HeadLight Restoration

My truck is old, 13 years old to date. I don't have any real big problems with it. And fix it up a little bit more when I get the time and think of a project. I just wish I had more time to wash the thing!

My headlights were turning yellow, pitted, and badly scratched. I decided I should replace them seeing how safety is a big issue with yours truly. And if you can't see in the dark while driving, you have a safety issue.

Seems the replacement headlights ( made of plastic) cost 100 bucks a piece. Money grubbing bastards. It's a plastic box with a hole in it for the light. Probably costs about 3 bucks to make. AND it's for a 13 year old truck. Not a new Lexus. It's the way of the world folks...but doesn't mean one has to like it.

CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO SEE A LARGER IMAGE

Ok, so just below is the before and after pictures. On the left is my headlight in its old state. And on the right is the new and improved light. Big difference huh. I couldn't wait to drive at night after finishing this project. I've gotten back about 50% of my headlight output. A very noticeable difference that makes me quiet happy about the out come of this project.

Items you'll need to sand and buff your headlights:

A water source, a bucket or water hose
A pack of assorted wet sand paper, course to ultra fine
A buffer, a small one if possible
Scratch removal wax, OR! toothpaste (yes I said toothpaste)
Paper towels

To begin with, you'll only see pictures here of the driver side headlight. Because the other one looks the same and it saves on posting pictures and wasting space.....so there.

I got a bucket of water and went out to my truck. Pulled out the coarsest sheet of wet sand paper I had and got busy sanding. Make sure you use plenty of water, and good even circular movements. Don't press to hard, you'll scratch the headlight to deep. Of course half way into this project guess what, there ain't NO turning back. The assorted wet sand paper pack I bought had four levels of coarseness. After going through each level I had my sanded headlights. See pictures below.

So far I was happy with the sanding, even if only half way done. Already it was an improvement over the yellow scratched lens I had before.

Next it was time to polish that baby to a nice clear glass looking lens. I bought a scratch remover polishing compound from Wally Word. It worked ok, but I was buffing and buffing with little results. I needed something that was quicker. I remembered a good friend and co-worker telling me he knew people that used toothpaste to do the same thing. I figured it couldn't hurt. I used 3 parts toothpaste and 1 part scratch remover. It helped keep the toothpaste from drying up to quickly. It worked great. Just check out my headlight below.

I took some night shots to see the difference. Although they are not needed for myself. Like I said above, I got about twice the amount of light coming from my headlights now, and it cost me roughly about 15 bucks, not 200 like it would if I had bought replacement headlights. I won't even say which set of pictures is the before and after pictures, you'll see for yourself.

UPDATE!!! two nights after finishing this project I am on the road at midnight. I see a deer just in time to come to a stop and not hit the deer. Had my headlights been in their prior condition, I would have hit that deer. So now I'm not up 200 bucks, but also a front end replacement and possibly a hospital visit if that deer had gone through the windshield.