John Welch.

My headlights looked pretty bad so I decided to try to restore them. The photos do not look the best, but you can get the idea.



There are a bunch of kits out there to do this, I went with the Sylvania kit because it included a clear coat step.


It took about an hour, and I'm really happy with the results.

Travis

Great job! Interested to see how long the restoration lasts on your P!G.

First restoration I did on the headlights was with the Duplicolor kit. It also includes a UV clear coat. Came out okay. Lasted about 2 years, maybe 3.

Just recently redid the lights sanding with 600, 1000, 2000, rubbing compound, polish, and Meguiar's UV clear coat. Came out nice, curious to see how long this will last.

deilenberger

I used the Sylvania kit on my wifes BMW wagon some years ago. The clearcoat they used held up for perhaps a year before it started looking shabby again. I did the Duplicolor kit on my '06 Cayenne S/****. It lasted until I traded the pig in for my current turbo..

BIG HINT: Clear wrap. The 10mil kind (0.010 thickness). If you can't DIY - find someone who does wraps. Chances are he has patterns for his cutter that will pop out a set of clear wrap covers for the headlights. Put them (or have him put them) over the refinished headlights. They should stay clear for years if you use a quality wrap.

I had this done as soon as I got my '11 CTT since the headlights on it were perfect.. and they remain perfect. Cost me about $40 to have a wrap guy do it. Took him about 10 minutes. I would have been there all day and ended up frustrated. BTDT.

Petza914

+1

Not only will it help prevent fading, but also protect your expensive headlights from taking a stone or bolt off the road through the lens and prevent the peppering (no pun intended) from fine road debris.

When I did my widebody build I bought new headlights since the car got a full repaint and looked brand new. First thing I did when the lights arrived (along with the 958 signal lights I upgraded to) was take them to my wrap guy and have them clear bra'd.

Dilberto

Lens "restoration" lasts approximately one year. After that - you will be required to perform this operation annually.... or, until the lens material is ground through. I went thru this madness for 3 seasons. I decided new headlight clusters was the answer. After all - a full decade is still NOT BAD wear.

slavie

As others experienced, simply cleaning, sanding, or buffing the headlight without restoring UV protection is a temporary solution. I have some urethane clear coat (actual automotive clear with activator, not the acetone based spray can crap) that I was planning to coat the headlights with on some of my other cars. Anyone tried this method?

phatz

3m Finishing Film Disks asst grits
3m Trizact 3000 and 5000
Spraymax Headlight Kit with 2K clear in a rattle can amazing! (there is a release for the catalyst)
You will be thrilled

Or pull them and take to the body shop and ask to have them redone ...make sure they know the bottom guides are fragile

slavie

Thanks for the info! At ~ $40, this looks like a really good solution.

Read the PDF - good thing they have PC friendly primer. I've read elsewhere of people using regular plastic adhesion promoter and that did not work on PC, reacted with and ruined the lens.

I already have a gallon of 2k urethane clear for other jobs, so may try that instead, maybe look for the PC primer separately.

deilenberger

The clear spray is a poor version of what came on them from the factory (that was baked on) - go with the clear wrap film and forgeddaboutit.. really (from the guy who wrote the article about 20 years ago for the BMW-CCA Roundel on refinishing lenses.. and started a whole industry with that article.)

phatz

...awesome
I have one truck that lives outside, full time, in Tucson. Did it 18 months ago, remains as day one today

Paint film would also be great

deilenberger

That may actually be a good environment for it. They probably don't find it necessary to salt the roads a lot in Tuscon. I don't think sun (UV) is the big problem - it's microabrasions and chemical attacks. I'm sure car-washes probably also don't do the painted clear coat any good. I did my '06 C/**** about a year before I traded it in. It still looked acceptable when I traded it in - but I could see deterioration from when I first did it - especially obvious when the lights were on. The clear-film on the '11 CTT has remained clear, no marks on it from car-washes (and that's what you use when you're on the far side of 7 decades and it's below 30 degrees out and the car is covered in salt-brine..) and still can't actually tell it's on there with the lights off or on.

Short Long story.. the M3 that I did the headlight article on ended up with clear film on the headlights when I was done polishing them. My wife's 525i wagon about the same time just got the smear-on clearcoat that came in the Sylvania kit at the time. Both looked good at first.

The 525i - which we traded in on a Lexus - in 2 years looked as bad as it had when I first did it. The M3 still looked good.

At the same time that I did the headlight article - the M3 had one cracked foglight.. so I bought a new lens for it. The other foglight had about 70,000 miles of road debris damage - it was sandblasted and pitted looking. It looked awful with the new one on the other side. I cut out a piece of clear for the new fog light figuring that it would protect it against that happening and I'd buy a new lens for the other one. Just out of curiosity (and I had a lot of the clear film kicking around) I cut out a piece for the old fog light. I cleaned the light as well as I could and put the clear film on. The light looked just like the new one on the other side.. the glue on the clear-film was close enough in optical-index that it filled the pits and scratches on the old lens and the pits and scratches disappeared. The same thing as when you put a plastic protective cover on a phone a bit too late (after some scratches have started to appear on the glass..) - the scratches will disappear. It's called "index-matching" - FWIW - the Sylvania kit at the time just had you polish the headlight down to I think 1200 grit paper finish - then apply the clear which index matched well to the plastic - and the 1200 grit scratches disappeared.

More than you ever wanted to know about optical index: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refractive_index and index matching: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index-matching_material (yeah, I used to do this sort of stuff many decades ago at Bell Labs.. back when we were inventing lasers of various sorts..)

dr914

some have used Cutters deep woods bug repellant and have done wonders cleaning up the old fogged lights

Jay Wellwood

So I am going to have to bite the bullet on this long over due project - thinking it'll be a good Father's Day project with beer and a cigar in hand.

I'm strongly leaning toward the Sylvania kit with a clear bra over the lights the following week.

Any other updates to this? Anyone have a better vetted alternative process?

Petza914

Still seeing great results from the Sylvania kit on my daughter's X5. In fact, just commented on it this morning.

user 8298308

+1 for the Sylvania kit. I recommend taking the lights out of the Cayenne (it's easy), which makes the process much simpler.

I didn't PPF mine, but I see that Suncoast has pre-cut PPF for these lights, so I may order that.