Headlight Polish

[Grant]

So i need to polish my headlights. They have gone 'milky' I suppose is the bet way to describe it.

Im looking at this. Has anyone had any experience with this? Or could recommend something that does the job well.

Cheers

[1616six]

Toothpaste. Polish by hand with it for ~15 mins, trust me it works, gimme a min & il find some photos.

[Grant]

Toothpaste. Polish by hand with it for ~15 mins, trust me it works, gimme a min & il find some photos.

Surprising. Interested to see this.

[1616six]

[Grant]

Impressive.

And this is general run of the mill toothpaste you say?

[1616six]

Colgate cavity protection is what I used. Those are just pics from the forum but the results were identical.

[Grant]

Nice one cheers dude. Atleast my headlights will be minty fresh and free from cavities

[1616six]

No worries, at least if it doesn't work (which I can't see why it wouldn't as it's tried & tested) you've not exactly wasted any money!

[kentiiboii]

I used tooth paste when I had a mk4 astra. Worked really well

[Slam Wagon]

Toothpaste seems to be the cheapest recommendation but ive heard it doesnt last long in some cases, meguires etc do a repair kit that is meant to be a more perminent fix.

[Nathan1305]

avocado apparently works really well theres a MCM episode on headlight restoration

[Toms306]

How does toothpaste do that? I didn't realise it was abrasive!?

[PartyJas]

Toothpaste seems to be the cheapest recommendation but ive heard it doesnt last long in some cases, meguires etc do a repair kit that is meant to be a more perminent fix.

3M do a professional restoration kit for headlights too.

Here

[NOSE]

GUNSON also do a repair kit, their part number is 77120, hopefully this link works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn_oUXAx1Ek

[Grant]

Nice one, cheers for the link

[bashbarnard]

How does toothpaste do that? I didn't realise it was abrasive!?

Toothpaste is great at cleaning stuff. Smartprice stuffs cheap to. Good on crappy chrome as well

[Piggy]

Ive always used 2000grit wet n dry used wet.

Then t cut. Then megs polish. Then apply wax.

My mate had his racing puma ones go real bad... So he 2000grit wet n dried the.....then clear coat laquered them. Came up like new

[Gaz85]

Has anyone tried the meguiars headlight restoration kit ?

[1616six]

There's no need to put all that effort in Piggy! Toothpaste is simple, cheap & works!

[Piggy]

Yeah I'll give it a go next time...nice one JJ

Although, how long does that method last? Mine method has always lasted as long as Ive had or friends have had the car.
Only takes about 15min per side to do what I did.

[impotentials]

Mine have what looks like chips in the lacquer. Do you think the 2000 grit wet method with polishing will cure it as I assume toothpaste will not be abrasiv enough, and will I have to re lacquer them afterwards?
cheers

[Grant]

There isn't a lacquer on them to begin with. Some may have a protective coating, but not a lacquer as such.

I wouldn't know if lacquering headlights would give good results. As piggy says, his mate has done so, but form factory I'd be highly surprised if the had a lacquer on them.

[WiNgNuTz]

I must admit, my ABM angels look like they have a layer of lacquer on them thats peeling, might grab a pic tomorrow so people can see/advise me what can be done, as they just look a bit tatty now.

[impotentials]

I assume it must be a lacquer or a coat of some sort as it has defo chipped and not hazed.
ill try cutting and polishing at some point and hope it works. Or just replace with crystals.

[Toms306]

I must admit, my ABM angels look like they have a layer of lacquer on them thats peeling, might grab a pic tomorrow so people can see/advise me what can be done, as they just look a bit tatty now.

Hmm, I never did work out what happened there. They were fine when put into storage for Golf ownership, but came out looking like peeling lenses 2 years later.

[WiNgNuTz]

Doesn't worry me too much at the moment....have you seen the state of the estate they're attached to?!

[calibra306]

The headlights do have a form of laquer on them. If you rub down to much you will soon see what it does to the lens making it pretty much useless and looks awful if you rub/burn through it whilst polishing You would definitely then have to remove it all and then apply a recoating kit.

[MisterGTR]

Will try this

[Bigyin306]

I've heard about this tooth paste trick but never tried it, looks like it works really well