Hey there do it yourselfers, today as promised I am going to show you how you can completely
restore a hazy or yellowing headlight.
Alrighty so here is a look at the headlight that we are going to be working on, and hopefully
as you can see this headlight is quite hazy and actually if you look at it at the right
angle its pretty yellow too.
Now this video is going to be a follow up to my previous video where I show you how
as a temporary fix use some toothpaste to clean the exterior of your headlight and restore
some shine back to it.
Now I'll put a link to that video right here on this side of the screen where you can click
on it, there will also be a link in the description box for those of you who are interested as
a temporary fix, but if you want a permanent fix than I suggest you watch the rest of this
video.
So the reason you have hazy or yellowing headlight is due to the ware to the UV protective layer
or clear coat that is sprayed on these plastic headlights when they come out of the factory.
So as that sealant breaks down you get this hazy look like we got going on here also if
you get alot of dirt and debry that stick to it, it looks yellow as well.
So if you want to permanently fix this problem we need to remove any left over sealant thats
still on this headlight and apply our own sealant.
And in order to remove that layer we are going to start sanding our headlight with some 400
grit sanding paper.
I'll also be using this semi soft sanding block but you don't have to buy one of these
you can just sand by hand.
Also a bucket of soapy water will make sanding alot easier, now before we get to sanding
though we are gona get some painters masking tape and tape all around our headlight.
Now obviously we need to do this because as we are sanding we dont want to put any scratches
on these panels.
And as you are putting on your masking tape make sure you just don't put it over the panel
you actually go a little bit further and than you put the rest of the tape underneath the
panel this way you are actually protecting the lip of the panel as well.
Also you want to get your tape between the headlight and the adjacent panel no matter
how tight the spot is because later on when we apply our sealant and our sealant dries
and its time to remove this tape, if the tape is over both panels you could remove some
of the sealant with the tape and thats not going to be good.
Alright here is how things look after masking and now its time to start sanding.
So we get some soapy water on out headlights and we start sanding away, here is another
important tip when you are sanding make sure you sand over these edges all around your
headlight because if you dont sand these edges when you apply your sealant later on your
sealant is not going to stick to these edges and this is where it's going to start peeling
off.
Also through the power of editing I think the part where I am sanding this headlight
might be 20 seconds long but you know you got to spend a good 5 to 10 minutes depending
on how bad your headlight is faded sanding this down.
And here is how things look after sanding with our 400 grit sand paper and as you can
see things are pretty hazy but thats ok because we just scratched it with some 400 grit sanding
paper but the whole point was to remove all the old sealant, and what you want to see
is this smooth feeling over your plastic if you see any flaking or its not uniform and
not completely smooth you need to sand down those area's that are not.
So next we are going to go to some 800 grit sand paper and go over our 400 grit sand scratches
on our headlight.
And next we will sand it down with some 1500 grit sanding paper.
And here is how things look after sanding with some 1500 grit sanding paper and again
you want to make sure everything is smooth to the touch.
Alright so next before we start applying our sealant we need to make sure this headlight
is completely clean, now you can use some grease and wax remover to completely wipe
this down or if you dont feel like buying one of those you can just get some clean soapy
water and than use a clean tower to completely wipe this down and than use another tower
to completely dry it off.
Since I already got one of these this is what I am going to use.
So again make sure you not only thoroughly clean this but is completely dry around all
the edges you dont want any water to start dripping on your headlight as you are about
to apply sealant to it.
Alright so next we are just going to mask up all around our headlight before we start
spraying our sealant and I am going to be using some masking paper but you know you
can use some news papers, trash bags whatever you can get your hands on.
Now this is a parts car for me so its not very important in my case but when you are
putting masking paper you want to make sure you go atleast to your windshield and your
driver's side door, that way when you go to spray your sealant you don't get any over
spray on those panels.
And the sealant we are going to use is just going to be some clear coat, its important
to make sure the clear coat you buy though has UV light protection.
So before you buy one of these at your local auto parts store just read the back and make
sure that it says it does have UV protection.
And before we start spraying we want to make sure we thoroughly shake our can of clear
coat.
Here we go we are going to do two light coats and than one final medium heavy coat and we
are going to wait about 10 minutes between each coat.
And here is how things look after our first run, and as you can see its not perfectly
smooth but it's starting to clear up and by the final third or maybe even the fourth run
it should be pretty nice and shinny.
And just to clarify when I say light coat it just simply means you move faster while
you are spraying, and than in order to spray a heavier coat you just simply move a little
bit slower.
And its time for our second run and we make sure again we shake our can thoroughly, time
for our third pass and I am going to start putting these on a little bit heavier.
And after our third pass we are gona wait about an hour or two before we start pulling
off the tape and the masking paper around our headlight.
Here is another tip whenever you are taking off tape right next to your headlight, peel
it away from your headlight don't peel into your headlight because you know if you got
clear coat on some area's over your tape and you pull into your headlight you are just
going to be peeling that clear coat off your headlight.
And here is a look at our final product and if I may say so myself it looks pretty awesome.
Now if you look very closely at this headlight you are able to see some orange peel but that's
pretty normal you know whenever you spray clear coat especially out of a can you are
bound to have some orange peel.
But minus the orange peel this came out really nice.
Let me show it off at this angle as well.
Oh I am going to keep going.
Now if you want to get rid of the orange peel for an even shinier look what you can is to
first wait about 36 to 48 hours and than get some polishing compound and than with a microfiber
towel just polish it out by hand and you know if you put some elbow grease into it, probably
after about 5 to 10 minutes you should be able to get rid of alot of the orange peel
thats on your headlight.
Now what you don't want to do is to put any type of wax on your headlight because the
clear coat we just sprayed on there needs to cure and if you put wax over it it's not
going to be able to breath and it's not going to be able to completely cure and it takes
more than a few days for clear coat to cure in fact to be on the safe side I would wait
atleast 2 or 3 weeks before I put any wax on the headlight.
And with that said going to wrap this video up so if you found anything useful in this
video please give it a thumbs up subscribe if you want to see more like it and you may
also want to consider checking out some of my other video's I'll put them up on the screen
so you can just click on them.
Alright thanks for watching, see you next time.