Headlight Polishing

With Spring Car Cleanup just around the corner I was thinking that my headlights were a little cloudy. I had been looking into doing some headlight polishing. The permatex kit is the one that seams to be most recomended. I was going to start looking for who carried this kit when I received this months Princess Auto Flyer. They have the permatex kit on sale for $12.99.

message marchmen from the ontario forum he has done several members headlights

That's a good price, I was going to do this again soon too.

Last time I ended up buying a variety of sandpaper grits from NAPA (400, 800, 1500, 2000 I believe) and sanded the crap out of the headlights for about 2 hours, and then I waxed them and they looked great. However this time I think I'm going to do some light sanding to smooth them out and then try some plastic polish.

What's in the Permex kit?

Sorry I misspelled it. It is Permatex. Kit incudes Plastic Polish, Polishing Cloth, Various grades of sandpaper, Gloves. Clamshell packaging acts as tray to soak sandpaper in. Video of procedure on Permatex website.

Yep, ask Marchmen is also what I was thinking.... We used various sandpaper grits to wetsand my headlights, then he applied a few compounds (3M rubbing compound and Meguiars PlastX I believe) with an orbital buffer....

There was some headlight polishing done at Jeff's place before. All I remember is Chris (Hoodie) making a mess of everything.

looks pretty easy, I just picked up the permatex at Princess Auto yesterday. Thanks for the posting. I feel like I am driving at night without headlights. (even on highbeam, they suck).

Bmarc said:

There was some headlight polishing done at Jeff's place before. All I remember is Chris (Hoodie) making a mess of everything.

Click to expand...

Hahaha. I remember that. I made such a mess of those poor lenses. They ended up being re-done (properly ) and are running around on a silver Jolf now.

I actually just did another set by hand. Came out alright but they needed to be buffed with an orbital to get them looking right.
I planned on having them for a retrofit. I've got everything I need but I think I may go with those Helix oem hid replicas instead of hack jobbing the back of a stock set.

Ok, I'll be the first. I'm doing a set when I get home.

A rotory buffer or Porter Cable orbital work well with a fine grade polishing compund. Patienence always makes a difference too.

Never tried it on car headlight covers but I've had real good luck with Novus plastic polish on motorcycle windshields. It takes out scratchs really well.

I believe Apple (or one of the other windshield shops) carries it:

http://www.novuspolish.com/

Just did mine on friday....



http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=209987

I use to do other peoples for supplies and $50. Those kits are crap. You can buy sandpaper and a full bottle of polish for less than those kits, and you can do your friends or wife's car.