my experience this weekend getting rid of the headlight haze

like most older camaros that spend plenty of time in the sun, my 1999 was starting on its path to fogged over headlights. i did a few searches and saw what others had done, and i thought i'd make a post about my own experiences.

first step was to get some plastic polishing compound. found some at ACE hardware, came in a tube and was hard. designed to be put on mechanically... well, the only tool i had was a dremel. OOPS! figured out REALLY quickly this was a bad idea as even on the slowest setting the dremel melts the plastic pretty much the instant you make contact. DREMEL = BAD :) ... yea, i know, should have known this before hand but whatever. i QUICKLY gave up on this idea.


the next thing i attempted was the meguiars plastic polish found at the local auto parts store, as i had seen others have luck with this. well, i'm not sure what those other people were smoking but it must have been some good stuff because this crap did nothing, it isn't even remotely abrasive. at best i'd say it was a plastic cleaner but it def didn't help with my fog problem.


i then used a porter cable random orbital buffer with an abrasive wheel and some abrasive car polish -- this helped a bit, but didn't seem to cut in deep enough to make a huge difference.


THEN i finally broke down and used some 1500 gritt sandpaper and in the kitchen sink with a steady flow of water i sanded the crap out of the headlights. this seemed to cut pretty good but left a nasty sanding haze of its own. i then took the porter cable and the abrasive wheel plus abrasive car polish and polished the now sanded headlights on setting 4 and DAMN what a difference. this thing took down the sanding marks quite well and it looks very good. you can still see some of the sanding marks if you get up close but the haze is gone.

the only issue so far is around the plastic injection stubbies the porter cable would get torn up real bad, so just around those its still a bit fogged but you can't really see it unless you get up close.



so if i could do it all again:


use a dremel to remove the plastic injection stubbies as good as possible
take 1000grit sandpaper and wetsand the crap out of the lenses in your kitchen sink
take 1500grit sandpaper and wetsand the crap out of the lenses in your kitchen sink
(if necessary) take 2000grit sandpaper and wetsand the crap out of your lenses in your kitchen sink
break out the porter cable with an abrasive wheel and some abrasive car polish and go to town
(if necessary) put on a final polishing (less abrasive) wheel on your porter cable with some less abrasive car polish and go to town
drink a beer
???
PROFIT!



i might actually do this again next time i'm bored and have too much time on my hands but this time i'll follow my list up above and remove those stupid stubbies.

AutoZone carries a kit for plastic tail and headlights. It includes everything you need to take scratches and haze off the light and you use a drill to do it with.

I would just like to add, that if they are yellowing, using some degreaser such as mean green will remove the yellow, also if you use a more fine grit wet sand paper to sand.. either 2000 or 3000 then you will be able to buff the plastic back out by hand using a medium grit compound.( without leaving sanding scratches)

after you get them all clean and polished, wipe them down with prep cleaner and then clear them so that they never fade/fog/yellow again.

I started with wetsanding, 600, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000, then ended with the Meguiar's PlastX. Turned out fine, not "like new." Now they look like a year old instead of foggy.

I used a small cheap electric 6 in buffer with a terry bonnet for the PlastX, but I think it works just as well by hand.