Angel

I have read on here numerous times about people having to simply replace their headlights to get that crystal clear shine again like from the factory.

When I bought my SC300 a 14 months ago, one of the headlights was beautiful crystal clear and the other was foggy and ugly. It made the whole car look *off* ... I have wanted to get a new one for quite awhile and didn't want to put the money out to do it.

A friend of mine kept saying he could fix it ... so I finally let him have a shot. I figured if he messed it up, that would give me an excuse to purchase another.

Here is the before picture:


Here is the after picture:


I hope the picturees do enough justice to show the difference. As as side note, the headlight was not removed at all to do this. The hood was open because we were changing spark plugs.

kylesc400

very, very nice job. ive cleaned off my headlights a couple times with soapy water, then a rub-down with high-grit wet sand paper, then i top it off with clear plastic polish from meguiar's and i get a near-new look. what process did you use?

O. L. T.

iTrader: (17)

Looks great angel!! i have always had good sucess with lightly sanding and going back with rubbing compound.

SCryder

that is a CLEAN light, was it all outside?

Bladez42598

what was the actual process you used to get the end result. How long did it take? what grits did you use? etc.

Info would be greatly appreciated cause you lights look mint.

meddle

Yes, please elaborate.

I thought I was going to have to remove my headlights, bake them, open em up and all that stuff to clean out the inside. Id love to give the outside a try first though!

specialist

Guys and gals,
I recently did my headlights, because one kept filling with water (making the driverside head light really dim). The tutorial on Lexuspros.com is dead on with several exceptions. When you remove the headlight, there is one bolt on top of the assembly and two that are behind the splash guards in the wheel wells. All bolts are 10mm. Once the head light is out of the car (unplug it before you try to remove it), you will find 5 metal clips that will pop off with a butterknife, and three small phillips head screws on the back. Remove all of these and the bulbs and pop the whole assembly in the oven at 175 (on bake) for about an hour. This will allow you to remove the front lens assembly, be patient and work arround the edge with a dull tool (butterknife) and it will come appart. I used novus cleaner and the lights look like new.

I also just did the outside of the lights on my Dad's SC300 and the difference is huge. He didn't want to go through the mess of dissassembly or reassembly either, and they look fantastic. Now he wants to do the tail lights and the rest of the exterior! I purchased the Novus from JC Whitney, but I'm sure there are other sources out there. If I can find a digital camera I'll get some pictures up for you.

siniquezu

While your at it, sand the lines in front of the projectors:

Angel

It took about 5 minutes to make it perfect.

We used a polishing wheel on an air line and Novus plastic scratch remover.

*edit* sorry, now that I am thinking about it, it took about 10 minutes altogether. We tried to use this chalk substance first, it is like a plastic polish, and that was working nicely, but then we tried out the Novus Fine Scratch Remover ... and it made it look like new.

Supra Dr

iTrader: (14)

looks great angel - hope mine comes out
1/2 that nice
siniquezu mentioned sanding out the lines
infront of the projector - would this help
or hurt the overall way the light hits the ground?
i dont care if it "looks cool" w/o the lines - if its shining
up in the trees
i have a spare apart to practice on & personally
been back /forth about sanding the lines out
angel any of you guys sanded them out?
thanx john

siniquezu

TurboSC sanded them down. Because of the tichkness involved, I only sanded the region in front of the projector. It give a VERY clean beam IMO. The defraction from the lines is noticeable when you have HIDs as well.

siniquezu

As you can see, without the lines, there is a very clean beam.




It also helps that I have HIDs...

siniquezu

Great job BTW Angel. Tell us if it fades into yellow or not. I've been using Meguir's Scratch-X and it's been about a year already. I am beginning to see some yellow in the headlights. Hopefully your method will provide better results in the long run.

=BANKS=

thats a major difference. I guess i didnt see this be4, but i made a post on how to clean the lights but O.L.T corrected me (Sorry!). Anyways, how would i go about on cleaning the highbeams, mine are a dirty yellowish color and its really bugging me since my headlights are clean, but my highs are dirty. Would i just need to use a scratch cleaner like novus or Scratch-X and just clean it on the outside, or do i have to take off the whole front bumper (someone told me i needed to do this in order to clean them)?

O. L. T.

iTrader: (17)

It's all good banks, just look b4 you post i just wanted you to see this, since it was your question so you got help.