Well, this afternoon after my son and I were done playing golf, he wanted to do a little work on the SC400. We headed over to AutoZone and picked up a couple of things to clean the car up, one of which was the 3M headlight polishing kit.

The kit comes with everything you will need to polish those yellowing headlights to a clear and glossy finish. It comes with 500 and 800 grit sandpaper discs, a 3000 grit wet/dry disc, a buffing pad, the sanding wheel bit w/Velcro attachment, and a packet of 3M polishing compound.

I would recommend thoroughly taping the area around the lenses you plan to polish as the sanding wheel can quickly remove your finish if you are not paying close attention.

I have posted some BEFORE and AFTER pics for reference...

BEFORE




The shot below shows you what the lenses look like at the 800 grit stage (left) and the wet sanding stage (right)

AFTER



Despite significant sanding and polishing there was still a noticeable discoloration between the two lenses.


Here is a close-up that doesn't look as extreme.



I noticed that the lenses still looked a little hazy, but upon much closer inspection (since I could actually see INSIDE), I noticed that the haziness is coming from within. It appeared that some may have tried to polish the inside.

I was puzzled by this until I turned the lights on in the evening to see why...





Someone installed HIDs. That would not be a big issue if they BOTH matched color-wise. UGH!!!!

 

looks a lot better!!!! that stuff really works!!!!

 

did mine not too long ago

 

I do that for a living! (sort of)

 

The car is certainly not in the greatest shape at the moment, however polishing those headlights made a world of difference at night. You cannot see it in those night pics but there is some minor haziness and some micro scratches on the INSIDE of the lenses. The micro scratches obviously came from whenever a previous owner decided to install HIDs and most likely did not use a quality microfiber cloth when cleaning the inside lenses. The other is probably because on reassembly the units were not properly/adequately sealed and some moisture has found its way inside which is evident from the small spots of pitting.

I have always wanted to do a lens polish, but all my older cars have glass lenses and my 350Z, GT-R and Avalanche will probably never see such a condition. I had seen it done on automotive shows, and quite frankly I usually get nervous about applying sandpaper to my car. But I was surprised how well it went with such minimal effort. I think I spent the majority of my time taping and setting up (because I am so **** retentive about these things). Once I started I was done in about 60mins, and that was doing 6 separate lenses.

Best $20 I've ever spent on a project that yielded such dramatic results in such a short amount of time.

 

I'm gonna have to buy a kit and try it.

 

I would recommend using a good electric corded drill. My Ryobi cordless drill ran out of juice using both batteries. My Craftsman corded drill worked like a champ but did get a little warm from the extended use.

 

After I clean my headlights I through on 2 layers of wax so the sun wouldn't hit the light that hard.