TEN minute headlight cleaning* (pics)
#81
Brasso avail @ Wal-Mart
Ya.. After reading this thread, I went to Walmart at 1 A.M. right before I began to Wet-sand.... Im glad I did that..
Price for the Brasso was 2.67 at the local WalMart..
#82
Yea man the oxidation generally is on the outside of the lamp, but not always. Sometimes water can seep through worn down seals creating like a condensation effect or a resovoir water on the interior of the lamp. I think fr33 is speaking about the exterior of the lamp is the area where he applied the brasso.
#83
Clearing the Head lights
Does anyone know if you can use any of this stuff on a VW Jetta. My GF headlights are plastic and I really need to remove all the yellow on them without damaging the paint or the lense.
#85
WOW!!!!!
Awesome is all I have to say! This stuff works great and my lights look like new again! Thanks Fr33Way for letting us know!
BTW, that coat of wax at the end really is the finishing touch
Steve
2003 SE/TE 6MT
BTW, that coat of wax at the end really is the finishing touch
Steve
2003 SE/TE 6MT
#89
Well, I just did this today after work and the result is incredible. I just used one sponge to wipe on the Brasso and rubbed for about 2 minutes, then used another sponge to rub it all back off. If my girl didn't have the camera I would have done a before/after. It makes sense. What causes brass to turn dark? Oxidation. What causes modern headlights to go foggy? Oxidation. Thus Brasso takes care of it. Thank you so much for the tip. This is my first post here. I just got my first Maxima last week and the headlights were buggin' me bigtime. I'll post a shot of it when I have time. In the meanwhile, nice to read all this stuff. I'm loving my '99 GXE, already replaced all the struts since I have a winding hilly ride to work every day. It's an awesome ride.
#90
#99
Okay, I was just gifted a 2000 Maxima and the lenses were totally toast. They were yellow, splotchy, and had some small pits and cracks. It looks like they were hit by a swarm of bugs and the guts soaked in. Anyway, I went to Autozone and asked for a "headlight restoration kit" and a guy pointed me to the stuff that "really works."
The Kit was one from 3M, it only cost me 20 bucks. It comes with a drill insert, foam pad, 6 rough disks, 2 fine disks, a clayish wetsanding pad, a buffer, and finally 3m headlight polish. I spent lots of time sanding off the yellow, smoothing out that sanding with a fine pad, a wet sanding/polishing, and then finally I buffed it out. IT WENT FROM MILKY YELLOW TO NEAR GLASS!!!
It was amazing! It couldn't remove the deep fractures but it made my car look brand new!
The left side is the hazy yellow lens, it looked much MUCH worse in person, and the right side looks brand new.
The Kit was one from 3M, it only cost me 20 bucks. It comes with a drill insert, foam pad, 6 rough disks, 2 fine disks, a clayish wetsanding pad, a buffer, and finally 3m headlight polish. I spent lots of time sanding off the yellow, smoothing out that sanding with a fine pad, a wet sanding/polishing, and then finally I buffed it out. IT WENT FROM MILKY YELLOW TO NEAR GLASS!!!
It was amazing! It couldn't remove the deep fractures but it made my car look brand new!
The left side is the hazy yellow lens, it looked much MUCH worse in person, and the right side looks brand new.
#100
i did the brasso trick as well when i ae'd my headlights and it did wonders..
before brasso
and after one application
and finished product.
before brasso
and after one application
and finished product.
Last edited by 1HotA32; 03-12-2009 at 06:56 PM.
#103
Real Nice Job!
My boy treid to convince me to wetsand my heads, his came out much cleaner (not as much as yours) but a big difference was visible. There was only one problem:
I dont know if these heads come with a filtering sheet of lens or something of that sort, because he only cleaned one of them, yea strangly the projection of the light is far worse. I know when it is dirty the light has a more scattered and broad look, but the light coming from the cleaned lens looks handicap.
All we could think was that the lens is a certain thickness for a reason and he may have sanded too deep.
Anyone ran into this problem?
My boy treid to convince me to wetsand my heads, his came out much cleaner (not as much as yours) but a big difference was visible. There was only one problem:
I dont know if these heads come with a filtering sheet of lens or something of that sort, because he only cleaned one of them, yea strangly the projection of the light is far worse. I know when it is dirty the light has a more scattered and broad look, but the light coming from the cleaned lens looks handicap.
All we could think was that the lens is a certain thickness for a reason and he may have sanded too deep.
Anyone ran into this problem?
#112
hello all, i dont have the ***** to go at headlights with some sandpaper but I got one for yall. im sure its been done before but it worked great. the headlights on my moms mustang were awful, they felt like sand paper and night time visibility was ****. I tried everything I could think of, nothing worked. Well I found an old jar of turtle wax rubbing compound, very gritty. So i got out the CORDED drill and went to town on them. Spent about an hour on each all together. I used rubbing compound, polish, meguiaras(?) next gen and plastx. They look brand new now. Just a little FYI for everyone.
#113
Billion angle before and after!
I picked up some Brasso last night for like $3 and some change at Home Depot. The headlights on my 2002 were mildly hazy; some of it was probably surface grime since I haven't washed my car in a good while ( ), but nonetheless. I also have a 2003 with a comparatively diminutive degree of haziness, so I'm going to do the same thing to it when I get the time.
This is what I started with:
I used two shop towels to apply / wipe, careful to avoid the paint....gave one arm a thorough workout....and I didn't wax / polish at the end. Took me maybe 30 minutes. Here are my results:
I am confident I could have made them look even better with more time, more effort, a wash in between and a polish. Too bad I'm lazy. But I was pleased with the result and will keep a bottle of this stuff around.
I picked up some Brasso last night for like $3 and some change at Home Depot. The headlights on my 2002 were mildly hazy; some of it was probably surface grime since I haven't washed my car in a good while ( ), but nonetheless. I also have a 2003 with a comparatively diminutive degree of haziness, so I'm going to do the same thing to it when I get the time.
This is what I started with:
I used two shop towels to apply / wipe, careful to avoid the paint....gave one arm a thorough workout....and I didn't wax / polish at the end. Took me maybe 30 minutes. Here are my results:
I am confident I could have made them look even better with more time, more effort, a wash in between and a polish. Too bad I'm lazy. But I was pleased with the result and will keep a bottle of this stuff around.
#119
Well I found an old jar of turtle wax rubbing compound, very gritty. So i got out the CORDED drill and went to town on them. Spent about an hour on each all together. I used rubbing compound, polish, meguiaras(?) next gen and plastx. They look brand new now. Just a little FYI for everyone.
#120
i used a powerball attachment on the drill. The rubbing compound was a little wet, it slung everywhere!
No before pics, but believe me they were ****** up. Felt like sandpaper and were very vellow
No before pics, but believe me they were ****** up. Felt like sandpaper and were very vellow
Last edited by tigersharkdude; 04-19-2009 at 02:56 PM.