Disclaimer
We may earn a commission when you use one of our coupons/links to make a purchase at no extra cost to you. Please support the site by using the links.
Most manufacturers moved away from glass lenses on the headlight, as it saves weight and is cheaper to manufacture. The issue with the plastic lenses is, it fades over time. Some of them end up being yellow of color. This means just about no light comes through the lenses and at night you can see just about nothing in front of you.
My Golf 5 GTI’s lenses were not that bad yet but they did start going south. There were a lot of small chip marks on the lenses and they were in bad shape to my standards. Those lights new is very expensive so buying new genuine lights was not an option. The aftermarket light was also not an option as you could see they are aftermarket. The quality was just not up to it.
So what were the options?
I found out that Mequiars had a headlight restoration kit, and I bought a kit to test.
I tried the kit out and while the lenses became very shiny they just didn’t look like new lights. The chip marks were very visible.
So how did I get the light to look like new again?
There are many ways on the internet how you can restore your headlight to a new look. Some people say toothpaste is the way to go. I personally decided toothpaste is for brushing teeth, to fixing headlights.
I decided I am going with the elbow grease route. I went to the store and bought 800, 1000, 1500 and 2000 grid water paper. The first thing I did was to mask the light so that I don’t damage the paint around the light. I got some soapy water and used a small piece of the 800 grid water paper with it and sanded the lens in circular motions. At first, you think by yourself, what am I doing. Will I ever fix this light after this?
The light is all foggy now, what you want to do is sand the light evenly in circular motions until you are happy that the lens is without any chip marks. You have to use your own discretion, if there is a huge chip marks the chance you will get them out become slim. For all the smaller chip marks you should be able to get them out.
Once you are happy then you can move on to the 1000 grid then the 1500 and so forth. The 800 grid leaves fine scratches on the lens, you then use the finer grid paper to sand out the scratches until the lens is uniform and smooth. You don’t have to apply heavy pressure on the lens as this will cause you to sand dents into the lens which will spoil the light.
How do you get the lens clear again?
What I did is I had some Autosol Marine shine, this is a metal polish used to polish stainless and Aluminium.
You get products that are meant to polish up plastic, and Mequiars is one of the companies that have this product. I just used what I had. I took the lens and polished it up with the Autosol, in circular motions, this is the point where you can apply some pressure to the lens. Make sure to use a microfiber rag for this as you don’t want to use a harder rag that may cause scratches.
You will see the clearness of the lens will return quickly and you will get it almost to a perfect finish. The next step I used the polish that came with the Mequiars kit. This Polish is a lot finer grid than the Autosol. This is the last step to get the light to look like new again. Be sure to use a clean microfiber rag for this as well. Once you are done with this step the light will look new. You can use this process on rear lights as well as long as there is no embossed text or badges on the light. This works on just about all plastic lights.
The outcome
The results were great, it just took a bit of elbow grease and time. The cost was a Mequiars Headlight Restoration kit, Autosol Marine Shine and some water sanding paper. The lights looked brand new and I could not be happier.
« Is a Neuspeed Power Pulley worth it? | Fitting an Aftermarket Intercooler on my Golf 5 GTI. »
Check out these link buttons!
Parts by Brand Support the website by becoming a Patron Make a donation with GoGetFunding Click here if you would like to Subscribe! Click here to check out some of the other posts Click here to make a contribution to my latest Project car Click here to setup a monthly contribution to website Click here to check out the forum page Click here to check out the Top 100 Auto Blogs
