Motoring Discussion > What polish for plastic headlamp covers. Miscellaneous
Thread Author: henry k Replies: 19
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New Wed 16 Mar 11 11:07 
 What polish for plastic headlamp covers. - henry k
My daughters old Yaris now has very degraded plastic headlamp covers.
This is certainly not due to cleaning the poor old car but general ageing ( not the owner).
They are discoloured and must be restricting the light output.
I am assuming some sort of gentle polish is required what should I use ?
French polish was suggested. I suspect T-cut is too brutal. I do have Brass, stainless steel cleaner and others.
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New Wed 16 Mar 11 11:26 
 What polish for plastic headlamp covers. - Mike H
You might like to look at this thread on another forum, although it refers to Saabs the principle will be the same:

www.saabscene.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=31648910&hl=headlight

HTH.
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New Wed 16 Mar 11 11:50 
 What polish for plastic headlamp covers. - Hard Cheese

T-Cut is ideal.

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New Wed 16 Mar 11 11:53 
 What polish for plastic headlamp covers. - FotheringtonTomas
French polish is shellac, and is a coating, unsuitable. Something like Brasso would do, or a Perspex polish - either possibly after cleaning up and flatting with flour-grade wet'n'dry.
Last edited by: FotheringtonTomas on Wed 16 Mar 11 at 11:53
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New Wed 16 Mar 11 11:53 
 What polish for plastic headlamp covers. - Victorbox
I'd second Meguire's PlastX. I'd have to be quite brave to wet sand the headlights (particularly starting with 400 grit!) although it's recommended over on Detailing World and there are some videos on YouTube about wet sanding headlights. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sZg9cj2hxI
Last edited by: Victorbox on Wed 16 Mar 11 at 11:55
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New Wed 16 Mar 11 12:01 
 What polish for plastic headlamp covers. - Iffy
henry K says the covers are discoloured.

It could be the discolouration is more than skin deep, in which case no amount of polishing will get rid of it.

Worth a try, but were I henry, I wouldn't blame myself if it didn't work.

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New Wed 16 Mar 11 13:56 
 What polish for plastic headlamp covers. - Bellboy
i use a cutting compound and finish off with a buffing wheel
t cut is usually sufficient to achieve a sale though
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New Wed 16 Mar 11 18:25 
 What polish for plastic headlamp covers. - Shiny
I find they tend to have a lacquer-like (UV?) coating that needs removing with wet and dry first.
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New Wed 16 Mar 11 18:43 
 What polish for plastic headlamp covers. - Zero
>> I find they tend to have a lacquer-like (UV?) coating that needs removing with wet
>> and dry first.

So does the UV coating fail then, allowing the lamps to yellow?
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New Wed 16 Mar 11 20:18 
 What polish for plastic headlamp covers. - Lygonos
wet sand them for best results - try a small area first to confirm it will work.
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New Wed 16 Mar 11 21:16 
 What polish for plastic headlamp covers. - -
Who came up with the bright (or not so bright when a few years old) idea of plastic headlight lenses anyway.

Progress my back side.
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New Wed 16 Mar 11 21:35 
 What polish for plastic headlamp covers. - Bellboy
its progress if
youve ever cut your hand on broken headlight glass...yes
if you can see better with modern headlight lenses...........yes
you hate the sound of a car crunch followed by the tinkling of glass in slow motion......yes


:-(
;-)
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New Wed 16 Mar 11 21:58 
 What polish for plastic headlamp covers. - MD
Polish for plastic headlamp covers is *()&^%$%%$£E"$%£$%%^&?>>
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New Sun 20 Mar 11 13:33 
 What polish for plastic headlamp covers. - Ted
. I'd have to be quite brave to wet sand the headlights

I did some work on the caravan side windows which have been quite badly scratched by the very restricted driveway here.

I used 1500 grade wet & dry with soapy water. Followed it up with Farecla (sp) and T-Cut.
Very successful. It was ' Poo or bust ' though. It would have been new windows anyway.
Now, I've done a few gentle alterations so I can quickly remove them when getting the van out.

As an aside, on my last hot bike run abroad, I found that Pledge wipes cleaned off insects and muck from my plastic screen and visor very well indeed.

Ted
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New Thu 17 Mar 11 10:45 
 What polish for plastic headlamp covers. - L'escargot
I must make a mental note to never buy a Yaris.
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New Thu 17 Mar 11 14:00 
 What polish for plastic headlamp covers. - WillDeBeest
Just drive one, l'Es; that ought to fix it in your mind.

The Yaris is one of nature's courtesy cars, full of features to make you mistake your relief at being back in your own vehicle for satisfaction with the dealer's work on it. If you did want one, though- and I acknowledge that there are contributors here who are pleased with theirs - you'd be foolish to let the cost of replacing age-yellowed headlamps put you off.
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New Thu 17 Mar 11 14:38 
 What polish for plastic headlamp covers. - John H
>> I must make a mental note to never buy a Yaris.
>>

mental note - that means he has by now forgotten all about it.

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New Thu 17 Mar 11 15:42 
 What polish for plastic headlamp covers. - madf
People who need courtesy cars drive unreliable or high maintenance cars..

I'd rather have a different high maintenance item in my life than a car :-)
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New Sun 20 Mar 11 00:48 
 What polish for plastic headlamp covers. - captain chaos
I remember back in the day you could buy paint to discolour your headlight lenses, Amberlite I think it was called. To stop French motorists angrily flashing their lights at you if you ventured on to the continent
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New Sat 26 Mar 11 11:19 
 What polish for plastic headlamp covers. - henry k
I finally got access to my daughter's Yaris.

I first used an old piece of knackered (unknown grade but started life as fairly fine) wet and dry with plenty of water sloshed on.
There was immediately a yellowish dribble on the lens as the haze quickly disappered.
I washed all the residue off, dried the whole lens off and then used a Brasso type metal polish as a final tidy up.
I am very impressed with the results after just a few minutes effort.
Job done.
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