Here I used the Cera Kote headlight restoration kit (about $15 from Wal-Mart) and i was really surprised at how much of a difference it made on my OEM headlights. All factory from 2002, so I didn’t expect them to turn out that great, but it’s amazing what a little smoothing and sanding can do for old headlights. I wish I had taken better before and after pictures, to be honest, but this speaks for itself!
I’ve also been very impressed with Cera Kote trim restore products before, maybe I’ll show some pictures of what it did to my engine-bay plastics. Stay tuned!
Update: it’s been 7 months so far, and still looks great. I’ll see what it looks like after a year and post pictures of that too. My car gets a lot of UV exposure since it’s not in a covered environment, but it holds up well. I think the coating you apply at the end must have great UV protection
You’ll want to apply some clear spray paint to them at the very end, otherwise they’ll get super yellow again in like three months.
I did this with two different UV resistant clear sprays and both yellowed and faded in a relatively short amount of time. And I didn’t buy super cheap bottom shelf stuff or anything. I believe I got rustoleum and another brand I don’t recall.
Simple fact is plastic is going to deteriorate in sunlight. I miss square glass headlights. Get off my lawn.
UV resistant film, like the Clear Bra stuff that 3M(?) makes. Some companies make them pre-cut exactly for your model’s headlights. A little tricky to put on, like window tint, etc. but the film is good for like 5 years, then you peal it off and put new film back on, never need to polish the plastic ever again. Some people put the film on BEFORE the plastic goes bad, even on new cars. EDIT: also adding that spray paints are a bad idea because they actually will mess with the light patterns and output and stuff. I forget all the details exactly, but something something do your own research 😉
Yup. The real trick is to get a 2K clear coat. Pricey compared to “UV resistant” 1 component sprays but it actually does hold up. It’s less like spray paint more like an epoxy coating, tough as nails when set and actually keeps the plastic from yellowing.
The perfect middle ground happened for me with my 2001 E46. Modern headlight shape but with easily replaceable lenses. Gluing the damn things together is BS.