Someone posted recently that they sanded and polished their old headlight lenses to bring them back to life. Does anyone have experience with this?

THANKS!

This must be on the 93 leg

 

There is a post on www.Legacycentral.org that has exactly what you want by Laurelthequeen.

 

 

http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=739&highlight=headlight+cloudy

The Legacy Central site has a wealth of info on this. THANKS again for the wealth of help on Ultimate Subaru!

Another option listed in a prior thread was to use Subaru brake fluid to clean them.

There is a headlight restore kit made by Permatex.I have used it on several vehicles where I work at,and have had good results.Just about every auto parts store I have been to has it over where all of the lights are kept.

clean it up and use grades of sand paper from coarse to fine until you get a smooth surface then clean it and clear coat it, it worked for me.

Anyone know how long this clear coat lasts? Thats my main concern, i hate adding any maintenance, i tryed brake fluid, but it was DOT 3, any difference between subaru brake fluid, and DOT 3?

i did it to my last car and the entire 2 years that i had the car, it looked pretty good

i did it to my last car and the entire 2 years that i had the car, it looked pretty good

 

oo, u got a specific clear coat u used? U see any bumps or anything that changed over time? lol, thanks bro.

Any automotive clear coat will do, no i had no bumps untill i sold the car, it loked like it was new lenses. i'm about to do to my legacy wagon now, the drivers side lens is a little yellow. make sure you star with a very coarse sand paper and work your way up to the 1500 sand paper then wash it and dry it very well, after that give very thin coats of clear coat leting it dry between the coats, it will take long but the results are great

 

neo

Anyone know how long this clear coat lasts? Thats my main concern, i hate adding any maintenance, i tryed brake fluid, but it was DOT 3, any difference between subaru brake fluid, and DOT 3?

The clear coat will last longer than you will have the car.

 

Let's not piddle about wiping a certain type of oil over the headlights - oil is oil when it comes to use on headlights and that's that.

all i gotta say is, the toothpaste method is crap.

I've done the sanding trick myself on my 97 OB and it worked very well. I think I used 800, 1500, 2000 wet sandpaper (something along those lines) on mine. I just did it by hand, then finished up with Meguiars Plastix to treat the lense. I did this a year ago, and it is still looking quite good.

 

Commuter

did you remove them from the car, or just do them while they were still installed?

 

I've done the sanding trick myself on my 97 OB and it worked very well. I think I used 800, 1500, 2000 wet sandpaper (something along those lines) on mine. I just did it by hand, then finished up with Meguiars Plastix to treat the lense. I did this a year ago, and it is still looking quite good.

 

Commuter

You definately have to remove them.

 

I did the same thing, except I didn't like the plastX. I used a walmart wax, "Kit" is the brand, and its called "scratch remover". The clear coat never worked out good for me so after 3 attempts I said screw it.

did you remove them from the car, or just do them while they were still installed?

I did not remove them from the car.

 

I didn't get right to the edges, but that was fine with me. (I had the hood up and just took care to not scratch beyond the lense. I didn't even bother to tape off anything. I didn't even bother with the parking light area either.) I simply wrapped the sanding sheets over a small hard foam sanding block that I had kicking around, had the hose with me running at a trickle and went at it. I spent about an hour per headlight on the coarse paper, about 30 minutes each on the medium and about 10 minutes each on the fine. That was what it took to get it uniform and to remove the prior sanding marks. When I finished, I could see "thru" the lense to the inside of the headlight for the first time.

 

Then I finished up with the Plastix as I said.

 

Commuter

I bought my cleaner from the local parts independent parts supplier.

Its made by 3M , a plastic cleaner and a plastic polosh. The 3M part

numbers are 39010 and 39017. It cleaned the lenses on the wife's 90

F-150 and 90 Legacy quite well. The cleaner looks like real fine

polishing compound and the polosh looks and smells like car wax.

The results on our vehicles was a big improvement. On a friends

Subaru it was less rewarding, but his lenses were real, real cloudy.

I know my friend used polishing compound and a slow electric

powered polisher and then the 3M stufff to get his looking good.

I think he started with a scotchbrite pad on the polisher first.

 

Richard

Hey, guys well what i did was find some laying around DOT 4 brake fluid, and let me say, my lights look stunning, they look even better then when they were new, thanks guys.

So, let me get this straight. Either I can spend over 3 hours polishing my hadlamp lenses with sand paper (Commuter) or I can spend 5 bucks (or whatever) on a container of DOT 4 brake fluid and do the job in minutes?

 

Thanks,

Mike V

Keep in mind that DOT4 fluid works by liquefying the surface of the plastic lens; if you use too much or rub too hard while doing this, it will do more harm than good. Also, it will remove the paint from fenders, bumpres, etc. So if you're going to try this trick, make sure that you won't splash any on unintended locations.

 

I used the multi-sandpaper trick followed by clear coat myself. My lights (on a 10 year old OBW) look brand new, and I'm not worried about whether any solvent (such as the brake fluid) did any damage to the clear plastic underneath the fogged surface.

So, let me get this straight. Either I can spend over 3 hours polishing my hadlamp lenses with sand paper (Commuter) or I can spend 5 bucks (or whatever) on a container of DOT 4 brake fluid and do the job in minutes?

 

Thanks,

Mike V

The oil method is temporary. For the best and most permanent results, sand and clear coat.

The oil method is temporary. For the best and most permanent results, sand and clear coat.

 

Uh oh, i think i messed my headlights , now when i clean themm it turns white! aww, wont come off, but i redid the DOT 4 brake fluid, its ok, but definitly the sand paper and clear coat is much more permenant, but do i need to clear coat it? i heard people just waxed them,.

I just use Blue Magic plastic and Plexiglass polish, it works really well. It works alot better if you use a random orbit buffer with a sheep skin bonnet.:banana:

Uh oh, i think i messed my headlights , now when i clean themm it turns white! aww, wont come off, but i redid the DOT 4 brake fluid, its ok, but definitly the sand paper and clear coat is much more permenant, but do i need to clear coat it? i heard people just waxed them,.

Once again, clearcoat is the most permanent, but waxing helps....

you can wax and then clear coat then wax the clear coat, wash wax sand clear wash wax poodle clear wash wax lights are good clear wax sand wash sand wash clear wax