Headlight Restoration 101

We have begun to see some or our PT Cruiser Headlights getting faded and yellow looking, especially one that are not garage kept. I have read a few posts on the VW forum about restoring the lights so i thought I would give it a try today. Not wanting to experiment on MYREDPT, I chose Barbara's 1998 Plymouth Breeze. It was looking really bad and I did not want to replace the headlights so I figured I would give it a try.

I was pretty pleased with the results so I thought I would post a little "How-To".

(This is what nine years of NJ Sunlight does to plastic)

(Outside layer pitted, flaking and yellowing, yuck!)

For starters, you will need a bucket and some Wet-or-Dry Silicone Carbide "sand paper". I masked around the light housing with 3M Blue Masking Tape so that I would not hit the paint with the sandpaper.

I started with 240 grit and plenty of water and sanded in one direction being careful to use the palm of my hand and not my fingers. If you use your fingers, you might end up with grooves in the plastic.

(Rough Sanding done, proceeding to finer grit)

After I was pretty sure that I got the plastic smooth and there were no ridges, I switched to 400 grit.

With each different grit, I changed the direction I sanded so that I could tell when I was through the previous sanding. (when all the sanding marks were in the new direction, I could move onto the next grit.)

I didn't have any 600 grit handy so I had to move right to 1000 grit Ultra fine.

(sanded smooth, layers and yellowing is gone but still "foggy" looking)

After thorough sanding with lots of water, I dried off the hedlights to check my work. Satisfied that the headlights were smooth, I preceeded to polish them with Meguiar's Plast-X Plastic Polish and a Flitch Polishing Ball. I am guessing a Meguiar's Polishing ball would work well too.

(Flitz Ball on Drill)

Use a rechargable Drill so that you don't spin too fast. People who "burn" plastic while polishing usually are trying to turn the polishing pad/ball too fast.

(Notice how clear they look after the polishing)

When I was done, I cut a piece of headlight protection film and applied it to the headlight, but that is a topic for another day. I had some left over from when we did my Son's new GTI.

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