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Cleaning up manky old headlights......

stevec67 said:
Wash and dry, remove all dirt and grit. Then soft cloth and Solvol Autosol metal polish.
You can also buy kits.
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They're past a bit of metal polish, I've had a bash with this and it hasn't touched the sides. I'm thinking some coarse cutting compound or wet and dry to get the worst off and then metal polish and a mop to bring them back up again.
stevec67 said:
You could try a clear aerosol lacquer. Anything that keeps the air, water and ideally uv light off will help. Realistically though you are going to be doing this to an old car and if you have to do it again every couple of years it's not the end of the world, because you won't be keeping it for ever.
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A light coat of clear UV Lacquer to finish appears to be the way to go.

It's an 18 year old Volvo with 160000 miles on the clock, hence cleaning them up rather than spending £300 replacing them.
 
foxwelljsly said:
They're past a bit of metal polish, I've had a bash with this and it hasn't touched the sides. I'm thinking some coarse cutting compound or wet and dry to get the worst off and then metal polish and a mop to bring them back up again.

A light coat of clear UV Lacquer to finish appears to be the way to go.

It's an 18 year old Volvo with 160000 miles on the clock, hence cleaning them up rather than spending £300 replacing them.
Click to expand...
Seems fair. I would start the game with 1000 grit wet and dry paper, used wet, with soap. Just household soap. Keep it wet and soapy with water from a bucket to wash out the grit. This is what they do in paint shops. Then repeat if necessary with 2000 grit. You might at this point be able to go to T Cut or similar for a finer finish to get to an acceptable level of polish. I would mask up the surrounding paintwork with some chunky tape, say gaffer tape, so it's resistant to damage when sanding.
As you say it's an 18 year old car with plenty of miles on board so you're likely to be replacing it in the next couple of years, it's not worth spending too much time and money on it, just get it through the test and serviceable and if you need to revisit it in 2 years so be it. I'm in the same position, 14 years/200k miles, I'm guessing another 3 years/40-50k miles depending on usage patterns. It depends on work, some years I do 20k, some years <10k. It's a big diesel so setting aside consumables like brakes, clutch and bits of suspension it's good for 300k+. The only snag is that if it hands in a clutch and a pile of MoT related work at the same time, it could easily hand me a bill for £2k. At that point you are rolling the dice as to whether this is you done for the year or whether you might do the work only for something terminal like gearbox bearings or timing chains to give up. That's old cars.
 
stevec67 said:
You could try a clear aerosol lacquer. Anything that keeps the air, water and ideally uv light off will help. Realistically though you are going to be doing this to an old car and if you have to do it again every couple of years it's not the end of the world, because you won't be keeping it for ever.
Click to expand...
Be careful with aerosol lacquer.
My friend did this a few years ago on his halogen headlights and the light refraction went all over the place on one headlight. Maybe poor application.
He then, stupidly, used a paint thinner to remove the lacquer and ended up destroying the plastic lens. :rolleyes:

Keep it simple.
 
Aerosol, be flat as a fart in a week . Obviously from a professional point of view , car that old just do as I said up thread. Flat 2000 polish 10mins . Repeat next time there milky.
 
eddie pugh said:
I bought a 3M kit off amazon to do my BMW530 Tourer which was 20 years old and looking decidedly milky

Followed the instructions and headlights as good as new Just a warning the lights will look really milky white until the very last step where you apply the little sachet of liquid which I think is a bit of cyanoacrylate. Very pleased with theend result and being a bit abstemious with the stuff I managed to do my daughters 15 yr old Golf as well Think the kit cost about £20 A power drill is needed to do the sanding.

eddie
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I did similar, T-Cut kit iirc from about 800 to 3000 grit then a polish; found the drill sander a bit savage so did it by hand.

Easier if you spend five minutes taking the headlight units off, also found a couple of minor repairs needed in there and cleaned the contacts.

Probably about four hours to do the pair apart from a small JB Weld repair that needed to set overnight.

20 year old 996 so if i can do it every ten years i'll be happy, probably have to do one of the ten year old Suzuki lights next if the MOT guy's awake.
 
One of the kits from Ebay (about £10-£13) will do the job and make it easy, you will need a drill, They come with a liquid sealant that makes them, look like new
Alternatively, buy wet and dry paper in 800, 1200, 2000, and 3000 grits, plus T-Cut, and go through the grades starting at 800. You would need to seal them up with some kind of sealant (but be careful with lacquer as the finish can look a bit patchy). Avoid Turtle Wax Headlight sealant, it's basically useless.
 
I do the headlights on Mrs BM`s 2008 Fiesta every year just before the MOT - they still don`t look great but the MOT guy says the beam pattern is fine.
 
AnilS said:
Be careful with aerosol lacquer.
My friend did this a few years ago on his halogen headlights and the light refraction went all over the place on one headlight. Maybe poor application.
He then, stupidly, used a paint thinner to remove the lacquer and ended up destroying the plastic lens. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

You'd have to trowel it on to do that.
 
What a load of faff. I had the bloke at the bodyshop do this a few years ago for the bargain price of about £35 quid and as tight fisted as I normally am, I'm not even putting my outdoor shoes on to save that kind money if I have to work for it. Mind you that was pre covid so it's probably £150 now.
 
AnilS said:
Be careful with aerosol lacquer.
My friend did this a few years ago on his halogen headlights and the light refraction went all over the place on one headlight. Maybe poor application.
He then, stupidly, used a paint thinner to remove the lacquer and ended up destroying the plastic lens. :rolleyes:

Keep it simple.
Click to expand...
Right exatly, it's not beyond the realms of possiblity that the the plastic of the lens may actually melt with some solvents etc. Have to be careful what you use on headlights.
 
I bought a kit. It worked brilliantly on my wife's car and then mine, though I skimped a bit on mine so it needs doing again... lesson there..

The kit comprised a drill attachment designed to hold discs of various grades of 'wet and dry' paper, then a polishing mop for the final polish and lastly a bottle of some sort of protective coating which goes on last. Can't remember the make and not going to the garage to find out as it's pissing down out there... but it was under 20 quid and well worth it.

Naturally, it's a good idea to mask surrounding paintwork to protect against accidental scrapes, and it's also a good idea to cover the front of the car with a sheet, to save having to wash off the spots of polish etc., which inevitably fly around, even though you run the drill at low speed.
 
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