How to polish car headlights
Answering the questions: “how to polish the headlights at home” and “how to restore transparency and shine to the headlights”, drivers give different, sometimes contradictory answers. Today, many manufacturers of polishes offer us whole product lines that can restore the transparency and shine of the headlight surface. Along with this, we will consider the best solutions (in terms of labor intensity, the need for additional tools) on how to polish the headlights with your own hands using improvised means.
Polishing result
This will be the basic criterion, not counting the cost, according to which it is necessary to correctly select the polishing paste.
How to choose headlight polish
Some are more expensive, others are cheaper, and in terms of efficiency, as you can see when reading reviews about polishes, they differ. in order for your choice to be as successful as possible, you need to make a choice of polish for headlights, based not on the price of the goods, but on the condition and material of manufacture of the headlight. Let's consider this in more detail.
If you have a glass headlight
Glass is more prone to severe chips with varying degrees of maintainability. On the other hand, not every solid particle will leave a mark on the glass.
Since the deterioration of the light transmission ability of the headlight may be due, among other things, to the formation of a dirty layer (particles of the roadway, dust, insects, etc., crashing into the surface of the headlight at speed), without cracking and deep scratches, then the following standard sets for polishing headlights with your own hands at home will be enough.
For reference: Modern automotive industry has opted for polycarbonate as the best material for making car headlights. Accordingly, car care manufacturers are catching up with this trend by offering us a wide range of products for cleaning to a shine and restoring the transparency of the optical devices of vehicles. But they are also suitable for caring for glass headlights.
When will the plastic headlight be polished
A plastic headlight may not get a single chip during operation, as happens with glass, but a dense layer of dirt can form on it, stones leave numerous, small and deep scratches on polycarbonate. Therefore, the processing of plastic headlights requires more attention. There is a plus: such material is malleable enough so that you can polish plastic headlights with your own hands, at home.
All the more successful will be the restoration of the transparency and brilliance of plastic headlights when they need to be polished without deep grinding. The outer layer is responsible for the safety of the plastic, which can be removed when grinding even with ordinary medium-abrasive sandpaper, and you will have to replace it with a special protective film, or use a special varnish coating (for example, Delta Kits).
So, when the cloudiness and yellowness of the headlights are only noticed, non-special means can also be used.
Handy tools for polishing headlights
- Toothpaste. There are no special recommendations for choosing a headlight polishing paste, since the abrasiveness of this product is designed for tooth enamel, but not for plastic and glass. The smallest whitening particles can slightly improve the visual characteristics of the headlight, but you should not expect much from toothpaste and tooth powder.
- Micellar liquid without alcohol. Yes, this is a cosmetic product, but it can also clean glass and plastic headlights well.
- Waffle towel. Useful for removing residues of the above products from the surface of the headlight. You can use any moderately stiff fabric, as long as it does not leave lint.
- Paste GOI. A good polish, which few people know about, is suitable for processing polycarbonate headlights and glass headlights. If you take all four numbers and with a little effort go through the paste applied to a hard cloth, then after a while you will be able to see completely renewed, shining headlights! It is necessary to start with a highly abrasive and ending with a “soft” one, by number - from the fourth to the first, which, in fact, also applies to the treatment with abrasive agents in general.
- Sandpaper. A set of sandpaper of different abrasiveness will help eliminate scratches, bring the surface of the headlight to a shine. Gradation of abrasiveness: P600-1200, 1500, 2000 and P2500, you should start with coarse. in order to speed up the process, you can use abrasive wheels, but watch the surface temperature of the headlight, heating is unacceptable.
Special car care products
Special polishes for headlights are designed to improve their optical characteristics, as close as possible to the original performance. As noted above, the vast majority of polishes are produced to restore the transparency and shine of plastic headlights, but they are also suitable for cleaning glass headlights. It's just that their efficiency, if there are deep scratches on the optical device, and especially chips, will be much lower.
The best polishes for polycarbonate and glass headlights
Doctor Wax — Metal Polish
Among the mass of means tested by motorists, it is worth highlighting the following:
Doctor Wax — Metal Polish
On the packaging of the Doctor Wax polishing paste it is written: “for metals”, but don’t let that bother you - plexiglass, transparent plastic and headlights polish wonderfully: it adds shine, masks scratches, and eliminates scratches. Creamy paste is good because it does not contain coarse abrasives. You can buy Doctor Wax DW8319 with a volume of 0,14 kg in the online store at a price of 390 rubles.
Turtle Wax Headlight Restorer Kit
Turtle wax
Special kit for polishing block headlights. Designed for glass front and rear headlights, the tool comes with everything you need for work: high quality double-sided skins, gloves, lacquer wipes (2 pcs.), Two sprays. From the experience of using the Turtle Wax Headlight Restorer Kit: you can not use the applicators - they will come in handy later, but for it is better to take ordinary waffle towels. The consumption is small - about 1/6 of the bottle can go to two rather big headlights. Working time to the result: from the color of "coffee with milk" to the radiance and shine - from half an hour to 45 minutes. By the way, not everyone succeeds in fixing the effect by applying varnish, the headlights become matte and the varnish layer has to be removed with the same tool. The cost of the TURTLE WAX FG6690 kit is about 1350 rubles.
Magic Liquid — Headlines Lens Restored
Magic Liquid
Magic Liquid, according to experienced motorists, this polishing paste significantly improves the visual characteristics of plastic headlights, but they must be free of defects in the form of deep scratches and a large number of microcracks.
Based on their characteristics and promotional advertising, Magic Liquid can be successfully used in restoration work with all types of plastic, including plastic car interior parts. This tool is well suited for gentle cleaning and polishing headlights at home with your own hands.
3M Headlight restoration kit
3M Headlights
A whole set for polishing headlights at home: disc holder, grinding wheels (P500 - 6 pcs.), masking tape, foam polishing pad, headlight polishing paste (30 ml.), disc holder, finishing polishing pads (P800) - 4 pcs.), polishing pads gradation P3000.
You will also need (not included) an ordinary drill (should work no higher than 1500 rpm.), Paper towels. You can wash off the product with water from a hose or sprayer, but in no case not a wet rag.
3M Headlight restoration kit is designed specifically for self-restoration of the transparency and brilliance of car headlights. As for scratches, small ones will be eliminated, since this tool is still abrasive, and large ones will become less noticeable. The cost of the set is about 4600 rubles.
DovLight
DOVLight
Designed for polishing polycarbonate headlights, it has a relatively low cost (from 800 to 1100 r) and very high efficiency with minimal effort and time. The manufacturer guarantees the effect of shining headlights after five minutes of the action of the product! Polishing is carried out in just two or three stages: first, the polycarbonate headlights are wiped with a No. 1 napkin, then you need to carefully wipe it dry with a paper towel. Wipe with cloth #2, which contains an active headlight polish and leave in a place protected from moisture for half an hour.Detailed instructions for use are attached, but you can understand everything just by watching the video:
Video instruction on the use of polish
Skeptics point to one caveat: the manufacturer does not indicate that you need to wipe the headlights dry at the end of the work. Like, miracles do not happen, all the headlights will very soon become dull and yellow.
But after processing the headlights, you don’t need to wipe them dry: the fact is that the product, according to the manufacturer, creates a protective layer that is resistant to washing out even in car washes, and the effect lasts, depending on operating conditions, for about six months, up to 8 months . By the way, the same tool is also suitable for polishing (cosmetic restoration of transparency) and inside the headlight.
Before that, we considered polishing products, which have risen in price by almost 2017% since 2021 at the end of 20, but it is also important to choose the right tools, which in some cases are important to achieve the expected effect.
Headlight polishing
Polishing your headlights yourself is a good way to save money and restore the previous level of transparency. To polish a plastic headlight you need sandpaper, paste and a grinder. Read more
Non-abrasive polishes
non-abrasive gloss paste 3M 09376 Perfect-it 2
The final step in polishing car headlights is to use a polish based on non-abrasive components. Such products will be effective if the scratches on the car are small, used to remove traces of processing with other pastes or after removing deep scratches with abrasive products. Non-abrasive polishes have a protective effect, which consists in the fact that the agent fills in surface defects and forms a special film that creates obstacles for the penetration of aggressive components.
Compositions from manufacturers Riwax, Meguiar's and Koch Chemie and polishes Fusso Coat 12th, Fusso Coat 7th, liquid glass (developed on the basis of silicon dioxide), BRILLIANCE, Menzerna can be used as products. 3M 09376 Perfect-it II non-abrasive gloss paste has proven itself well.
For machine polishing with non-abrasive products, special foam pads are recommended! When using a new or dry pad, apply some paste to the pad to ensure it is pre-wetted.
Afterword:
The use of non-special products (toothpaste, micellar water, etc.) takes place only in cases where the deterioration in the visibility of the road is due to the sticking of an easily washable layer of dirt.
Modern headlight polishing products make it possible to increase the level of driving safety by improving the optical properties of headlights, both glass and plastic.
Is there also a better solution? Yes, this is a professional headlight polishing in a car repair shop. There will be used reliable power tools, various expensive polishing pastes like 3m perfect-it lll paste, as well as Headlight Restore Cream, WowPolisher, if the issue of price is not critical for you.
