Balls OT

[Don Coatney]

Has anyone used the magic Meguiar's balls (linked below) to re-new there headlight lenses on newer cars with plastic headlight lenses? The lenses on both of my newer vehicles look older than the headlights on my P-15. Looking for a way to spruce them up but hate to spend twenty five bucks to do so. Are there any alternatives? Would polishing compound in an air or electric drill driven polishing ball work? Comments are welcome.

http://www.meguiarsdirect.com/detail/MEG+G1900

javascript:open_win9(movie, 'MEG G1900', 'Meguiars-HRK-AD')

[Young Ed]

We did my dakota with 3m buffing compound and a buffer. Worked great but didn't last all that long. Does the meguiar kit come with some coating to help it last?

[BobT-47P15]

Here's a link to one using toothpaste..........

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/563296/restore_foggy_clody_headlights/

[BobT-47P15]

Cars and Parts magazine did a test of some kits, including one for headlights,

sold by O'Reilly Auto for around $15 I think. Seemed to do a good job for

them......don't know how long it lasts.

[greg g]

Don 1200 (or higher) grit wet sand paper then rubbing compound then polishing compound. We did it with used cars for the dealership lot. Just make sure you mask around the lense. they will clean up but how long they stay that way remains to be seen.

[Don Coatney]

Don 1200 (or higher) grit wet sand paper then rubbing compound then polishing compound. We did it with used cars for the dealership lot. Just make sure you mask around the lense. they will clean up but how long they stay that way remains to be seen.

Thanks Greg;

I thought there would be a less expensive way to do this.

You should publish a book on detailing

[PatS....]

I can see no reason to purchase furry balls.

[Joe Flanagan]

I can imagine trying to do this job using the set God gave you would attract unwanted attention. But if you must do it, do it in your garage.

[YukonJack]

Thanks Greg;

I thought there would be a less expensive way to do this.

You should publish a book on detailing

I used polishing compound on a 92 tempo a few years ago. Cleaned them up nicely but only lasted a year or so then needed to be redone. Had the compound. Cost to me, 0.

[Don Coatney]

Don 1200 (or higher) grit wet sand paper then rubbing compound then polishing compound. We did it with used cars for the dealership lot. Just make sure you mask around the lense. they will clean up but how long they stay that way remains to be seen.

Wonder how this would work with 1200 grit using a DA? I just dug my DA out. I have not used it in years.

[Flatie46]

I bought some plastic polish that's used to remove scratches, it works well for this. I just went down to the man cave to get the name but it seems my son musta borrowed it.

[YukonJack]

I bought some plastic polish that's used to remove scratches, it works well for this. I just went down to the man cave to get the name but it seems my son musta borrowed it.

Novus

[Plymouthy Adams]

your barkeepers friend also is good for cleaning the plastic..but like Greg I perfer to start out with a 1200 or better wet and dry paper...Permatex makes the best plastic polish on the market in my opinion..it is optical grade stuff...

I think that the plastic/composit lens were the biggest mistake that the DOT ever allowed to happen on America's highways and the man that signed off on it should have his butt removed..(no, not from office per se..literally have his butt removed)

[Frank Elder]

This is a good thread, very informative!

Every clear plastic eventually clouds/hazes....even lexan, we have about 60,000 on the cobalt and the headlites still clear, of course it is garaged most of the time.

My question is would you need to refresh the tail lites also?

[busycoupe]

We used Autosol polish on my son's Mazda headlights. Worked great, just a little dab on a cloth, no power buffer. I don't know how long it lasted, he sold the car about 3 months later.

Dave

[Flatie46]

Novus

Yea, that's it. You don't know what he's done with it do ya?

[rustyzman]

At work we use a 3M kit made just for restoring headlight lenses.

Basically it is a 3" DA sander that uses 500 dry, then 800 dry, then 1000 foam backed wet and 2000 foam backed wet. Then a small orbital polisher is used with a cleaner and a polish to finish it off. The results are spectacular. With the exception of a few headlights that have a really ugly hard coating that the sandpaper won't cut (They are random, sometimes a carline works great and the next one same make model year etc. will be impossible to cut. Even the 3M engineers agreed to that one.), if you take your time they really do look like new. If you have a tough one, 300 or 400 dry can be used as a first step but the remaining steps will require extra diligence to ensure a good result.

We experimented with the cheap kits that use sandpaper and a new coating to protect the lens. We found that the results were mediocre at best and the protective coating yellows within a year or two. Some are a pain in the butt to sand back off and redo then.

The 3M kit could be duplicated by hand easily if you are patient.

[Joe Flanagan]

Don't mean to be a dope but just wanted to verify: We are talking about plastic lenses here, correct? If I can restore the parking and tail light lenses on my 49, I'd be ecstatic.

[Don Coatney]

Don't mean to be a dope but just wanted to verify: We are talking about plastic lenses here, correct? If I can restore the parking and tail light lenses on my 49, I'd be ecstatic.

Plastic is correct.

[Plymouthy Adams]

Joe..if they are anything like most of the 49's I have seen..they are dried and checked beyond belief...not sure of any method to remedy these...you can try soaking them with a clear sealant that will not melt the plastic but instead seep into the minute cracks and then maybe polish out..thought about this but never really tried anything..I happened on a nice set of lenses and abandoned all thought of working with the old ones..

[Brad Lustig]

I bought a kit that had 4 pieces of fine foam sandpaper plus what is basically PlastX. It worked well, lasted about 6 months before getting hazy again. I finished it off with a powerball to get the final scratches out. Knowing what I know now, I'd just pick up a variety pack of wet dry sandpaper and some PlastX. The powerball is good, mine eventually broke down and I have the powercone now. Make sure you use a slow speed on your drill. That's the main reason my powerball died an early death.

[Joe Flanagan]

Tim,

You're right, they're checked and cracked. I'm on the hunt for replacements but just thought I might be able to salvage the originals.

[Don Coatney]

I know you folks have been sitting on pins and needles waiting on closure of this thread so here are the results.

While in Autozone today I noticed that the Mcguires headlight restoration "kit" was marked down from $29.95 to $24.95 so I bought it. Got it home and read the instructions as this is a multi part deal. First part is wet sanding with 1000 grit paper followed by 3000 grit paper. They supply a nifty sponge rubber tool with a velcro fastener to secrue the paper. It worked well but I did not see much improvement after the wet sanding.

Next step is to buff with a buffing wheel they supply. This wheel is powered by an electric drill. Per the instructions I was supposed to contact the drill manufacture to learn the correct way to chuck it up but I failed to follow these instructions and did it my way using a chuck key.

After a few minutes of buffing with the compound supplied I was plesently surprized. Last step is the application of a wax product that acts as a sealer. End result is a major improvement as pictured below. Job took about one hour to complete.

[DJ194950]

;)I've found that lenses can be buffed on a buffer, but with VERY light pressure using a very fine rouge or jewelers rouge. If very rough to start, very fine sandpaper, used wet first, really helps. If you don't have a buffer wheel on at least a grinder, Don's answer is probably the best(might also be even otherwise).

All the Replacement front park/turn lenses for a 49 are glass. Original plastic NOS lenses have been WAY too high to ebay for a long time and rare!!

I put yellow bulbs in the front and show up great and really don't show when off.

There is a rear lense on ebay now for $12.95 now that i think fits your 49 4 dr. but decript. leaves some doubt to me because i'm not sure what your style looks like??

Best to ya,

Doug

[Tom Skinner]

Don,

I know your pretty much done with this thread, but for the benefit of others, I went on ebay and replaced the entire headlights by the pair (new) with S&H included and new bulbs in the housings for $89/pr. So with that being said say against a $29 cleaning which may only last a year or two along with all that sanding and buffing, that is if nothing else gets marred or broke along the way the extra $60 for brand new headlights doesn't seem so bad. The new ones will last another 6-7 years easy. So its six of one or a half dozen of the other. A kit every other year for 6 years will cost around $87, or new headlights and re-install and one and done for around $89 doesn't seem so bad. There is one more consideration, that is if your going to keep your vehicle 6 more years or not. Oh well you asked for Ideas and that was mine.

Tom