can headlights be polished when plastic

[Submariner1]

If your headlights look fine is it good, bad or indifferent to clay them?

TBH having had new cars before, I had never heard of this yellowing factor, and this 2009 CL500 doesnt have any sign of yellowing.

A great beleiver of prevention being better than a cure, can one clay the headlights? And is it a good thing to do and then polish with my usual 2 coats of autoglyms and final sacrificial autoglyms super resin?

Or would the clay process wreckmthe UV lacquer? Or make no difference?

 

[JBell]

TBH having had new cars before, I had never heard of this yellowing factor, and this 2009 CL500 doesnt have any sign of yellowing.

Look on older cars, it is very common, the light lenses go yellow and / or misty

A great beleiver of prevention being better than a cure, can one clay the headlights?

Yes, I do this

Then polish with my usual 2 coats of autoglyms and final sacrificial autoglyms super resin?

Any more than one coat of SRP is a waste, put one coat of SRP on then wax, then Sonax for that extra bit of protection

 

[Craiglxviii]

TBH having had new cars before, I had never heard of this yellowing factor, and this 2009 CL500 doesnt have any sign of yellowing.

A great beleiver of prevention being better than a cure, can one clay the headlights? And is it a good thing to do and then polish with my usual 2 coats of autoglyms and final sacrificial autoglyms super resin?

Or would the clay process wreckmthe UV lacquer? Or make no difference?

The yellowing is an artefect of UV light attacking polymer that has not been properly stabilized; that can be a batching issue when the plastic grind is going into press or a specification issue. It really tends to affect cars from the late 90s to very early noughties, this is when polycarbonate first started replacing glass for automotive lamp lenses and before the risks of hazing/ yellowing were fully understood. Yours shouldn't have any problems as the industry learnt an awful lot from the experience. Some French cars were seeing yellowed lamp lenses within 2 years, especially in the south where they were getting much more direct sunlight.

The good news is that it's a surface layer effect, so as mentioned cutting it back and then applying a UV-stabilizing film really does work well.

 

[LostKiwi]

The other thing that improved plastics was the widespread adoption of HiD lights. These produce significantly more UV than halogen lamps so the plastics had to be improved to cope.

 

[Morethanpolish]

Polishing plastic headlamp covers

Professional Megs product for plastic headlights:
http://www.vertar.com/meguiars/megu...iars-clear-plastic-polish-acrylic-headlights/

 

[Submariner1]

The yellowing is an artefect of UV light attacking polymer that has not been properly stabilized; that can be a batching issue when the plastic grind is going into press or a specification issue. It really tends to affect cars from the late 90s to very early noughties, this is when polycarbonate first started replacing glass for automotive lamp lenses and before the risks of hazing/ yellowing were fully understood. Yours shouldn't have any problems as the industry learnt an awful lot from the experience. Some French cars were seeing yellowed lamp lenses within 2 years, especially in the south where they were getting much more direct sunlight.

The good news is that it's a surface layer effect, so as mentioned cutting it back and then applying a UV-stabilizing film really does work well.

Fingers crossed no trace of yellowing on mine. Hence wondered about claying it. Think in light of the advice will give it a light clay (got the mildest kind).