thatdude305

anyone know how to clean the headlights so they are not cloudy

uofipilot

Buy new ones. I tried all kinds of stuff on my 97 cobra's headlights and they still looked awful. Its yellow all the way through and on the inside i guess.

I'll post a picture of my car with the smoked lights from blue oval industries later. They look so much better than stock.

Matt

tylers66mustang

well there are two ways, but they always cant turn out like they are BRAND NEW, but they'll look a lot better.

1. You can take toothpaste rub a lot thuroughly throughout the lense, and wipe the tooth paste on the headlight with applied pressure.

2. Sand the headlight with fine graind paper, then paint over the lense with a clear coat around 3-5 coats.

xcodegt

if youre desperate, try some 3000 grit sandpaper. spray some water on the headlight and go to town.

Lavitz

NOTE: This has been taken from lex at 3.8mustang.com. This is not my write up but I found it very useful. It works wonders.

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When I purchased my 99 Mustang, the first thing I noticed was the awful hazed/fogged over headlights. I priced new headlights up and figured I could put money into more important things on the car. So after doing some research I decided to restore the headlights myself and live to tell how I did it
I will point out that this was my first time and some steps may not have been neccessary but they worked for me. Heres how I restored my headlights. This was done on my 1999 Silver Mustang with 6 years of sun/enviromental damage.

Heres the materials I used.



- 600 Grit Sandpaper WetorDry
- 1500 Grit Sandpaper WetorDry
- 2000 Grit Sandpaper WetorDry
- Turtle wax polishing compound "and scratch remover"
- Meguiar's Plastx Clear Plastic Cleaner & Polish
- 2 Polishing/Buffer Pads with drill (or electric polisher if you have one)
- Clean rags
- Masking Tape
- Water (bottled)

Besides those items, you just need patience and time as it is a 2 hr job.
This is a 6 step process and I did "both" headlights during every step.
It can be messy because it is a "wet' sandpaper job. I got all my items from Canadian Tire so you may have to find a local shop that sells similiar items.

Step 1. "Tape Up"



Get any kind of masking tape, and tape all around the headlights with the hood up so you won't accidentally scratch the paint finish. You can go all the way and cover the bumper but I didn't bother.

Step 2. "Wet sand with 600 grit sandpaper"

Wet the sand paper (don't spare the water) and pure some water over the headlight and start sanding with a bit of force. Why i choose WET sanding is because its less abrasive and you can see results when the headlights are wet. I used side to side strokes instead of circles. Use lots of water, make sure the sandpaper is always wet. I spent probally 10 minutes per headlight. You will noticed that the headlights might of look worse then you started, but thats OK. because we want an EVEN sand, you will get a chalky paste as you sand. Once you get both headlights evenly sanded , proceed to step 3.

Heres a pic of step 2 sanding. (pretty cloudy looking)



Step 3. 'Wet sand at 1500 grit"

First thing is to wet the headlights and wipe of any "chalky paste" from the the first sanding. to be honest, I may of spent 10 minutes on each headlight during this step. Thats because the real time to be spent is the 2000 grit. I used 1500 to speed the process up. So wet the sandpaper and headlight and once again, do side to side strokes . Keep the sandpaper wet at all times. I used 2 pieces of sandpaper per headlight. Sand until you can start to see the inside of the headlight better and less cloudy. After sanding to this point. Once it drys it will turn to a milky color. Don't worry its normal at this point.

Step 4. "Wet sand at 2000 grit"

Once again, wet down the headlight , use a NEW clean rag and wipe the headlights clean. This is a very crucial and time consuming step. Approx 20 minutes per side. You may want to take a break first. You pretty much do the same side to side strokes with LOTS of water as you did in the last 2 steps. The difference here is, that you continue to sand until the headlights become almost new looking or at least close to your desired look (with water applied, it will still be cloudy dry). You know when you done when the lights look pretty clear when theres water on them. Look at the pic below to see when I finished step 4.



Step 5. "Rubbing Compound and Polish"

This is where the real magic happens. This is where your discouragement fades away like mine did. Even after the 2000 grit sanding drys theres still a cloudly look. Thats because theres millions of fine scratches that even the finest sandpaper can't get rid of. Thats where the "Turtlewax" polishing compound "and scratch remover" come in. This white paste will literlly remove the final scratches. I used a regular drill and buffering pad. If you have an actual polisher then use that. After wiping the headlights clean again , I put a bit of the paste on a rag and apply it in circular motions on the headlight until its completely covered with a thin layer of the paste. I then start buffering the headlight until you start seeing the amazing clearity come through. It will amaze you. You can spend as much time on this as you want. I spent 10 minutes on each headlight. Some things to take note is if you stay in one spot too long it can scratch from the paste itself (just takes longer to buffer it out) and keep cleaning of the buffering pad to get rid of little chunks of paste buildup. Once you have done this , you should see something like this



Step 6. "Final Polish"

This is the final step before tape removal and wipe down. You may not find it neccessary but I wanted to get a final "polish" done with PlastX by Meguiar. I heard wonders so i wanted to finish off with this. I changed the buffering pad (you probally could of cleaned the other but I had 2 anyways) . I followed the same steps as Step 5 (about 10 minutes each) and voila. Its finished. You then remove the tape and wipe down the bumper if you haven't covered it up. My end result was this



I did find my drivers side worse then the passengers. I have learned a few new things and I may sometime this summer spend another hour and do Steps 5 and 6 again to get even the tiniest scratches out. I will of course have a polisher.

If you were wondering just how bad my headlights were , Heres a final BEFORE/AFTER shot

BEFORE


AFTER

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greatjedi

I just did this exact process to my lights last night. It only took me about 2 hours, and now they look almost new. I encourage everyone to give sanding the lights a shot before dropping a couple hundred bucks on new headlights.

BleedinBlue

I had tried that...well, minus the buffer..to no avail. I ended up finding a like-new used set of headlights from an 03 GT on Ebay for $60 shipped.

I'd say try the elbow grease route, but don't get your hopes up. If it is very bad, the lights will need to be replaced.

MineralGrey

I used a product they sell at any autoparts store, theyonly cost $8.00 and they are these discs w/ a special chemical on them and you attach them to your drill, worked and only took 15 min.