Restoring Scratched, Yellowed Plastic Headlights

When your car's plastic headlights become scratched, yellowed or pitted, restore them! This video article will show you how.

The days of glass headlights are long gone. All auto manufactures now use molded plastics for headlight, taillight and turn signal lenses. Over time, these clear and colored plastic lenses become yellowed, scratched or pitted, reducing lighting performance and destroying the appearance of your vehicle.

Let's watch the video and see what Meguiar's has to say.

Video Copyright(c), Meguiar's, Inc. -- All Right Reserved.

As demonstrated by the video, the Meguiar's Headlight and Clear Plastic Restoration Kit uses a buffing tool (with your cordless drill) and the Meguiar's PlastX polish to remove light scratches, oxidation, and yellowing.

The Meguiar's Headlight and Clear Plastic Restoration Kit works fantastic on what I would call "normal wear" and "light aging", but falls short on neglected headlights. So, what do you do if your headlights have heavier damage, such as deep stone pits or complete yellowing? The answer is simpler than you might think.

If your plastic headlight lenses are damaged or yellowed beyond what this Meguiar's kit will restore, don't despair. You still have one more option. You can wet sand your headlight lenses with two grades of fine sanding paper, then re-polish the lens back to perfect clarity.

As the photo above demonstrates, with a little bit more effort you can completely restore your plastic headlight lenses and enjoy a nicer appearance and like-new headlight performance. To make this restoration, you will need:

1. Meguiar's Headlight and Clear Plastic Restoration Kit
2. 1200 grit wet and dry sanding paper (1 sheet)
3. 2000 grit wet and drysanding paper (1 sheet)
4. 1-inch wide painter's masking tape

Follow these easy steps:

1. Clean and mask around the lens to be restored.
2. Cut a 4" by 4" piece of each grade of sand paper for each lens to be restored and soak in water to soften.
3. Using a detailing spray or soapy water for lubrication, sand each lens thoroughly with 1200 grit paper, then follow with 2000 grit paper.  Keep the sanding paper as flat on the surface as possible.  If available, a 1" x 2" school erasure makes an excellent sanding block.
4. Use the Meguiar's Headlight and Clear Plastic Restoration Kit per instructions to re-polish the lenses, completely removing fine sanding marks.

If you follow these basic instructions, your plastic headlights will be vastly improved, if not completely restored.

The Meguiar's Headlight and Clear Plastic Restoration Kit is available to purchase online at Amazon.