tooga

I just received an email from the dealer: "Are your headlights turning cloudy? If they are, you need to come in for our headlight refinishing treatment ! For only $129.99 we can dramatically improve the look of your vehicle while improving your safety during night driving. This outstanding service will amaze you with just how renewed your headlights will look afterwards." blah, blah, blah.....

Has anybody done this at the dealership? Satisfied? Seems sort of pricey but I would like to have my 03 TL-S headlights looking good as new.....

thanks.

BAPE head

save your money and buy some plastic polish and do it yourself....

slavver01

iTrader: (3)

look up plastic X. they have them at any pepboys autozone even walmart. stuff works just as good, plus you get a nice workout haha. and satisfaction. and its less then 10 bucks

nguyen

sand paper, bucket of water, buffer, and rubbing compound is all u need my friend

zeppler

if you dont have any scratches on your headlights
get plasticX. seriously that thing works magic

use it. just rub it on the lens. clean it with a clean dry cloth/towel. and ull be amazed what happens

do it a couple of times. and your headlights will look BRAND NEW

CJITTY

what a fukin ripoff lol...yup, bottle of plast-x and call it a day...save the cash and take your girl out for a hella nice dinner

fsttyms1

Do it yourself

Before

Wetsanded

After, Polished

New Light

'03TL-S

iTrader: (10)

^^what kind of sandpaper did you use (grits)?

`ill*tl

1200
1500
3000 Wet

^ proper sandpaper grit for refinishing pretty much anything.

zeppler

u want to use wetsand, 1000-1500-2000
depending on how deep and how many scratches you have. use lower grit

make sure to leave the sandpaper in water for about 5-10 minutes first

while sanding, keep it wet.

so have like a bowl of water right next to you while sanding it

as you sand it, milky water will drip down. dont panic, its normal. sand sideways first
then take a different sand paper, and sand in up and down motion.

repeat it this a few times

this will take some time. ur looking at 15-20 minutes of sanding per headlight.
put those arms and elbows to work!

wash it down afterwards with water

use plastic-x
and u should be very happy
do use plastic-x
cuz with just water, or any other detailer, or glass cleaner, ur lenses will still stay milky and foggy

slavver01

iTrader: (3)

yea if your heads are really hazy and or scratched, its best to start off with a lower grit. even 800 works. just keep going up in the grit, as in 800-1200-1500-2000 etc. and you'll need plastic X either way at the end cuz its really fine grit, i think around 3000. works better then 3000 sandpaper cuz its in a pasty form. good luck

totaledTL

I used metal polish before on another vehicle I used to have that had cloudy headlights. Worked great, not hard at all.

fsttyms1

I used 800 and 1500

tooga

Thanks all.

6MTUA5

iTrader: (2)

Then come over to Tallahassee and do mine

Nyght Rhyder 786

so how does it work the worse the headlights are the higher sandpaper grit you use?? and where do i find this kind of sand paper is it diffrent cuz its used while wet ??

'03TL-S

iTrader: (10)

The deeper the scratches on your headlights are, the lower grit you go. Sandpapers can be found at your local autoparts/hardware store.

twistedwedge

just make sure you get wet or dry sandpaper. Places like Pep Boys, Auto Zone, most hardware stores, etc carry it.

If your headlights are really bad, you will have to start with a lower grit, 800 or so and work your way up to 2000. End with the plastic-x. Take your time, do a thorough job and they will come out nice.

mklaudt

Tried this (1000 wet - 1500 wet - PlastX). Looks better, but there are small scratches from the sand paper I can't get rid of. what did I do wrong? I kept everything wet while sanding, and I didn't use much pressure at all with the sand paper, and used a lot of pressure while buffing the PlastX. If I can get rid of those damn scratches it'll look great. any ideas.

JM604

I'm no expert, but if the scratches are from the sandpaper, I'd try going back and sanding with say 2000 grit paper to see if that helps. Then hit it with the PlastX again to finish.

Post pics, and maybe someone with more experience can give you some better advice.

twistedwedge

sand them well with the 2000 and hit them with the plasticx (use a buffer if you have one)

fsttyms1

Hit it with more polish. Thats all it needs. You could go use some 2k on them then repolish but in the end you may waste more time. Know any one with a buffer? It will polish them in 30 seconds.

ht02tl-s

i got mines done at the dealer a few months ago. they did a good job but not worth 100 price they charged me. i could of done it myself for a lot cheaper if i wasnt such a noob back then.

Comet2404

haha happens to the best of us. don't worry!!! You'll save yourself plenty of money by using this site during your tenure of being a TL owner!

mklaudt

I tried this thing I got at Pep Boys - red ball that attaches to drill. Used it at pretty low speed. Didn't seem to do much. Increased speed and pressure. Still not much. Is there a different buffer you'd recommend? Also, I thought I bought PlastX but I got the Mother's Plastic Polish by mistake. (They were right next to each other on the shelf.) Do you think PlastX is that much better or are they about the same? Would rubbing compound make things better or worse? Thx

StonedCL

iTrader: (1)

So should you use the plasticX to wet the lens for sanding and just use water with the sandpaper at firt the spray that plasticx on after your done sanding?

twistedwedge

No-the plastic-x is for the last step...

depending on the severity- (wet sand using water)-start with 800 grit, move to 1000, then 1500 or 2000, finish off with plastic-x (using a random orbit buffer will be much quicker and easier)

indoMFP

Even Wal-mart does it now... and they only charge ~$50 for both headlights... save your money and do it yourself...

mklaudt

Finally got around to buying the PlastX. Took the scratches out with just one quick application. I had been polishing forever with that @#&*(& Mother's plastic polish. That stuff sucks. I thought for sure I had ruined the lens. Now all is nice, shiny and CLEAR! Thanks!

mestizoracer310

We do it at EZ Lube now. It's $40 but I've heard lots of people getting them done for half off....it uses one sandpaper disc (don't know the "grit number") then a polishing "foam" type disc...(with a polishing compound)... comes out VERY nice. The compound even comes with an integrated wax to protect them from sun exposure (which will make ANY polycarbonate/plastic lens cloudy/yellowed).

In a Honda Tuning mag a few months back, it did show a DIY for this....said to use wet sandpaper in various steps (never one) and then polish.

Mine's are getting weird too...the outer layer is coming off...it looks like glitter. It happened to the wife's TYC projector headlights on the accord...(which I had repolished at work..EZ Lube) seems to be doing quite well...

Hope this helps.

Severin

I wet sanded by 2000's sand blasted lamps today per this thread: I picked up a pack of 1000 & 2000 grit paper from the auto section at Walmart and used a bottle of plastic scratch remover I had laying around - all by hand.
The results are astonishing; thanks all.

Eddystone

So you sanded with 800 >1500 > polished with Plast-X, all by hand right ?

I have 600, 1500 grit wet paper and will have to buy Plast-X tomorrow. I am so scared that after I sand everything, it wont look normal again because right now they aint that bad but has light scratches and oxidation.

Please give me some advice.

mklaudt

If it's not bad, you can skip the 600 and just do 1500. You can even just try the Plast-X without the sandpaper, but that probably won't remove the oxidation. Mine was all scratched from the sandpaper until I hit it with the plast-x a few times. now looks brand new. Didn't have a buffer so just did by hand - use a buffer if you have one.

TequiLa

iTrader: (3)

damnnn charging 130$... if people actually were willing to pay that, id make bank lol... just spend under 20$ and u get sand paper and the lens polisher. use 3m blue painters tape to cover the chrome grille frame, hood, and bumper just incase you slip with a low grit and scratch.

Eddystone

I dont exactly know whats "bad" but it doesnt seem that bad compared to pics I seen on Google and YouTube. Mines still kinda clear looking but upclose its has rock marks and oxidation.

What kind of wax should I buy ? a product that I can buy at Wal-mart or something similar.

mklaudt

If you have pits etc that you can feel, the 1500 probably won't fix that. You'll need the 600 or 800. then follow with finer grit to remove the scracthes from the 800 and so on. Finish with PlastX. No need to wax (although I think Tom does??) - probably just prevents future oxidation. I imagine just regular car wax.

Eddystone

Do I wash the Plast-X off at the end ?

bigeshorte45

iTrader: (3)

I used plast-x before and it works pretty good! especially for 7 bucks... i'm just not sure what i should use to rub it in next time? i used the back of a sink sponge (the rough side) cuz thats all i could think of that was safe... anybody have a better idea of what to use to rub in the Plast-x into my headlights?

Eddystone

I read that people are using a 100% terry cloth but I will be using a microfiber cloth when I do my headlights tomorrow.

The process that I plan is clean lens > PlastX, if that fails then clean lens > 600 grit wet > 1500 grit wet > 2000 grit wet > PlastX. Hope everything goes well, will report back tomorrow but I dont have a camera to show.

1789

A suitable, mildly abrasive polish is in your bathroom. USE TOOTHPASTE! I saw this tip on Two Guys Garage (before 3M became one of their sponsors and they switched to promoting the 3M multi-step kit). I've used toothpaste and a towel on a friends Ford Explorer with severely deteriorated plastic headlights. Noticeable improvement with very little effort.