It worked great on my old headlights.

IslanderTsi · Mar 26, 2006

Bump.. i know its not a good idea to bump but i thought this would be wort it to some people.

95TalonOwner · Mar 26, 2006

Here is the result of my polishing. The difference is like night and day. I can also see 10 times better at night now.

Before polishing......

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After polishing.....

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GSTeclipse · Mar 26, 2006

Advance Auto Parts carries a Headlight cleaner kit that come with 6 polishing pads and a adaptor for your drill it cost $10 and is Guaranteed to work or 3 times the money back !

Well let me tell you it work awsome only took about 5-8 min to do so and I was amazed by it ! I will post some before and after pictures of the headlight's I did

sc2_ct · Mar 26, 2006

My headlights on my 93 TSi were so fogged and yellowed that I could barely see when driving at night. The process I used was 800-grit wetsanding, followed by 1500-grit sanding, then extensive polishing with 3M rubbing compound and then some Mother's mag and aluminum polish. I had them out of the car and spent about 2 hours each because of how bad they were (well, that and I scubbed the whole housing and cleaned the inside with a white vinegar solution), but they look like they just came off of the assembly line now (not even a hint of speckles or even the smallest hairline scratch).

flyinghighlm · Mar 26, 2006

Turtle wax micro polishing compound & scratch remover will do the trick as well. I used a new dish sponge, those little blue ones, kept it wet and put a little trutle wax on it and it made a huge differance on my car and my g/f car.

xveganxcowboyx · Mar 26, 2006

DSMcrazy3 said:
Any rubbing compound, including regular car wax should get the job done. You need to use a bit of elbow grease when you rub though. It worked great on my old headlights.

Thanks. If I can't find my Mothers I'll hit the Turtle wax :thumb:

VegasTSI · Mar 26, 2006

damn my one yellow light , I thought the yellow was on the inner part of the headlamp... looks like I found a new project for next week

Quicklynx · Mar 26, 2006

Looks very nice man!

Quicklynx · Mar 26, 2006

That rag is nasty!

IslanderTsi · Mar 26, 2006

Quicklynx said:
That rag is nasty!

Yup and that was after the lenses had been srcubbed with dish soap for about five minutes. That stuff on the rag was what came off with the polish.

Im not done with them yet. Now that I can see where the imperfections are alot better I am going to wet sand them and then repolish with a buffer. I just wish you didint have to take the bumper off to remove the lights or I could do an even better job and clean the insides of the lights as well.

Quicklynx · Mar 26, 2006

Why not just go all out and fully clean em for the brand new look. I need to clean my lights. :talon:

IslanderTsi · Mar 26, 2006

I am afraid to take the bumper on because I have a feeling it wont go back on properly. The car has some rust underneeth and i dont want to break a bolt or anything. This will have to do for this season. Maybe next year I will pick up a 2gb bumper and clean them when I do that

president95 · Mar 26, 2006

Iif you get a 2gb bumper, you're going to need 2gb headlights...

IslanderTsi · Mar 27, 2006

Good point LOL

. I guess its not really an option around here anywasys. There are so few turbo dsm's around finding a used bumper would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

BeanBag · Mar 27, 2006

Excellent! Finally, I know how to clean up my headlights!

95TalonOwner · Mar 29, 2006

Here is the rubbing compound that I used. I picked it up at NAPA.

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It worked beautifully. Saved me 200 bucks since I was going to get the ebay projectors before I found this. I recommend it to anyone. :thumb:

Whiplash · Mar 29, 2006

Looking good. Did you win anything when you "Rolled up the rim to win"?

IslanderTsi · Mar 29, 2006

nope. I havent won anything yet and I drink about 2 of those a day. Its alright though when I win that rav4 it will all be made up for.

egtalon · Apr 2, 2006

i just used a little wax and a buffer and took my time and they turned out good!!!

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just polished my Headlights! (Update w. Pics)

IslanderTsi

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ImJustaGirl

1SLWTSi

IslanderTsi

xveganxcowboyx

DSMcrazy3

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flyinghighlm

xveganxcowboyx

VegasTSI

Quicklynx

Quicklynx

IslanderTsi

Quicklynx

IslanderTsi

president95

IslanderTsi

BeanBag

95TalonOwner

Whiplash

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