Headlight restoration

[SurfnSun]

I know we aren’t really supposed to post car stuff here but what the heck…it’s Easter!

Backstory, the headlights on our Explorer sport are just about toast. Microcracks and hazing. I’ve been thinking about trading the car so I didn’t want to spend $1200 on new headlights.

I had good luck on one of my cars with Cerakote’s headlight restoration kit. I thought I would see what it would do on some headlights that were in really bad shape.

I am very pleased! Highly recommend…would buy again.

[Vandelay Industries]

Looks good! How long did it take?

[KenHorse]

Originally Posted by Vandelay Industries

Looks good! How long did it take?

In a flash!

[Bill]

Post an update, say at 6 months, so we know how long that lasts. Everyone I know that has tried polishing their headlight cover plastics says they haze over again fairly quickly.

[SurfnSun]

Originally Posted by Vandelay Industries

Looks good! How long did it take?

Less than 12 minutes for the one, and I did quite a bit of wet sanding. Starting the other now.

[Vandelay Industries]

Originally Posted by SurfnSun

Less than 12 minutes for the one, and I did quite a bit of wet sanding. Starting the other now.

Like bill, curious about the durability.

[SurfnSun]

Originally Posted by bill_daniels

Post an update, say at 6 months, so we know how long that lasts. Everyone I know that has tried polishing their headlight cover plastics says they haze over again fairly quickly.

I did my Caddy a few months ago, they weren’t in too bad of shape and the coating still looks perfect.

Cerakote seems to be a good brand.

[Swany00]

was wondering if that crap really worked, apparently it does!

[SurfnSun]

Just finished the passenger side. That one took me about 20 mins, it was a little worse than the driver. Cracks can still be seen if you look closely, but it’s WAY better for $18 and 45 minutes of actual work.

[SurfnSun]

Here is one of my ELR lenses that I did in January. Car sits in the Florida sun every day, garaged at night

[Tikiman]

Huge difference between before and after.


Did you do it by hand or use a machine buffer?

[SurfnSun]

Originally Posted by Tikiman

Huge difference between before and after.


Did you do it by hand or use a machine buffer?

Just by hand. It comes with a little foam grip for the sand paper discs.

[DJ_Critterus]

Originally Posted by bill_daniels

Post an update, say at 6 months, so we know how long that lasts. Everyone I know that has tried polishing their headlight cover plastics says they haze over again fairly quickly.

6 months?? 3 weeks should be sufficient for them to look like crap again. Every resto system out there gives the same results, it seems.

[GTOguy]

I've done a few sets and then applied 303 over them. Lasts about a year or so. Sometimes longer. Worth the bother.

[Datawiz]

Very nice. I usually just get a replacement set from rockauto.com an fix it in 10 minutes. The above does not apply to Corvettes.

[SurfnSun]

Originally Posted by Datawiz

Very nice. I usually just get a replacement set from rockauto.com an fix it in 10 minutes. The above does not apply to Corvettes.

Cheapest Explorer set was $500…my guess is the fit and quality is not great but who knows. If spent an hour of my time and $18 it is worth it.

I don’t make $500/hr…yet

[Datawiz]

Originally Posted by SurfnSun

Cheapest Explorer set was $500…my guess is the fit ams quality is not great but who knows. If spent an hour of my time and $18 it is worth it.

I don’t make $500/hr…yet

For my Tundra, with just shy of 300k miles, I've replaced the headlights twice. $200 all in, and done in 10 minutes.

[the new me]

You have to put a UV protectant coating on the headlight lenses if you want the polish job to last.

Here's a reddit discussion about it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AutoDetaili...lights_for_uv/

And here's a web search (where I obtained the reddit discussion FTR) if you want more choices:
https://www.google.com/search?q=what...red+headlights

Whatever it was I used last time I did some headlights 6 or 7 years ago, it seems to have held up pretty well so far.

[Frankie the Fink]

Originally Posted by bill_daniels

Post an update, say at 6 months, so we know how long that lasts. Everyone I know that has tried polishing their headlight cover plastics says they haze over again fairly quickly.

Absolutely - once the poly-carbonite in the lens is compromised all subsequent restoration is temporary - garaging the car as much as possible will prolong the treatment, but not forever.

[bsmith]

I did it on my old pickup
Everything I read was that you needed a kit that had a "clear coat" that you put on after the cleaning, or it would look like shit in no time.