My 20 year old van’s headlights need more than a little. My initial look at kits to do this leaves me with the feeling that there is a lot of snake oil for sale. It’s hard to see what material is credible. I may just be searching on the wrong terms. Can anyone here share some enlightenment?
If it’s the clearcoat tarnished on the surface of the headlight, I find that you can remove that with wet and dry paper, going up from maybe 1000 grit up to 2000 then 3000 grit. Then once you’ve polished it, add more clearcoat.
The kits make it easier than buying the individual items separately, but often don’t include any real clearcoat. Also, the kits often will have a drill attachment to save you having to rub things with your hands.
That’s my experience at any rate. And my current headlights are disgraceful.
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I’ve used the Meguiar’s kit and it worked fine. I think the most important aspect though is the finish clear coat/UV protection coating technique and materials used It’s pretty easy to polish the plastic to get to a crystal clear finish; staying that way for a long time is the real trick.
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The problem with refinishing is that it can’t replace the UV inhibitors that were mixed in with rhe feedstock prior to being injection molded. A finishing/polishing compound might apply a thin veneer of inhibitor to the lens, but it will never offer the same durability as tbe original.
Sourcing NOS OEM housings is often the best approach, but those get pricey.
3m makes a good kit for 20-30 usd. Takes an hour or 2 for borh depending on how bad your cataracts are.
Polishing should last a few years. But the clarity will not be like new for long.
Aftermarket headlights if only halogen may be the better route as the polycarbonate will have the UV coating that helps delay the deterioration.
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It’s a 2005 occasional driver, so it’s probably not worth the $200 for new headlights. I’ll try the 3M kit and see if I can find some clear coat.
^^^ This. The 3M kit is going to save your hands too as it comes with a drill attachment vs Cerakote or turtle wax for example which just comes with a sanding pad or block. I will say the Cerakote kit does come with wipes which they call “oxidation remover”. Fairly certain they just melt off the top layer of the clear coat but I’ve had surprisingly very good results. For headlights that are not totally faded over, I’ve found this to be a quick solution and seems to be holding up thus far (6 months later) with a final layer of the 3M protective wipe. The 3M final protective coating though is in my opinion the best available. You can get the 3M final coat wipes individually in a 30 pack from Walmart or Amazon. All in all you can’t really go wrong with any of the kits, they all work to some degree. I’m weird and like to use pieces from each kit. Unless you are going to be camping out in front of a gas station trying to sell headlight restoration I’d recommend just picking up a kit vs buying the supplies individually.
$200 would be cheap - I did the polishing on a 2005 R52 Mini Cooper Conv due to no other reasonable choice. Each HID headlight assembly at my cost was $750, but now has dropped to a more palatable $500, so I may spring for a pair! No, there is not “aftermarket” for these available, as these are HID, with headlight washers. I am not in “ghetto / this is close enough / looks good from fifty feet away” modifications.
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I’ve used these guys several times in the past for mobile (i.e. at my place) wash/wax/ceramic coating. They advertise headlight restoration here for $49…I can’t be exactly sure what that gets you at that rate since I’ve never used them for that, but given a kit costs (50-75)% of that, maybe give them a call and find out?
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Are there any recommended brands/vendors for retrofit LED fixtures? Fix two issues at once?
I had no luck cleaning the headlights on my 2003 Toyota Sienna van. The right headlight was getting so dim it was a danger. I got the OEM replacement - $300 - and I was pretty happy with the improved lighting at night. Six months later I replaced the left headlight. Now I have good headlights for night driving and they make the car look much nicer.
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HID in halogen reflector housings not only produces a garbage beam pattern, but the stray UV cooks reflectors and lenses alike in short order. Projectors won’t quite be as bad but will still degrade.
It can be done if one is willing to carefully graft a proper HID projector assembly into a halogen housing, but OEM-adjacent quality is about the best one is going to realize. But not something a respectable mechanic or body shop is going to do.
Two general options:
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PnP bulbs that emulate halogen bulbs. Better versions of these (i.e. Diode Dynamics) can work close to halogen bulbs¹ but physics is a harsh mistress and current LED technology cannot match incandescent filament geometry while being adequately powerful. Note that there are … a lot … of garbage products in this genre. Be prepared to spend more than $100 for a pair of these.
¹Only in projector assemblies; they’ll produce terrible glare in reflectors since they lack a projector’s masking to remove the unavoidable artifacting caused by LEDs different geometry vs filaments - Retrofit projectors (HID or LED) can be carefully inserted into halogen headlight assemblies. But be aware that this is fkn surgery necessitating splitting the lenses open, creating an opening for the projector, ensuring sufficient clearance for re-installation, performing gross alignment, carefully sealing it up. It’s hours of effort to do right.
Neither option is technically legal, but short of obnoxious levels of glare you’re unlikely to be cited for either.
I used the 3M kit on my truck last year. It includes several levels of drill-mountable sanding disks. I took my time to work through all the grits and was very happy with the results.
The kit includes a UV protection layer applied at the end.
BEFORE
DURING (After sanding with 500 grit)
AFTER
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DEET works too if someone is looking for a simpler process. can’t beat the finish when wet sanded tho. those lights look amazing.