So, inspired by thetz's headlight polishing thread, I went at it today.

I didn't take a before of the driver's side light, but it compared pretty much to the passenger side... so this will have to do for a before/after...



edit:adding passenger side post-polish:


process
PC w/4" spot pads for all steps:
SFX1 pad, Optimum Hyper Compound (x5 or so) (speed 6)
SFX2 pad, Meguiar's #17 Clear Plastic Cleaner (speed 5-6)
SFX3 pad, Meguiar's #10 Clear Plastic Polish (speed 3-4)

I really worked the Optimum, heated up the plastic pretty good. I don't know if it did a ton of scratch removal, but it looked PRETTY good. The Meguiar's products really made a significant difference, I think mostly due to their plastic-specific nature, probably filling fine scratches and such. I worked both of those really well until they nearly disappeared.

So there you go. I'll take some afters of the passenger side headlight when I'm done with that.

edit: now that that's done, it looks like the passenger side has hazy WIPE marks INSIDE the lens! I don't know what that's all about, since I've never taken that apart. *shrug*

 

Looks MUCH better. I recently polished the headlights on Steve's (Bass) "new" Prelude. The pictures are no longer in the thread, but they were terribly fogged and had a decent amount of pitting.

We started with Menzerna IP on a 4" cutting pad then moved up to Menzerna FPII on a 4" polishing pad. This got out most of the fogging and they looked pretty good. Since then we've gotten our hands on some Menzerna Power Gloss. Steve applied that to the lights with a cutting pad and now except for the pitting they look like new!

 

A PC really maintains the S doesn't it

I was concerned when I first did mine and just stuck with 210+ plastic polish, but now I can see that for really pitted and hazed plastic, Power Gloss works better and faster

Don't be shy, if it takes more than a couple reps of one product, go more aggressive

 

hyper compound is my most aggressive polish. i could pick up some powergloss on my next order, i suppose

 

Is Power Gloss more abrasive than Hyper Compound? I thought they were about the same, but I could be wrong.

 

Dunno, I find Hyper is aggressive up front, but it doesn't take much to break down. Either that or my paint is really really hard ... which I think it may be - there were some scratches I tried to polish out tonight on the passenger side that were NOT budging with multiple passes of OHC and a 4" SFX1 pad...

 

i wish i could do that to my headlights, but I don't have any of those power things that you guys use

 

I was polishing my headlights as well last weekend, you can see a pic that shows headlights sanded and headlights polished....
You heart becomes quite small when you only have sanded headlights

 

would this take out also the "yellowing" haze developing on older headlights... (mine is starting to yellow...) --- or is it inside?

 

yellowing is usually like haze...

test a corner of the lens first and you will be able to tell. it does depend on the plastic, but i think it is pretty rare to find yellowing on the inside (i have never seen it).

how old is the car? to have plastic headlights it cant be too old- my recollection is that they started using plastic lights around late 80's/ early 90s?