Turtle Wax Headlight Restorer - It Works!

[z4pilot]

The headlights on my 10 year old Zed had started to look a little bit cloudy, so splashed out on this kit, via Amazon, after reading some fairly decent reviews...



The instructions were pretty straightforward and as I had a bit of free time yesterday, I set about seeing if I could improve them a little from this;





Well, after a couple of hours this was the result...






The only downside is that the kit comes with finishing wipes to restore the anti UV coating, which are one use only, so although I have loads of the sanding lubricant and clarifying restorer left, unless I can get hold of UV stabiliser somewhere, the remaining kit is useless. Pretty pleased overall though - would definitely recommend and the process could be speeded up with power tools.

 

[Wyldie85]

Great write up and good to see the progress shots!

Completely bought them back to life! Looks great!

 

[GP06Roadster]

They look great what was the process?

 

[Bad_Pritt]

that looks really good!!

 

[z4pilot]

They look great what was the process?

Basically the pads supplied are double sided wet and dry in 4 grades, which you use in sequence (most abrasive to least abrasive). The lubricating spray is used to keep the pads free of debris and minimise creating deep scratches. Once you have removed the discolouration, you use the clarifying renovator to polish the lens to a completely scratch free finish. Once that's done you use the wipes provided to put on a base coat and top coat, restoring the UV protection the light originally had. Quite straightforward, if a little time consuming. You could get the same effect from using standard wet and dry and a polish or cutting compound such as Autosol - the only thing you wouldn't be able to do is add the UV protection, so I'm not sure how long it would last before clouding again.

 

[Bad_Pritt]

You could get the same effect from using standard wet and dry and a polish or cutting compound such as Autosol - the only thing you wouldn't be able to do is add the UV protection, so I'm not sure how long it would last before clouding again.

That's actually a good question. I'm sure some forummers have done it that way, but not sure what the status is now...

 

[sk93]

someone commented on my post of using a very similar product to state they had used toothpaste a while back, and it was still in "like new" condition... no UV coat..

 

[z4pilot]

To be honest, if you're in the habit of regularly cleaning your car (and who isn't?), once you've rubbed them down and polished them the first time, it probably wouldn't be too much of a hardship to give your lights a quick polish every couple of months to keep the discolouration away. It was worth the £15 or so I paid to get rid of 10 years worth of wear and tear - it'll be interesting to see how the coating stands up to daily use. I didn't think mine looked too bad considering the age of the car, but when I was out in Spain recently, there were cars less than half it's age with completely opaque lights. I'm just thankful my red car didn't use Vauxhall paint - it'd be patchy pink by now!

 

[SideExit]

As mentioned above toothpaste is abrasive enough to do the job. Tried it in the past and it worked though Autosol or P3 rubbing compound works better.

Personally I would mask around the lights also in case of over enthusiastic rubbing accidentally attacks the paintwork.

Nice results though.

 

[Daveyc2k2]

How do you know how long you need to spend on the 1st pad? I started on mine at the weekend but had no idea when it was done or not. Moved on and after I had used all the pads realised it had made no difference whatsoever.

 

[domsz4]

looks good i wouldnt worry about the uv wipes, slap on a bit of factor 50 if you are, i suspect it will last as long.

swmbo has these fancy kartel ghost chairs which could do with a buff up and was thinking of using this .... might try a bit of aquafresh on them tonight

 

[z4pilot]

How do you know how long you need to spend on the 1st pad? I started on mine at the weekend but had no idea when it was done or not. Moved on and after I had used all the pads realised it had made no difference whatsoever.

Mine was the same - I could still see the shadow of the fading/discolouration on mine after I'd given them a good rubbing, but moved onto using the clarifying liquid anyway - I reckoned I could always go back to the pads if needed. Once I'd used the clarifying liquid though, the lenses came up perfectly clear, so a second attack with the pads wasn't needed.

 

[Bad_Pritt]

I tried this kit today and yesterday. I actually used a dremel to do a part of the polishing. But it does work really well. As I'm restoring the headlights entirely, I'm now waiting for the headlights to dry (replaced the angels so had to re-open the lights). The advantage was that I could polish the inside of the lenses as well, which was necessary because they were fogging up from the inside due to the lights being sealed badly during the last angel eyes install. The lenses actually look really good in comparison to what they looked like before, amazing result! I'm putting on the UV-protection tomorrow...

 

[inkey$]

I bought this kit off Amazon last week so good to hear it's a winner.

 

[Huz-z]

Why are the "after" pictures missing?