DIY: Polishing the Ole Headlights
03-04-11, 01:34 AM
#1
Pole Position
Thread Starter
DIY: Polishing the Ole Headlights
The headlight encasements for the ES300 (and most vehicles nowadays if not all) are made of a type of plastic that is fairly strong and resistant to damage, it's just susceptible to sun damage, certain chemicals can stain them, and other issues that can cause the headlights to fade over time. I last polished my headlights around a year ago and they were about ready for another shinin'.
I've used the Turtle Wax brand (no affiliation personally) of headlight polishing products twice now and find it very acceptable, especially for the price. The only downside might be that you have to manually polish your lights instead of using a power tool to help you out. Overall, using this package, the process took me two hours total from start to finish and I get great results.
Enough words and reading, let's get to some pics:
This is a decent "before" pic of one of the lights. Sun damage, crap from normal driving, and chemicals and waxes I've used to clean various parts of the car have dulled and stained the lights on their most exterior surface. We'll be polishing the outside of the lenses, NOT the inside of the lenses.
And this is the passenger side light. Skanky.
Let's get busy. First off, we'll need to remove this plastic cover from under the hood so we can access the headlights. Gently pry out the plugs holding the cover down and remove the cover and set it aside.
After you get the cover off, it will look something like this.
Next up, let's remove the bolts as shown in the pic below with a 10mm socket or wrench.
Hot socket wrench on retaining bolt action.
You could have done this before removing the bolts, whatever makes you happiest, but either way we need to unplug the wiring harnesses from the actual bulbs. There are three bulbs to disconnect, the highs, lows, and corner markers. Just press the clips and tug.
After you remove the bolts and wiring harnesses, the assembly will pull straight out no problem. Do the same for the other side.
Here's what we're looking at along with the Turtle Was package and polishing products. The TW polishing kit consists of 4 different sanding pads, some lubricating fluid, some polishing fluid, a plastic glove, and a headlight sealant wipe. You know, the lights don't look so bad in this light, but trust me.. Yuck.
Told ya, duder. Just fogged out and nasty.
Now's a good time to also clean the rest of the case if you'd like. I used some cleaner and then followed up with some stuff I use to polish rubber and plastic components with by Meguiar's.
Old and dirty stanky on the left, starting to get clean on the right.
First up, apply some of this stuff. You want to be liberal with this stuff on both the lens and the sanding pads.
Using the #1 sanding pad with a rough grit, you want to scrub the crap out of the headlight going side to side in one direction. I went longways across the headlight.
In this pic, I have already scrubbed the headlight twice and cleaned it with the lubricating solution and a paper towel. During the first and second scrubbings, the headlight was still putting off yellowish stained, oxidized plastic bits and in this pic, it was actually turning clean and white. This is when you know it's about time to move on to pad #2.
After using pad #1 thoroughly and cleaning it off, it should look completely hazed. This is a good base point ready for polish. We've stripped off the chemicals, oxidation, and other junk and it's ready to be renewed.
The #2 grit in full effect here. You want to use the lubricating spray on each pad and the headlight for each round. When you move to a new pad, switch the scrubbing direction. This will ensure you're completely removing all of the previous scratches induced from the previous sanding pad on down to the final one and the polishing. Nothing magical happening just yet, btw.
After the #2 process. Still looks hazy, only slightly less so. Hold on to your hats though.
This is after using #3 and #4 pads and before the final polishing. It looks so much better just like this even, but it gets better.
Lens Clarifying Compound. It's a mild abrasive compound that really brings the shine out of the plastic and buffs the smallest scratches out. You want to apply this to the headlight using a soft cotton cloth and once again move only in one direction. Apply this and buff until it's mostly cleared and the headlight is sparkling. Let the headlight sit for a bit and then buff it once again with a clean cloth this time to remove any traces of polish.
Before on left, after on right. This pic doesn't do anything justice.
Nice and sparkly! You can actually see through the headlight now! No clouds of fogged up plastic.
To be continued!
I've used the Turtle Wax brand (no affiliation personally) of headlight polishing products twice now and find it very acceptable, especially for the price. The only downside might be that you have to manually polish your lights instead of using a power tool to help you out. Overall, using this package, the process took me two hours total from start to finish and I get great results.
Enough words and reading, let's get to some pics:
This is a decent "before" pic of one of the lights. Sun damage, crap from normal driving, and chemicals and waxes I've used to clean various parts of the car have dulled and stained the lights on their most exterior surface. We'll be polishing the outside of the lenses, NOT the inside of the lenses.
And this is the passenger side light. Skanky.
Let's get busy. First off, we'll need to remove this plastic cover from under the hood so we can access the headlights. Gently pry out the plugs holding the cover down and remove the cover and set it aside.
After you get the cover off, it will look something like this.
Next up, let's remove the bolts as shown in the pic below with a 10mm socket or wrench.
Hot socket wrench on retaining bolt action.
You could have done this before removing the bolts, whatever makes you happiest, but either way we need to unplug the wiring harnesses from the actual bulbs. There are three bulbs to disconnect, the highs, lows, and corner markers. Just press the clips and tug.
After you remove the bolts and wiring harnesses, the assembly will pull straight out no problem. Do the same for the other side.
Here's what we're looking at along with the Turtle Was package and polishing products. The TW polishing kit consists of 4 different sanding pads, some lubricating fluid, some polishing fluid, a plastic glove, and a headlight sealant wipe. You know, the lights don't look so bad in this light, but trust me.. Yuck.
Told ya, duder. Just fogged out and nasty.
Now's a good time to also clean the rest of the case if you'd like. I used some cleaner and then followed up with some stuff I use to polish rubber and plastic components with by Meguiar's.
Old and dirty stanky on the left, starting to get clean on the right.
First up, apply some of this stuff. You want to be liberal with this stuff on both the lens and the sanding pads.
Using the #1 sanding pad with a rough grit, you want to scrub the crap out of the headlight going side to side in one direction. I went longways across the headlight.
In this pic, I have already scrubbed the headlight twice and cleaned it with the lubricating solution and a paper towel. During the first and second scrubbings, the headlight was still putting off yellowish stained, oxidized plastic bits and in this pic, it was actually turning clean and white. This is when you know it's about time to move on to pad #2.
After using pad #1 thoroughly and cleaning it off, it should look completely hazed. This is a good base point ready for polish. We've stripped off the chemicals, oxidation, and other junk and it's ready to be renewed.
The #2 grit in full effect here. You want to use the lubricating spray on each pad and the headlight for each round. When you move to a new pad, switch the scrubbing direction. This will ensure you're completely removing all of the previous scratches induced from the previous sanding pad on down to the final one and the polishing. Nothing magical happening just yet, btw.
After the #2 process. Still looks hazy, only slightly less so. Hold on to your hats though.
This is after using #3 and #4 pads and before the final polishing. It looks so much better just like this even, but it gets better.
Lens Clarifying Compound. It's a mild abrasive compound that really brings the shine out of the plastic and buffs the smallest scratches out. You want to apply this to the headlight using a soft cotton cloth and once again move only in one direction. Apply this and buff until it's mostly cleared and the headlight is sparkling. Let the headlight sit for a bit and then buff it once again with a clean cloth this time to remove any traces of polish.
Before on left, after on right. This pic doesn't do anything justice.
Nice and sparkly! You can actually see through the headlight now! No clouds of fogged up plastic.
To be continued!
03-04-11, 01:43 AM
#2
Pole Position
Thread Starter
Ok let's recap a bit.
BEFORE:
And AFTER:
But we're not done yet.
A shot of the passenger light before I polished it. Notice a difference between the pic above and this one?
You see that yellow crap? That's called "Nastiness". It's actually what comes off of the dirty headlight after the first #1 scrubbing. You'll notice a yellowish sludge that builds up as you scrub. Clean that stuff off and do the #1 sanding pad again and again until it's mostly clear.
From top left over and then down and over again, the first through fourth scrubbing results. I spent about 3-5 minutes on each scrubbing round. The #1 grit is the most important sanding job that you do. You really need to bust those arms and shoulder muscles getting deep into the plastic to get that oxidation and junk out of there.
Both headlights now cleaned.
Closeup of passenger side.
And hey, why not, another shot of the drivers headlight.
Once they are all polished up, just reverse the process for putting them back into the vehicle and test everything out. No problems on this end.
The headlight output is also improved but I mainly enjoy just having cleaner looking headlights on my car.
Before light output
After light output
I hope this encourages some of you to clean those lights out, it might take a bit to get them done manually, but man is it worth it. You can also buy a kit that comes with the pads ready to attach to a power drill, those kits are around 3x the cost of this one though. I am sure they all work fine and in a similar fashion to this one, so either way, get them headlights polished!
Thanks for reading!
BEFORE:
And AFTER:
But we're not done yet.
A shot of the passenger light before I polished it. Notice a difference between the pic above and this one?
You see that yellow crap? That's called "Nastiness". It's actually what comes off of the dirty headlight after the first #1 scrubbing. You'll notice a yellowish sludge that builds up as you scrub. Clean that stuff off and do the #1 sanding pad again and again until it's mostly clear.
From top left over and then down and over again, the first through fourth scrubbing results. I spent about 3-5 minutes on each scrubbing round. The #1 grit is the most important sanding job that you do. You really need to bust those arms and shoulder muscles getting deep into the plastic to get that oxidation and junk out of there.
Both headlights now cleaned.
Closeup of passenger side.
And hey, why not, another shot of the drivers headlight.
Once they are all polished up, just reverse the process for putting them back into the vehicle and test everything out. No problems on this end.
The headlight output is also improved but I mainly enjoy just having cleaner looking headlights on my car.
Before light output
After light output
I hope this encourages some of you to clean those lights out, it might take a bit to get them done manually, but man is it worth it. You can also buy a kit that comes with the pads ready to attach to a power drill, those kits are around 3x the cost of this one though. I am sure they all work fine and in a similar fashion to this one, so either way, get them headlights polished!
Thanks for reading!
03-04-11, 01:56 AM
#3
Pole Position
Thread Starter
Also, I'll be taking pics of the car tomorrow in the daylight so you can see what it looks like. I did this project tonight as an "After Midnight" DIY and couldn't get a good pic of what they looked like mounted.
03-04-11, 10:24 AM
#5
Nice job, too bad these fixes don't last. 
That 'yellow' crap is the coating that is there to protect from UV rays... and now you're reduced it to very little/nothing.
Just be prepared to do this again in like 6 mos... Take it FWIW, but i do this 2-3x a year ever since i did it the first time.
That 'yellow' crap is the coating that is there to protect from UV rays... and now you're reduced it to very little/nothing.
Just be prepared to do this again in like 6 mos... Take it FWIW, but i do this 2-3x a year ever since i did it the first time.
03-04-11, 10:35 AM
#6
Pole Position
Thread Starter
That's interesting as I did the same thing last year and scrubbed until the yellow was gone then also but here I am a year later and yes, they looked like crap again. If anything, it's a decent short term solution until you can get new replacements?
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03-04-11, 05:34 PM
#13
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Join Date: Dec 2009
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make sure you seal them with something or in 3 months in Taxass they will be yellow again...I know mine did in Houston until I put a clearcoat on them AFTER using a rubbing compound..
I do not miss the Katy freeway or Route 6...Miss the food though..
Nice write up...love the pics / steps...
I do not miss the Katy freeway or Route 6...Miss the food though..
Nice write up...love the pics / steps...
03-04-11, 06:32 PM
#14
UV Resistant Clearcoat works well in preventing the yellow from happening for a long time. Also, not to be OCD but I still see some slight wetsand marks on there, but then again I'm the type to notice that 
Great write up though. For you guys with the light yellowing issue with NO heavy oxidation, Blue Magic metal polish applied for 1min before being buffed off works quickly. The chemical reaction between the polish and slight oxidized layer removes the yellowing. This way you don't sand away all of your plastic
Great write up though. For you guys with the light yellowing issue with NO heavy oxidation, Blue Magic metal polish applied for 1min before being buffed off works quickly. The chemical reaction between the polish and slight oxidized layer removes the yellowing. This way you don't sand away all of your plastic
03-04-11, 07:14 PM
#15
Pole Position
Thread Starter
I've been looking at UV sealants since reading more into how you are in fact scrubbing off the sealant that comes from the factory (> btw) wish mixed results.. It seems beyond this every so often, I'd be looking at roughly $400-450 to replace the headlights with new ones with the sealant so this will be ok for another year or so.
Another issue with these headlights I have it the rubber seal or whatever it is has been compromised due to age in various places so replacing these headlights is in order for sure.
btw) wish mixed results.. It seems beyond this every so often, I'd be looking at roughly $400-450 to replace the headlights with new ones with the sealant so this will be ok for another year or so. Another issue with these headlights I have it the rubber seal or whatever it is has been compromised due to age in various places so replacing these headlights is in order for sure.