I refinished my headlight lenses. Attached are some pictures. Below is a list of the products used to do the restoration. The rubbing compound and the polish were applied by a buffer, but the rest was applied by hand. Total time was around 4 hours.

List of Products:
600 grit sandpaper
2000 grit sandpaper
2500 grit sandpaper
3M super duty rubbing compound
Meguiar's PlastX Cleaner and Polish
Meguiar's Headlight Protectant

 

It sounds like a lot of work but it looks good.

 

Very nice. Do you think those headlight cleaning "kits" can produce those same results?

 

I did mine a little while back with the 3m kit. Lots of sanding!! But the lights were much better when done.

Here is a pic from half way through the process. I got a little extra carried away and painted the inside trim piece of the lights. You can see in this picture the left one done and the right one is stock still.

 

looks good

 

looks good!
i did the same thing with the 3M kit. but noticed some blur on the inside. did not want to bake the housing open so was a little disappointed with the results.

 

I had mine done in a local carwash place. First I was hesitant to let the guy do it, but ended up happy with the result...guess I'm just lazy to do all that taping, sanding and polishing work.

 

Nice job.

 

I'm sure the 3M professional kit will. Its like $350 though.

I ended up taking my headlights out and sitting it on a stand in the garage to do the work.

As far as the haze inside. Yes, mine still has a haze on the inside when you get up close. I believe it is from the heat of the xenons causing the plastic to expand. Could be wrong though. It almost looks like tiny spider webs on the inside.

 

I used the Sylvania kit to do the lights on my '03 BMW 5 series. The Sylvania kit is the only kit that provides a UV protective coating to prevent the headlight surfaces from rapidly hazing up again. The headlights come with this sort of coating from the factory, and polishing them removes the coating, leaving the plastic very vulnerable to UV damage from the sun (and the HID lights also..)

http://www.sylvania.com/ConsumerProd...estorationKit/

Done carefully - the headlights came out looking like new. Did them a few months ago - so far they've remained looking like new, unlike when I just sanded and polished them (looked good for a bit, but almost immediately started to haze up a bit..)

I have also heard of the guys who do cars for dealerships - using a similar technique. 600 grit paper (wet) followed by 1200 grit (wet) and 2000 grit (wet), then shooting diluted (50/50) clearcoat on the headlight. I suspect this is how dealerships get brand new looking headlights - they sure aren't replacing all of them, and ever see a used car at a dealership with hazed headlights?

YMMV.. just wish someone made a kit like this to take care of the curb rash a car-wash gave my P!G in LA.. (hey - I was 3,000 miles from home, and the truck was covered with bugs from a 3,000 mile jaunt..)

 

I had the headlights refinished professionally on my 996 by Dr. Headlight. They are a national company that has independent franchises all around the country. My local guy charged $90 and gave a lifetime warranty on the work. He did a four stage wet sanding process, followed by 3 coats of UV protector. Overall, he did a nice job and it was a dramatic improvement on the 996.

For whatever reason, the headlights on our Cayenne still look great. They are clear and bright and they have no need for refinishing at this time.

 

how did you get the plastic of the lenses? There are many posts of the painted insides .. and no one has been able to get them open from heating etc. How did you do it?

 

You have to cut off the outer rim of the headlight seal. Only way to do it.

I reassembled using window weld. Has been perfect in all sorts of weather.

I posted a thread on it awhile back. When I'm not on a phone I can try to track it down

 

Wow, looks like a brand new car Impressive!

 

Its a great little task to handle on your own if you get a sense of accomplishment, so thanks for being helpful, you get a rec from me!

Or take it as a before and after and go have someone else freshen up your headlamps .