Sand paper and ugly brown paste can do.

When I got my car, the headlights were clouded over.

My dad told me the film was on the inside. It looked like this



So I bought some 600, 1500, and 2000 grit wetsand sandpaper. I also bought a tub of Turtle wax rubbing compound (not polishing). The whole thing cost me $12, and 5 hours.

After:

 

5 hours, Hope mine don't take that long... looks good

 

well.....
It started raining, and I didn't want to be any more wet than I already was, so I went in. Went back out, then it was dinner time.

 

looks good. nothing better than a cheap way to fix things right.

 

another cheap fix that you can do is your wipers need painted. Shouldn't take you 5 hours either

 

you know if you got the polishing compound and a high speed buffer you wouldn't have needed the sand paper and saved 4 hours?

 

so there's a plastic on the headlights? I have a 97 ex and the tops of the headlights are discolored.

I can use the same process?

 

at least you got rid of the plate tan line.

 

the whole headlight is plastic. if you use sand paper like the op, you get rid of the heavy discolored parts but make the whole headlight have a slight cloudyness to it because of the sand paper. and it takes even longer to try to buff them out.

if you use a high speed buffer and a polishing compound, no sand paper, you get rid of of the oxidation and have it crystal clear, close to new. only reason i can say this works better is because i've tried both. and this method works best.

if i still had a headlight available to me to do a "how to" i would. to help everyone out. but i think i remember seeing a thread where someone did it with a white EP3?

but to the op for posting this and doing a good job.

 

To anyone wanting to do this, there is actually a write-up for it right here:
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1523524

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Xtream_V &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">if you use a high speed buffer and a polishing compound, no sand paper, you get rid of of the oxidation and have it crystal clear, close to new. only reason i can say this works better is because i've tried both. and this method works best.</TD></TR></TABLE>

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Xtream_V &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you know if you got the polishing compound and a high speed buffer you wouldn't have needed the sand paper and saved 4 hours?</TD></TR></TABLE>

x2

heres mine after the high speed buffer:

 

I don't have a high speed buffer. I was done in 5 hours, I didn't work that long.

Also, Big tip:

DON'T

FORGET

THE

BLUE

TAPE

(it works better when wet btw)

if you forget it, kiss your car paint goodbye. that's is unless you take the headlights out, which means dropping the bumper, and I didn't want to do that in the florida summer sun.

 

do you have a drill? if so you could do this.



about $25 but you can use it for more than just your headlights.

 

also check into canopy sandpaper, you can get it from 3M and it blows most sandpaper away. they measure their polishing ability in mircons. i have a set of 30, 15, 9 and 3 mircon pads and they will shine anything. here is a long and effective procedure. http://www.canopyfx.com/tips.htm