Well the SVT's headlights were hazy and I couldn't be bothered with the long process of applying Meguirs plastx to them, and don't want to wet-sand them as the tabs are cracked and I plan to replace them soon (if Morette's materialize).
I decided on a very cheap 'n' cheerful fix that seems to have done the trick.
A quick application of comet to them brought them up better than the Meguir's did that I have done in the past, and with a fraction of the effort. It's now a couple of weeks since I did them and they are looking great.
Not sure if this has been done before, but thought I would share it!
With the grit in comet, that would be almost the same as wetsanding, maybe even a little rougher.
Same amount of work, no?
Comet cost more than sandpaper and water?
I'd say about 5 minutes per headlight!
Used only a little bit of Comet, and Comet is under the kitchen sink anyway, so it made it way easier for me. I was pretty surprised at the results, as they are better than I expected for the amount of time I spent doing it.
i think the best thing you could do is probally wet sand them and have a body shop put a good u.v. clear coat on them. thats what i would have done if my headlight mountign tabs werent broke. i baught new ones through bill jenkins at team ford parts. my car looks liek new now. all i need to do now is get 2 9005 s.s. for my lows.
Originally posted by cvkillacontour98:
i think the best thing you could do is probally wet sand them and have a body shop put a good u.v. clear coat on them. thats what i would have done if my headlight mountign tabs werent broke. i baught new ones through bill jenkins at team ford parts. my car looks liek new now. all i need to do now is get 2 9005 s.s. for my lows.
wouldent it be cheaper to buy new Headlights from Bill Jenkins?
they wont charge you much at a body shop especially if you sanded it already. just make sure to mask of the leveler. my friend had his intrepid lights done for liek $30 and they came out real good.
Originally posted by cvkillacontour98:
i think the best thing you could do is probally wet sand them and have a body shop put a good u.v. clear coat on them.
I did the next best thing. Wet sanded them then sprayed some clearcoat on. Looks like new. IMO the best way to clean them up.
The Comet idea is a good one though if you dont have a couple hours to spend on your headlights like I did.
Originally posted by CRZYDRVR:
Originally posted by cvkillacontour98:
i think the best thing you could do is probally wet sand them and have a body shop put a good u.v. clear coat on them.
I did the next best thing. Wet sanded them then sprayed some clearcoat on. Looks like new. IMO the best way to clean them up.
The Comet idea is a good one though if you dont have a couple hours to spend on your headlights like I did.
How has the clear coat been working for you.
I wet-sanded mine. 2 times so far. Always apply kat scratch remover. Works best IMHO.
I never thought of applying a clear coat. hmmmmm
just ask the body shop guy what grit sanpaper to use for prepping it. once th clear coat is on and dries real good you good to go. you wont have to worry about it again. when i used a cheap spray can clear it worked real goodbut it started to flake off due to those days when i would always go through the quick wash once a week. i have a pic of it in my cardomain link below. even though it was a cheap spray can coat it never turned yellow just peeled off. plus it was the first time i ever did it too. when my new lights do start looking bad in the future im going to wetsand them and have a body shop clear coat them.
Originally posted by Rickson:
Originally posted by CRZYDRVR:
Originally posted by cvkillacontour98:
i think the best thing you could do is probally wet sand them and have a body shop put a good u.v. clear coat on them.
I did the next best thing. Wet sanded them then sprayed some clearcoat on. Looks like new. IMO the best way to clean them up.
The Comet idea is a good one though if you dont have a couple hours to spend on your headlights like I did.
How has the clear coat been working for you.
Great. Granted, the clear is only a few months old, but it still looks like the day I painted them. I just sanded them until they were completely clouded and impossible to see through, then painted.
Originally posted by CRZYDRVR:
.... I just sanded them until they were completely clouded and impossible to see through, then painted.
Does the light from the bulb shine through? Or is it just something which looks nice and clear but does not function? I would have to be concerned about luminance and what nots as they use a machine to determine if there is enough luminance in the inspection station here.
http://www.contour.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=trouble&Number=1243217&Forum=trouble&Words=head&Match=Entire%20Phrase&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Old=1month&Main=1241495&Search=true#Post1243217
Originally posted by Tony2005:
I would have to be concerned about luminance and what nots as they use a machine to determine if there is enough luminance in the inspection station here.
Thank god I live in Texas! All they do is look to see that they're working. They light, you pass!
[rant] On a side note, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE title your URLs something short, such as "link" or anything other than the entire thread link. It is a HUGE pain in the arse to have to scroll to read every post on the page. Offenders should be shot on sight! 
[/rant]
Originally posted by CRZYDRVR:
I just sanded them until they were completely clouded and impossible to see through, then painted.
That worked? I would have thought they'd need to be as clear as possible. Granted, not polished slick and clear, as the paint would have nothing to bite, but still.....
Originally posted by IRingTwyce:
Originally posted by CRZYDRVR:
I just sanded them until they were completely clouded and impossible to see through, then painted.
That worked? I would have thought they'd need to be as clear as possible. Granted, not polished slick and clear, as the paint would have nothing to bite, but still.....
As soon as the clear touches it, the haze goes completely away. I know it sounds crazy, but it works.
The 1st pic shows how it looked when I was almost done sanding to get all of the UV crap off. It looked worse by the time I was done. The clear was sprayed over what you see. The 2nd pic is the best pic I have right now after spraying clear over the clouded headlight.
*Edit* I apologise to Christian for hijacking this thread...
Hmmph...who'da thunk it? Now I'm thinking about pulling mine off for a re-sand.
I would try this if I didn't order new headlights already. Besides the whole assembly is pretty worn out.
those plastic mounting tabs do suck. you have to be real carefull with them.especially teh inner one that has to click into place. i dont tighten the top 2 plastic tabs too tight i think thats probally how they got broek on my old lights.
I put Plastix on mine then clearcoated them.... bad idea. I'm still trying to sand off my coating of clearcoat.
Was that liquid comet or the dry powder
-sp
i read somewhere to use toothpaste on headlights to clear them up, anyone else heard of this?
Originally posted by imurdaddytoo sport:
i read somewhere to use toothpaste on headlights to clear them up, anyone else heard of this?
Works OK on lightly hazed headlights. I would try the Comet first if they are very bad.
Originally posted by imurdaddytoo sport:
i read somewhere to use toothpaste on headlights to clear them up, anyone else heard of this?
LOL. So did I, and I did it as a quick fix to pass the annual safety inspection (read my link in the previous post on this thread). It has been almost two weeks and it still looks "acceptable" but I'm sure it will haze back in a few weeks or so. I will probably do CRZYDRVR's buff and clear coat when I do the "permanent" fix.
they actually inspect headlights? we dont have any kind of vehicle inspection in florida so anything that has to do with it is all new to me. here you just pick up the tag for your car and thats it than pay tax on the tag each year. only time they check a car is when you register or transfer a title from an out of state car. they just run the vin to see if its stolen and to check the title vin # and car vin #'s.
Originally posted by cvkillacontour98:
they actually inspect headlights? we dont have any kind of vehicle inspection in florida so anything that has to do with it is all new to me. here you just pick up the tag for your car and thats it than pay tax on the tag each year. only time they check a car is when you register or transfer a title from an out of state car. they just run the vin to see if its stolen and to check the title vin # and car vin #'s.
Good ol' Florida, the state that doesn't care. Wooo whoo
As long as your not noisy at night and don't have a obnoxiously loud muffler, your car is fine on the road.
Originally posted by cvkillacontour98:
they actually inspect headlights? ..
Actually, the guy checked with a machine and it showed how much light shone out. There is a needle which moves on a Bad, Good and Excellent (or something like that) scale. But this was the first time, I've seen any inspector use it. The previous times that I had inspections done, all the guy did was check that the lights were working. Maybe this time, the haze (and old bulbs) got to a point where he thought it would fail. Oh, and this is a new inspector. The guy who was the inspector in this station (I've been there for the past 3 years) retired this past year. 
I'm gonna go try comet right now. I bought PlastX and muscled in probably 10 coats before figuring out it wasn't going to do ANYTHING to my lights
[edit] Comet didn't do anything either, so I guess it's a different problem and I can't diss PlastX for doing nothing
just wet sand it and take them to a body shop and get it clear coated. they will probally do it for like $30. just remember to mask of the leveler.
Clearcoat them yourself.
I did for $4 and 5 months later they still look like I jsut cleared them.
i just recomend having a real good clear usd by automotive painters. the can stuff that i had used worked real good till it started to peel. what kind did you use. i used outdoor u.v. gloss clear from home depot.
What grit sand paper did you use before the clear coat application?
Greg
Why bother with the clear? Just wetsand with 1500 till the lights look clearer and follow through with 2000 and then BUFF with a wool pad and some 3M heavy cut - LOOKS NEW - never flakes off and I have cars that are 3 + years old that still are clear. The best part is you don't need a body shop to do this - just about 30 minutes. You could even do this on the car and cut some time off if your careful about the sanding and buffing (or just tape everything off). Everyone has a different way of doing it - just my 2 cents.
Originally posted by evocontour:
Why bother with the clear? Just wetsand with 1500 till the lights look clearer and follow through with 2000 and then BUFF with a wool pad and some 3M heavy cut - LOOKS NEW - never flakes off and I have cars that are 3 + years old that still are clear. The best part is you don't need a body shop to do this - just about 30 minutes. You could even do this on the car and cut some time off if your careful about the sanding and buffing (or just tape everything off). Everyone has a different way of doing it - just my 2 cents.
You are the only person on CEG I have ever heard with such a claim. When headlights start to haze it is because the clear UV coating has worn/chipped away.
Merely cleaning them with - whatever method - is NOT sufficient. They will haze again and it's been well documented by many CEGers. I have cleaned over 20 sets of headlights of various cars and all headlights eventually rehazed. Some hazed within a week, others lasted up to a couple months. I redid a 95 Honda Accord and finished with 2 lights of clearcoat and they still look great.
Originally posted by evocontour:
The best part is you don't need a body shop to do this - just about 30 minutes.
Are your arms made out of power buffers? Each light took me a minimum of an hour. Of course, I tend to be a bit anal retentive once I start a project.
Ever notice how your plastic beige computer starts to discolor after a couple of years? That happens while sitting inside the house. Add heavy UV exposure and heat from being outside, and it should be pretty clear that unprotected plastic WILL discolor and haze. Automotive clears are formulated to protect paint from the elements as well as UV rays. So it would be the ideal coating for the lights. Spray-can clear will work too, but will not cure to as tough a finish and so will need to be refinished sooner than an automotive clear.
I have to try that Comet fix.
Originally posted by IRingTwyce:
Ever notice how your plastic beige computer starts to discolor after a couple of years?
Now that you mention it, I kind of want to go dehaze my Super Nintendo. Weird how some specific panels didn't discolor at all!