Polishing headlights?

[itlnstallion818]

I have a b8.5, and even after I wash the car thoroughly, with the headlights on from a side angle they still look dirty and "pitted" (not hazy or anything though). I know there can't possibly be a million tiny micro chips from road debris. Is there a good product out there to polish them?

[Shimmy]

After only a year and you have some pitting? There are a few good headlight lense cleaners/polish kits on the market. 3m makes a good one. You can also use normal polishing compound then finishing polish.

I would highly recommend you protect the headlight lense using lamin-x or something similar. Not only will it protect from pitting, scratches, it will also protect from rocks or potentially cracking them.

[Project Quattro]

There probably are a ton of tiny pits from debris like you mention, it happens over time. I wouldn't use anything abrasive on such a new car; they can damage the coating of the headlights and make pitting and yellowing worse. I agree with the statement above, I think you should throw a Lamin-X over them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[itlnstallion818]

it has 41k miles on it, lot of driving :)

I'll check out some of those non-abrasive polishes

[treginginco]

Clean 'em up and get 'em covered up.

Living in Colorado is brutal on headlights and windshields. I have the headlights on my vehicles clear-bra'd ------- no pits, not discoloring.... if they get get damaged --- 20 bucks fixes it.

[Liquid Smoke]

i do a lot of highway driving and over 85k miles now, and i had the same thing, you could see the pitting shadows around the LED lights too sometimes, but yea i was going to clean it but was too scared of scrubbing away the protective coating, i just put smoked tint film on mine so the pitting is much less visible and from now on it'll be protected.

but i'd just use some normal plastic polish first and see, but you might need to use the kits if that doesnt help, just hand polish it so you dont scrub off too much. but if you put on laminx or a clear vinyl now it should make them less visible too and wont get any worse.

[Okan509]

@mops@nemesis

[endy1]

3M should have something to put on for UV protection but i heard that some degreasing will remove that film and you need to apply it after every wash.

Dont know any prices.

[Mina08]

i did mine the other week, but they where pretty bad, used 3000, 2500 and 2000 grit sand pads, then a buff with a hand drill pad and polish for plastics, came out pretty good.

[kt883]

I agree with projectblackout.

Just use macquiars PlastX and then throw on laminex. I did that on mine when I got it so I could keep them fresh.


If you sand or use any type of aggressive polish you will strip the coating and make it need to be polished every month.