Safety issue, headlights

[Ron in Indiana]

This has little to do with our trucks but I wanted to pass this along. My wife drives an '03 Chrysler PT Cruiser which has plastic headlight covers. As with many cars with this style of headlights the plastic lenses become clouded with age. Today I used the kit I bought from Eastwood to polish the lenses. This is not a difficult or time consuming job. I had it done in half an hour or so. Tonight we drove the car and the results were like day and night. It is so much brighter and clearer now that we can actually see going down the road. If any of you have a vehicle with the plastic covers and they have a film or are dulled please take the time to clean them. There are any number of kits out there and it's easy to do. It may save you or your loved ones while they are driving at night.

[712edf]

Thanks,
My parent's 2000 Cherokee suffers from cloudy eyes. My dad tried some type of kit that just left the covers cloudy, like they had car wax on them. It never gets driven at night, but I'd like to correct it anyways, looks bad.

Bucky

[Ron in Indiana]

Mine turned out very clear. Did your dad wet sand with 400/800/1200 grit paper first? I went one step further and did 1500 grit. It doesn't take a lot to wet sand but it is necessary in the process. Before wet sanding be sure to mask off the edge of the lights to avoid scratching the paint.

[Gordon Maney]

I assume this is on the outside? The inside remains nice after long service?

[712edf]

Mine turned out very clear. Did your dad wet sand with 400/800/1200 grit paper first? I went one step further and did 1500 grit. It doesn't take a lot to wet sand but it is necessary in the process. Before wet sanding be sure to mask off the edge of the lights to avoid scratching the paint.

I don't know exactly what he did. I did see sandpaper there, can't say how fine of grit. I doubt he used the Eastwood product but instead something off of the shelf somewhere. He may have did it wrong, or the product itself may have been inferior. I just would like to correct it but don't know where to go from here, meaning I don't know if new lenses are in order.

There used to be a guy who traveled around & did this type of thing for a living. Maybe he could fix it.

Bucky

[Ron in Indiana]

You can probably save the lenses by WET sanding. Start with 400, then 600-800, 1200 and like I did to 1500. It only takes one sheet of each and that will last for several more headlights. The Eastwood kit is only a 3" buff with an arbor and a tube of metal polish. I ran mine in a cordless drill. To fast and you'll burn the plastic. You'll see a difference by the time you get to the last wet sanding grit. It's a lot like buffing paint starting with wet sanding.

Gordon, yes this is all done on the exterior with the lights in place. It's mostly road film and UV breakdown I believe that causes the clouding of the plastic.

[712edf]

Thanks Ron,
I will give it a shot. I have nothing to lose.

Bucky

[Ron in Indiana]

No problem. Autosol is the polish Eastwood includes with their kit. As long as you have a buff you can probably find the Autosol or equivilent. Let me know how it turns out.