can headlights be polished when plastic

properwounded

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My headlights feel plastic and look a little shade of yellow to me anyway.

I am going to get the car professionally valeted and want the headlights to match the level of sheen that the paint work will come with.

so the question is can they be polished to a more clear looking colour ?
 
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properwounded

properwounded

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I use wet n dry for polishing Inconel, obviously a more abrasive grade that what is shown in the video. I didn't think that it could be used on it on plastic too, thanks for that :)
 

coventryslk

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3m fast cut plus and they come up like new
 

turbopete

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there is a dedicated polish available now specifically designed for this job. halfords have one version of it IIRC
 

coventryslk

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It's not good I've used it. 3m fast cut plus only thing to sort out yellowed Clio headlights
 

Howard

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Remember to 'reseal' them afterwards so that the UV ( you are polishing off the coating that has yellowed ) doesn't make them go black ;)
 

LostKiwi

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When I got the 210 they were quite bad. Used 1500 wet and dry, then 2500 followed by 3000 all used wet.
Then brassy on an orbital polisher followed by cutting compound then resin Polish and finally Simoniz. Came up superbly.
 

davemercedes

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I used Meguiars Headlamp Restoration Polish a few years back. Not too much hard work and at the time not costly.
- But atm on the Bay now it starts at £18.15 ( #252450119326). Halfords have some at £16.83.
 

Frontstep

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Well whatever you use they can come up well and improve your lighting on these dim days.
Mine are much better now.
 

AMGeed

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I used Meguiars Headlamp Restoration Polish a few years back. Not too much hard work and at the time not costly.
- But atm on the Bay now it starts at £18.15 ( #252450119326). Halfords have some at £16.83.

I've used both the Meguiars kit and the 3M.
The 3M kit gives far far better results.
 

LostKiwi

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Well whatever you use they can come up well and improve your lighting on these dim days.
Mine are much better now.

Totally agree. It should be the first step for anyone who thinks their lights are poor.
 

Frontstep

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I've used both the Meguiars kit and the 3M.
The 3M kit gives far far better results.

Most 3M products are good its just the price is sometimes a bit daft.
 

Craiglxviii

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Most 3M products are good its just the price is sometimes a bit daft.

I'll sell you a 4M kit for only £150. It's like 3M but it's one better.
 

daveenty

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I used something similar to THIS on the last set I did. There are cheaper ones about, the link is just an example, in fact mine came from the Bay.

They are superb, quick and easy to use and give an excellent finish which only requires minimum polishing at the end to get the lenses like new.

Oh, and they're cheap, which matters to me being naturally "careful". :)
 

vijilants

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I've done this before on my son's car and unless you seal the headlights with a lacquer after polishing, they get worse that when you started in no time.
 

Benzworx

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We charge £80 and includes a full sanding to remove the old unstable uv lacquer plus recoat with new 2K uv lacquer job done
 

Lambo_Pig

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Meguires PlastX

I used to use it in Australia where the sun would turn certain untreated plastic headlights.

If it is a modern merc though, it would likely have a UV protective layer on the headlight that would need to be removed first. This happened years ago on my mothers old 2007 CLS that lived outside getting blasted by UV rays. My mothers headlights started turning yellow, I tried Meguires plastX (that works brilliantly on other headlights) but it did nothing until the UV protective layer started breaking down. Once the layer was removed, it came up brand new with PlastX. Although without the UV layer, it needed a treatment every summer (which takes only minutes to do).
 

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