Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Foggy headlights

i have a 96 contour, 2.5 V-6 engine, well the head light lenses are like most fords they became dull and started to get the foggy look to the plastic... i have read on other groups that you can take sandpaper and get the dull finish off. i got some very fine sandpaper 1000, and 1500 grit stuff and tried it on some plastic from some broken lenses and it did not look too good, seems like i would have been there getting the 1500 grit scratches out of the lenses... so i got some
Turtle Wax Polishing compound at auto parts place for about $1.79 and an old face cloth and tried rubbing it on the lens(it does have some grit in the polish) and it seemed to do a pretty good job, worked on it for about 15 minutes and it looked almost like a new one, the orange color started to come off. i then used some duct tape on it and opened the hood and put the duct tape on the bottom of the lenses so i would not scratch the painted plastic under the lenses... got out the electric drill with a cotton polishing bonnet on it and worked on it for some time.. looking better, at least it looks like glass now(clear) and not fogged up plastic... will do about two to three more 15 minutes each time and think they will get even better... seems like the lights on will show better also...
hope this helps someone........

dbird, go to the hardware store and get some plastic buffing compound. It comes in a stick and it is like chalk. You then take that buffing wheel you have (make sure it is a new one), spread some of it on the cloth and then begin buffing. it will come so transparent and clear as if it were just molded. i have done some work in plastics before and that is my recommendation.

I recommend using a very fine sandpaper before doing this, like you have done.

This will help you greatly

1500 grit or finer sandpaper and then sand it very lightly. After clean it up and compound it then wax it.