I’m looking to apply PPF on my headlights like I have on my ES, but being this is a 10 year old car, it already has defects. Toward the top of both looks like a peeling pattern as if there was previously some coating on them, but it doesn’t feel like it comes off. I don’t want to use a headlight refinishing kit out of fear of making them worse or hazy. What can I polish these out with before applying PPF? Plastix?

these are LED lights and you can’t just buy the lenses anymore. $2200 replacements, so I want to protect them.

 

I can't help with the refinishing kit but if it has had ppf applied the best place to determine that is in an upper corner like in this pic of mine where it is obvious. (I hope) You can feel it with a fingernail.

 

Yep, that’s how my ES is but I don’t see that on this one. Can’t really catch much of a fingernail on any spots…not thick enough to be PPF. Hard to describe but it has a peeled look. Even if I buy one of those $60 film kits online, beats having nothing. The stuff on my other car is cracking, so I’m going to remove and replace it as well. Those 13 year old headlights still look new.

 

Looks like clear coat peeling off to me.

 

Clear coat makes sense as it’s sometimes used as part of headlight restoration.

 

I’ll just clean them well and apply the PPF over that. I agree on the clearcoat. It’s a 10 year old car and isn’t perfect.

 

You could hit that with a non-aggressive polish like Plast-X or Meguiar's Ultimate polish to clean it up, or just stick the PPF on there.