How to restore A Headlight
How To Restore Headlights PERMANENTLY ( Better Than a BRAND NEW Headlight )
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hey how's it going guys today I'm going
to show you how to permanently restore
yellowing headlights fast and easy
yellowing headlights is something very
common in casts and not only do they
look bad but they also have a very poor
light output on the road at night what
happens is this lens on the headlight is
made of polycarbonate plastic and even
though you can't see it
this comes with the UV protective
coating from the factory overtime
decoding wears off and then while you're
driving and leave the car outside in
bright sunlight the UV rays coming from
the Sun is breaking there and the poly
Kevin instruction the lens so the color
of the lens goes from transparent yellow
over time this gets even worse and
starts to look like this headlights look
this bed can be restored like this but
it has to be done quickly because over
time the damage can spread deep into the
lens and create little cracks known as
cry scenes like you see in this
headlight right here all the time these
cracks get bigger and destroy the lens
so you can had to buy a new headlight
which could be expensive and that's why
you need to restore your headlights
before it's too late and the restoration
process I'm going to show you only has
three steps starting with the first step
even arrange the headlight and the
surrounding area using a microfiber
towel to remove any dirt then dry the
headlight so we can move the step 2
which is removing the top layer of
yellow plastic on the lens with some
abrasives so I have some cutting
compound car polish and metal polish
which a liquid abrasives and some sand
papers which are dry abrasives all these
products contain aluminium oxide as the
abrasive agent in different amounts up
to 5% in college up to 10% in compound
up to 25% in metal polish and up to 100%
in sand papers but with different grid
sizes
higher the number finding the great
choice the reason I showed you all this
is because for storing your headlights
to the brand new condition is all about
choosing the right polish and the right
sandpaper so for headlights like this it
is best to go with 600 grit followed by
1500 grit followed by 3000 grit also it
is best to wrap the sandpaper around the
foam backing pad so you can put the
uniform pressure on the latest
is sanding and if you held girl then he
can go to the headlight polishing kit
like this so you get a backing plate for
the drill a wool pad a foam pad and you
have your sand papers 243 2600 800 1200
1500 2000 and 3000 so that is there if
you want alright first your mask of the
surrounding body panels using some
masking tape so you wouldn't damage the
paint on those panels while sanding then
spray some water on the lens and on the
sandpaper and start sanding it is best
to do this ending in one direction like
here I'm doing horizontal with
overlapping passes to cover the entire
area of the lens spray water as you need
and keep sanding with light to medium
pressure on the sandpaper when the car
of the water running down the lens turn
from yellow to sort of milky white wipe
the lens any can see the yellow in
plastic is gone but now there's a
uniform white haze on the lens
these are sanding scratches from the 600
grit sandpaper
he had remotely so now at the 1500 grit
and start sanding again this time
instead of going horizontal you can go
vertical so you can remove the
horizontal scratches a little easier
once you get over the entire lens wipe
the lens again and now you have an even
fire haze from the 1500 grit it's kind
of hard to see so now get the 3000 great
and do this one more time in the
horizontal strokes to remove the
vertical scratches like that and you're
ready for the compound for this you can
use a microfiber towel if you do this by
hand or the wool pad if you are using
the drill I'm gonna go with the drill
because it is much quicker so get some
compound on the pad and then remove the
tape and start buffing you know maintain
a consistent Spade with a uniform
pressure on the pad while keeping the
pad flat against the headlight and keep
the pad moving to avoid heat buildup and
burning the plastic cover the entire
area with horizontal overlapping passes
and then switch to vertical passes and
cover the entire area again after the
compound you can wipe the lens and start
from there but I'm gonna go one extra
step I'm gonna switch to the foam pad
and
is a little bit of polish to bring back
the factory shine this is completely
optional but this brings up that mirror
shine you see on a brand new headlight
[Music]
all right I'm gonna wipe the lens and
this is exactly what I'm talking about I
mean here's the before and here's the
after the clarity is back just like in a
brand new headlight so that's how you
restore headlights with very bad yellow
beam using sand papers but for
headlights like this with only minor
yellowing you can skip all the sanding
work and start out with the compound so
I'm gonna do this one real quick
no sanding just compound although any
good plastic polish will do so just get
some compound on the pad and start
buffing and buffing and buffie until the
headlight starts to look really clean
and then wipe the headlight
I'm also gonna need some isopropyl
alcohol to remove any leftover compound
and that is a brand new looking
headlight so now you can move the step
three which is applying a protective
coating on the headlight to keep the
headlight from yellowing again and I'm
going to show you five counting options
so you could choose the one that makes
more sense to you first you could use UV
hard-code this is the most commonly used
product occurring on headlights at the
factory but this only comes in
commercial quantities and you need to
have professional grade spray gun and a
compressor set up to use this you also
need a UV heat lamp you've had in this
one the headlight so as you can tell
this is too expensive for most people at
home and this only lasts about five
years so this option is not the option
for me second you could use an
aftermarket headlight coating these
coatings achieved by comparing om style
coating and they come in spray cans you
just spray a thin coat on
let the coating dry then apply a second
coat and you're done
this is actually a good option but these
coatings only last about a year so this
option is also not the option for me Ted
you could use a clear coat clickers come
in cheap rattle tails like this acrylic
they occurred and they only last few
years before they start to peel
that's why common factor is to take
liquor on casts which is suppose in
clicker mixed with hardness because they
provide no hardness chip and scratch
resistance then acrylic records they do
come in rattle cans but the
manufacturers do not advise using these
on headlights and they make special clay
code for headlights with special primers
to go with it
even though these turkey clickers can
last a long time car manufacturers never
use clicker on headlights and one of the
reasons is refraction of light light
changes its speed and direction when
going through different mediums that's
why a pencil in the world looks like his
bang or an image behind a glass of water
looks like it's realist or images looks
bigger through magnifying glass regular
vehicles have a higher refractive index
than headlight coating so I'm gonna
spray some clicker on this headlight
lens here like that and now I'm gonna
place a light behind the lens as you can
see the light is going through the bay
lens without any Distortion press and
move the light onto the side with clear
coat see how we lose the sharpness of
the light because of the refraction this
can reduce the range of visibility of
the headlight so this is by far the best
option and definitely not the option for
me the fourth option you have is to use
headlight covers these cameras fit right
over your headlight and they provide
good protection from UV light and rock
chips but they leave a gap around the
headlight for cooling purposes and I
often see these edges turn yellow over
time because of that and personally I
don't like the look of these so this
option is also not the option for me and
that brings us unto my fifth option
which is installing a headlight
protection film these films generally
last about five years and the best thing
is this doesn't get binded under the
lens like a coating so when this goes
bad he is remove the bad film and
install a new one you don't have to
register the lens and that makes this
the old permanent way to restore your
headlights so now it starts to make
sense why this is of
rather expensive option at car
dealerships so this is by far the best
option for me and here's what you need
to install the film you need your razor
blade a small squeegee the heat gun or a
hairdryer a spray bottle with some
distilled water and some dishwashing
liquid or isopropyl alcohol depending on
the film you're using alright first you
clean the lens to remove any leftover
polish soapy water is good for this but
isopropyl alcohol is better you also
want to clean your hands as well
otherwise you're gonna leave
fingerprints on the film then spray down
the lens and filled with water place the
film over the lens then starts going
from one corner to the other corner
along the center of the headlight that
way you can push all the wrinkles to the
edges after that you can start squeezing
out the water in short strokes if the
film is bunching up around the curves
they're not trying to flatten it down
with the squeegee instead you lift up
the film missed it down with some water
use the heat gun to warm the film very
lightly and then stretch the film around
the curves and then use short strokes
until you get rid of all the wrinkles
this could be little hard but totally
doable at home and if you see some
moisture under the film that you can't
remove don't worry because they
evaporate through the film in few days
because this is a breathable material
and also very thin so this wouldn't
affect the heat dissipation from the
headlight needed so once you're done you
get your razor blade and trim the excess
film on the edge then work out all the
holes one last time and check this out
this looks amazing I mean here's the
before and here's the after now this
headlight is predicted from yellowing
fading and also from getting rock sheets
for the years to come and that wraps up
my final step on restoring yellowing
headlights permanently so leave a
comment down below let me know what you
think and if you're wondering where to
buy all these products are used they are
in the description as always if you
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