Cloudy, Hazy Car Headlights? Check this out...

[Red]

I figured I'm not the only one who's encountered this issue with my head lamps on my vehicle so I thought I'd share a good experience with a little Do It Yourself project from about 6 months ago:




Today I finally grew weary of looking at my foggy/yellowed headlights on my car... After a little research on Google, I discovered 3M's Headlight Polishing Kit, hit up Auto Zone ($25 bucks), found the power drill & went to town...

:fastlane:


Step 1: Tape around the headlights to protect painted surfaces from potentially wayward buffing... This was the original state of the headlight. Due to the overall crappiness of the camera I'm using to photograph this process, the impressive results are dampened due to poor visual documentation. Trust me, these headlights look icky in sunlight. Note the smaller headlamp & it's fogginess.



Step 2: 500 grit sandpaper. At this point I've killed the battery pack on the drill, but have no fear! Room mate has a backup & came to the rescue w/ an extended life battery, therefore keeping the mojo in full effect.




Step 3: 800 Grit. I'm now officially in the Remorse Phase of this Automobile Improvement Project. What have I done? Who lets me do this shit? Why am I unsupervised with power tools?



Step 4: Rubbing Compound. Here's where we start to see the light at the end of the tunnel... I haven't ruined my headlights (and I thought the tires were expensive to replace), they're just getting ready for the grand finale...



Step 5: Wipe down and Windex up! I forgot to take a pic w/o the damn tape... oops... Due to the aforementioned mediocre camera, it's hard to see a major difference here -it's best exemplified in the smaller headlamp -the clarity shows through better on that one for some reason...



Finished product in Daylight. Looks practically brand new! 3M comes through again...


Overall Rating: Two BIG thumbs up for 3M. The difference is HUGE & the effort was minimal (a few hours) and it was actually pretty fun. In the next week or so, now having more confidence in my abilities, I will probably go back over the lights one more time just for good measure and to really make them sparkle. If you're pondering this project, for $25 bucks and a few hours, you can't go wrong.


Helpful Hint: make sure you have a backup battery for the power drill that you can charge while you're using a secondary one on the headlights. I went through about 6 battery changes throughout the process but the previous battery was always charged by the time I killed the current one. Worked great & no down time





:urock2:

 

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[Qjet50]

Podi vavusoem epf vji “egvis qodvasit” muul hsiev. Jux jewi vji miptit jimf aq egvis 6 nupvjt? E xjomi cedl O fof tuni sitiesdj up vjot epf guapf vxu denqt up xjev vu fu egvis qumotjoph vji mipt: tuni tezoph vjev zua piif vu vsz epf sitvusi vji gedvusz AW duevoph vu qsiwipv us tmux vjev jebopitt gsun sivaspoph; epf vji tidupf hsuaq tezoph vjiz fup’v siemmz xusl ximm epf zua katv piif vu siqiev vjot qsuditt iwisz gix ziest fiqipfoph up jux nadj voni vji des tqipft op tapmohjv. Katv dasouat.

 

[Red]

R-

Tu ges, tvomm muuloph huuf! O tnomi iwisz voni O xeml opvu nz hesehi, mum. O jewip'v puvodif epz vsuacmi x/ vjin zimmuxoph us si-jeboph uwis -epf og O fof, O xuamf qsucecmz katv fu vji teni qsudifasi eheop. Op nz esie, vji huoph sevi gus jewoph jief menqt qumotjif cz e "qsugittoupem" ot e noponan ug $100 e jiefmenq (e gix qesvoit rauvif ni 3 commt gus nz guas jiefmenqt). O edvaemmz ipkuz qsukidvt moli vjev, tu ov xet e pu-cseopis gus ni.