Yellowing headlights, big problem for us 7G'ers!!!!!

[NiTrOuSoXiDe]

Most 7G's I see out there have horridly yellowed and cloudy headlights. I personally have one brand new headlight, and one original one and it makes my car look wierd. One is crystal clear, and the other you can't see through at all. Also, the light output from the newer one is so dramatically better, it made me run off and buy this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ANY-AUTO-HE...022316976QQrdZ1

I know there was a tutorail on here a while back, I couldn't find it, but it described a way to clear up the headlights again with $20 or so worth of materials. I figured this product here costs me $15, why not. Check out those pictures though! No way it works that well, does it!!?


Before


After



Before


After

That's damn impressive...

Anyone have any experience with it or something similar?

Thanks.

[pinoyesv6]

here is the tutorial

[NiTrOuSoXiDe]

Heh, oh yeah, there goes that search function again :oops:


Either way I wanted to know if anyone has had experience with any of these products.

[pinoyesv6]

actually no. i didn't use the search function. common sense told me to look in the tutorials forum first since thats where a bucha tutorials are.

the big thing that scares me is this picture of the kit



just that little amount is supposed to do 4 cars? and they give you gloves so that the chemicals seep through?

to me that sounds like kinda dangerous. these chemicals sound like some pretty strong and serious stuff. i mean you have to use gloves?? i'd be scared to even get that stuff close to my car. what if you get some on your car's paint, will it start eating away at the car? what if you missed a spot on the headlight and forgot to wipe it off, will it eat a hole into the headlight? thats what would concern me the most. i agree that tutorial seems like a whole lotta elbow grease but that tutorial doesn't use products that could be harmful.

[DOHCstunr]

look closely at the pictures of the taurus headslights. you can see differences between the two pics.
not just in the lens,
but in the pains and the rubber trim around the light.

look at the paint blemishes around the dirty lens.
then look for those same blemishes in the clean lens pic.
also, in the dirty lens pic, you will see a dent or deformaty at about 9:00 in the pic. in the rubber trim right where the hood meets the bumper and the lamp. compare to the clean lamp....
looks like the deoxidzer fixes paint and trim too.
i call bullshit.
i think you would be better off sanding and polishing your lens yourself. although that stuff may and most likely will remove the oxidation. i highly doubt it will remove all the pitting and knicks.
sanding and polishing is a sure fire way to eliminate every single pit.

[gtx]

I used Scratch Out! back in the day on my old car's headlights. It takes no muscle to clear the headlights with it, while not hurting the paint. (You could just mask them around or take them off anyway) And you don't need gloves and stuff. But I agree, if it's really bad, just go ahead and polish it.

[MBowen574]

i used meguair's plast-x... smells like windex... works pretty well if you dont mind a few swirl marks left on the lights. clears them right up, though. its like $5 at every autoparts store, too... dont think i'd risk this stuff.

[DOHCstunr]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MBowen574)</div><div class='quotemain'>i used meguair's scratch-x... smells like windex... works pretty well if you dont mind a few swirl marks left on the lights. clears them right up, though. its like $5 at every autoparts store, too... dont think i'd risk this stuff.</div>
meguars actually has a better product out for this application.
its called Plast-X
supposed to have a microabrasive in it to polish out the swirls and pitting. as well as clear up any oxidation.

[NiTrOuSoXiDe]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DOHCSTUNR)</div><div class='quotemain'>look closely at the pictures of the taurus headslights. Â*you can see differences between the two pics.
not just in the lens,
but in the pains and the rubber trim around the light.

look at the paint blemishes around the dirty lens.
then look for those same blemishes in the clean lens pic.
also, in the dirty lens pic, you will see a dent or deformaty at about 9:00 in the pic. in the rubber trim right where the hood meets the bumper and the lamp. compare to the clean lamp....
looks like the deoxidzer fixes paint and trim too.
i call bullshit.
i think you would be better off sanding and polishing your lens yourself. Â*although that stuff may and most likely will remove the oxidation. i highly doubt it will remove all the pitting and knicks. Â* Â*
sanding and polishing is a sure fire way to eliminate every single pit.</div>

Yeah, I actually did notice that myself because I thought bullshit immediately too. Time will only tell. When this stuff arrives, and I try it out, I will update you guys on how well it did or didn't work.

Hell, it was only $15. If it makes the headlight considerably clearer, not nessessarily brand new looking, I'll say it was worth it.

[MBowen574]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DOHCSTUNR)</div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MBowen574)</div><div class='quotemain'>i used meguair's scratch-x... smells like windex... works pretty well if you dont mind a few swirl marks left on the lights. clears them right up, though. its like $5 at every autoparts store, too... dont think i'd risk this stuff.</div>
meguars actually has a better product out for this application.
its called Plast-X
supposed to have a microabrasive in it to polish out the swirls and pitting. as well as clear up any oxidation.</div>

crap... sorry... it was plast-x... not sure what scratch-x is?

it was late... i was buzzed... what can i say? :oops:

[NiTrOuSoXiDe]

i used meguair's scratch-x... smells like windex... works pretty well if you dont mind a few swirl marks left on the lights. clears them right up, though. its like $5 at every autoparts store, too... dont think i'd risk this stuff.

meguars actually has a better product out for this application.
its called Plast-X
supposed to have a microabrasive in it to polish out the swirls and pitting. as well as clear up any oxidation.

crap... sorry... it was plast-x... not sure what scratch-x is?

it was late... i was buzzed... what can i say? :oops:

You will be shot at dawn for your blasphemic misconception :twisted: .

[SuperGALANT]

well i dont know about that product on ebay but my father is a shop owner and we do alot of business w/ napa auto parts.. and for $80 we got a 3m kit that does 40 sets of headlights.. what it does is its a sander basicly that adapts any drill.. first u use the 600 grit sandpaper to take off the hazzyness or yellow gazz on the headlights and then use 1000 grit to remove the 600's scraches and use 1500 and 3000 grit the smooth it even more, then there is a cleaner and a polish to be aplied .. all of it comes in the kit.. call around some of the shops around ur house our garage does a pair of headlights for $30 and it takes about 15-30 minutes.. i did this to my car's headlights and front bumper lights and they all look BRAND new..

[jreezee]

i used meguair's plast-x... smells like windex... works pretty well if you dont mind a few swirl marks left on the lights. clears them right up, though. its like $5 at every autoparts store, too... dont think i'd risk this stuff.

I have used some of that stuff. It works pretty good. It gets some clearcoat scratches and swirls out too.

[NiTrOuSoXiDe]

I FINALLY recieved the stuff today. I tried it, and I think I see a VERY MINOR improvement. It even says in the directions "You might want to go to Walmart and buy 2000 and 1000 grit sandpaper, and sand with the 2000 first, then the 1000". I'm going to do just that tomorrow (or whenever I get a minute) and we'll see what happens. I think after I sand the light down, and THEN use the product, it'll come out nice.

All this stuff really did was make the headlight a little bit more clear. It's still very yellow and crappy looking though.

I took a picture before I did anything, and I'll take another picture before I take the sand paper to it. Then, after i sand paper it, and then use the product again, I'll take a third picture and post all three.

[ChikagoGTZ]

Headlight buffing processes work great on iPods to get out the scratches in the plastic.

[pinoyesv6]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(NiTrOuSoXiDe)</div><div class='quotemain'>I FINALLY recieved the stuff today. Â*I tried it, and I think I see a VERY MINOR improvement. Â*It even says in the directions "You might want to go to Walmart and buy 2000 and 1000 grit sandpaper, and sand with the 2000 first, then the 1000". Â*I'm going to do just that tomorrow (or whenever I get a minute) and we'll see what happens. Â*I think after I sand the light down, and THEN use the product, it'll come out nice.

All this stuff really did was make the headlight a little bit more clear. Â*It's still very yellow and crappy looking though.

I took a picture before I did anything, and I'll take another picture before I take the sand paper to it. Â*Then, after i sand paper it, and then use the product again, I'll take a third picture and post all three.</div>


ok. time for you to start throwing that stuff away and start follwing the tutorial we have here. sanding with 2000 grit is absolutely pointless if you are gonna follow up with 1000 grit. thats like painting something then sanding it all off. 2000 grit is finer than 1000 grit so why would you do 2000 grit first??

[NiTrOuSoXiDe]

Maybe I remember the directions backwards. Maybe it says 1000 first. Whatever, either way, the tutorial on here is probably just as good, if not better than this product. Chances are that I will end up doing exactly that: Throwing this shit away and following the TGC tutorial.

Oh well, you live, you learn.

[quicksilver22]

look in the taurus pictures...

look at the difference of where the corner of the hood comes to the light on the first and second... bullshit,

but ya, they are completely different headlights...

stick w/ the tutorial on here...

thank god us 8Gers don't deal w/ this yet

[NiTrOuSoXiDe]

Yeah I noticed that about the pictures. Either way, I think sanding will help a lot.

[NiTrOuSoXiDe]

Alright, here's what happened:




There's my passenger side headlight, which is relatively new.



Here's the driver side, which is the one I'm working on. This is before I did anything.



Here's after using the product and a slight sanding with 1000 grit sand paper.



And here's after a little more of a sanding, and another application of the product.




I'd say there's a little bit of a difference. I'll tell ya what, though. I think the product actually needs a little time to work it's magic because last night at work, I applied it again, and this morning when I got up and looked at it, it looked significantly clearer than it did last night. I took those last two pictures immediately after sanding and applications, so maybe tomorrow it'll be a little clearer.



It definately doesn't look brand new, but it's a bit of an improvement.

Thoughts?