How to Polish and Restore Headlights (In 5 Easy Steps)
Over time, the lamp housing darkens due to yellowing from ultraviolet (UV) light. It can also be scratched by road debris and improper cleaning practices. Headlight restoration restores your headlights to their original brightness and improves visibility on the road.
Steps to save light bulbs
The following procedures have been used on a variety of cars with excellent results and do not require the purchase of a headlight restoration kit. All you need is 800 to 3,000 sandpaper and something to protect the lighthouse from the sun.
1) Wash the vehicle
Before starting the restoration of the candle, it is important to clean your candles as much as possible. You want to shine the spotlight, not rub dirt into the house.
2) Support the main lights
Sandpaper is easy to lose without damaging the paint. Use masking tape to tape off the main lights to protect the paint. Although it’s tempting, don’t skip this step; You may regret it later. Eye protection is important if you are using electrical equipment. Bumpers and rails are not the right equipment, and if you don’t cover the lights, you will almost certainly paint them.
3) Fill the main lights with wet sandpaper
If your headlights and clouds are scratched, start with No. 800. If you want to touch more, start with 1,000 or 1,500. Use wet sandpaper to sand the headlights until they are smooth. Once done, wipe with a microfiber towel.
4) Incandescent lights
Before finishing sanding, sand the entire lamp again using 3,000 grit sandpaper. You’ll know you’re done when your candles are no longer cloudy and brighter than before you started.
If you’ve been sanding with 3,000 grit paper for a while and your lights are still cloudy, go back to 1,200 or 1,500 grit sandpaper. Wet the short sand back to the 3,000 grit sand.
5) Collect the candles
If you follow the steps above, your headlights should be perfect today. However, we want to keep it that way.
If you don’t put a UV protective coating on your lights, they will turn yellow and darken again in no time. This can be done in just a few months, especially if you park your car outside.
To protect your lights from the sun, use clear coat cleaner or clear coat spray to protect the plastic inside your light housing. Wet cleaners are easier to use. Clear coat sprays require more coverage and care so you don’t just spray paint around the lights.
In a pinch, car wax and ceramic coating can provide UV protection, but no product will hold up to a true clear coat. Ceramic coating may be your second choice because a good ceramic coating can last up to 5 years or more.
Do you need to use electronic devices? You don’t need a power tool to adjust your lights. However, electronic devices can speed up the process.
Be careful not to press the power tool and remove too much material. When using power tools, it is important to keep the sand wet. You still need to hide well. If you’re not careful, power tools can smear the paint through the base coat.
Do light recovery kits work? Light recovery kits vary in quality and price. The instructions are also different from those shown in this article (although there is a lot of overlap between the steps).
It’s difficult to make general statements about the effectiveness of a lighting repair kit because the answer to how to use it lies in the kit. Interestingly, a small amount of sand and water gives the same results as most devices on the market.
If you only buy what you need, you’ll save a lot of money compared to buying a pre-taxed package of candles. All you need is sandpaper and a clean rag.
If you want to buy a kit to make things easier, the Meguiar light kit is very useful and reasonably priced. PlastX Headlight Polish works well with the included brush pad. This kit also includes a light coating spray that provides one year of UV protection.