chenxingha

After the two bosses (wife and daughter) of the house complaining about the look of the headlights on their 2000 RX300s, I got myself busy last weekend to clean the lenses up.

The tools and supplies I used are:
(1) 6" buffer/polisher (motorized) from Walmart, $15.
(2) Borrowed a tube of ordinary toothpaste (white gel) from the bathroom.
(3) A microfiber applicator pad out of a 3-pad pack ($3 from Walmart).
(4) Some Nu Finish car wax (gel type).
(5) A car wash cloth.

The steps:
(1) Use the car wash cloth to clean the lenses and wash out any dirt and dead bugs. Wait for the lenses to dry.
(2) Squeeze a line of the white toothpaste on top of the light brown area, mostly near the top of the lenses running along the top edge. Squeeze a bit on anyway else that you wish to polish.
(3) Put a dry microfiber pad (came with buffer/polisher) on the buffer/polisher (make sure that there is no hard particles on the pad); turn on the power switch and run the buffer/polisher on the toothpaste and slowly moving back and forth along the top edge and on areas you want to polish.
(4) Clean the lenses with the car wash cloth and clean water. If there are still spots that you wish to polish, do step 3 again. The resulting lenses should look transparent with no "clouds" when it is still wet. When the lenses dry, you may see a film-like "coat" on the plastic lenses. No worry. As long as the light brown "clouds" are cleared, it should be fine.
(5) Use the microfiber applicator pad to apply a thin coat of Nu Finish car wax on the dry lenses and hand spread the wax to cover all area. Wait for a while to let the wet wax (gel like) to dry. Then use the same pad to hand polish a bit.
(6) Put the polish pad (came with the buffer/polisher) on the buffer/polisher and run it slowly and around the lenses all over. You shall see a polished lens that looks almost like new.

Depending on each effort, you may need to repeat some of the steps to get the best results.

It took me less than an hour to polish all four headlight lenses on both RX300s and both bosses are happy. The lenses look like new after a week with heavy rains and storms.

One caution about the car wax: do not use car wax that comes with cleansing agents. I think the chemical(s) that comes with may cause damages to the plastic lenses.

Just my 2 cents for this wonderful community.

Happy polishing!

salimshah

Please provide update after 6months, 9 months and 1 yr.

I use plastix and takes about a min each, but the haze returns.

Salim