To Hell in a Handbasket

As a follow-up to my post yesterday about my success with the 3M Headlight Restoration Kit, I got up early this morning, and did my wife’s Ford Windstar. The headlights were not in as bad of shape as those on my truck, but they definitely could benefit from a little restoration to their old glory (that is if headlights had such things). The good news is that I achieved very good results with her van as I did on my truck.  Following the same steps here is a photo journal of the progress.

After a quick wash, I masked of the headlights using green automotive masking tape.

Then I sanded off the yellow and dull areas of the lenses using the 500 grit sandpaper discs.

Next I finished off the sanding with the 800 grit discs.

Once done, I switched over to the 3000 grit trizact disc, and wet sanded the lenses until they were clear and smooth.

Once all the 800 grit scratches were no longer visible, I wiped down the headlights, and attached the buffing pad and applied a bit of rubbing compound. After giving both lenses a good buffing, I wiped off the lenses and looked at the results.

Even with mildly faded and yellowed headlights, the restoration kit did a noticeable and fantastic job bringing the clarity and shine back to the headlights. Below is a side-by-side to get the full effect of the restoration.

Once again I can’t say enough nice things about the 3M Headlight Restoration Kit, except maybe “c’est magnifique”.

I recently picked up a headlight restoration kit by 3M at Wal-Mart for around $15. Amazon and a few other places sell it as well. I chose this kit on the advice of a colleague who had good success with it on her Volkswagen Passat. I figured for $15, it would be worth a shot to try and restore the headlights on my Ford F-150 that have been yellowing for many years.

The best part about the kit is that it provides everything you need except for a towel, some green automotive masking tape (also sold at Wal-Mart), and a good drill that can operate between 1200-1600 rpm. The kit also contains enough sandpaper and rubbing compound to do two sets of headlights.

Here are our tools:

Here is what my headlights started off looking like after I gave them a quick wash.

Next I masked off the headlights with the automotive tape.

Starting with the 500 grit sandpaper discs, I sanded all the yellow off until I could see the clear plastic. Then I switched to the 800 grit discs to remove the scratches left by the previous sanding.

After that I attached the 3000 grit trizact disc, wet it down with a spray bottle, and wet sanded the lenses until they were nice and smooth. I did this until I could no longer see any scratches in the lens.

Finally, I attached the buffing pad, applied a bit of rubbing compound, and buffed the lenses until they were shiny and bright. Finally I wiped the lenses down with a towel to observe the final results.

I first thought was “Wow. That’s fantastic.” The lenses came out just as good as I hoped they would. Here’s a side by side comparison to see the full effect.

After seeing the positive results, my wife now wants me to do her car tomorrow. I guess it’s a good thing the kits comes with extra sandpaper.