I'm sure everyone who has a 96-98 Civic has experienced the yellowing of the headlight lenses and wondered how to fix it. Well, I thought I would have to take the headlights apart and clean the inside, but that wasn't the case. Here is how I cleaned mine...step by step.....

Here is a list of the supplies I used...Your choice of beer may vary.


Here is what I had to work with....they were pretty cloudy looking....


The first step is to take some very fine grit wet sanding paper... I think mine was around 1500 grit...and wetsand the headlight until you get most of the yellow off and the headlight has a smooth feel. This will take some elbow grease. Oh and don't mind my warty *** hand.


After you wetsand for a few minutes, wipe away the water and residue and you will have something that looks like this. Don't worry about the cloudiness, we will take care of that in a minute.



Next I took some Turtle Wax Polishing Compound and a soft cotton towel and buffed the headlight. It will take a bit of rubbing to get most of the cloudiness off, but it's worth the effort. After you get most of the cloudiness out of the light, use some wax (I used Meguiar's) and give the headlight a good waxing and then buff it off. This is what you should have after everything is said and done. It's like night and day from what I had to start with.




Well, after about an hour of work, the headlights look 100% better. I hope this will help someone 'de-cloud' their headlights. Good luck!


Modified by 96hb at 8:20 PM 3/27/2004

 

damn...good write up..all my homies headlights are like that. imma charge there *** to clean it up for dem lol

 

Looks really good man, I may try it on my del sol... Does your civic have plastic or glass lens???

 

I always knew it would come out nice if someone took the time to do it
good job

 

The 96-98 headlight lenses are plastic. Thanks for the compliments!

 

wow.. thanx for the write up

 

nice write up, i got lazy and bought new ones

 

i did the exact same thing to mine when i had my 96 coupe, nice write-up.

 

im not really worried about the polishing compound, but will the wax affect lighting in any way?

oh and btw, why didnt you just use meguiars plastic polishing compound?

 

nice write up!

 

OT: Could this happen to work on 95 Jeep Grand Cherokee?

 

you could do all this... or you could just dab some acetone on a terry cloth and wipe it away....

 

do u really have warts?

 

I think this could work on any plastic headlight. I don't think acetone would work on mine because they were really bad. It took quite a bit of rubbing with the sandpaper to get the stuff off. The reason I didn't use the Meguiar's plastic stuff was because I had all this stuff laying around the house anyway and decided to try it first, and it worked well. The wax just brings out a nice shine on the plastic housing and removes the rest of the cloudiness. And yes, that is a wart. I need to get that removed.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mr poo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">im not really worried about the polishing compound, but will the wax affect lighting in any way?
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Well, I've had a chance to drive around a little bit tonight, and the headlights are noticeably brighter. I don't see any adverse affects from using wax on them. The whole thing gets a from me.

 

lights look nice
now go get a front lip

 

Good stuff. I just finished doing this on my headlights as well.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 777sC &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">lights look nice
now go get a front lip </TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks. I need some suspension and rims/tires first. Then maybe a lip.

 

i just finished mine, they look real good, but i was wondering. was your headlight just cloudy or was the clear coat comming off. mine was so i had to wet sand the hell out of it. i'm just wondering if i should clear coat them now.

 

nice write up

 

What was the beer for?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BADEG6 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What was the beer for? </TD></TR></TABLE>

Drinking when you get tired of rubbing the headlights out!

 

i always thought that was on the inside

 

nice write up. I am going to tell my friend HXVTEC about this, so he stops bitching

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by FWejCOUPE &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i just finished mine, they look real good, but i was wondering. was your headlight just cloudy or was the clear coat comming off. mine was so i had to wet sand the hell out of it. i'm just wondering if i should clear coat them now.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Not sure, but I had to sand the hell outta mine too. Only time will tell how well it holds up. But they look much better now.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Ricey McRicerton &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Drinking when you get tired of rubbing the headlights out!</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah and it was hot outside, too!