Headlight Cleaning

[Raistlin]

you could use jewellers rouge

[FROSTYBALLS]

you could use jewellers rouge

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/JEWELLERS-ROUGE-POWDER-50g-GLASS-SCRATCH-FREE-POSTAGE-/370360121863

[sich1]

jewellers rouge will be a bit on the fine side if they are anything but near perfect.

its a really fine abrasive, will do the job but your will be bored before you finish!!

we use it in the glass shop at work with electric polishers to take out hair line scratches in domestic glass

[firemac]

I've used the toothpaste solution with good results. You apply it onto the lens with a J-cloth or a microfibre and then rinse off & polish with a fresh cloth. Take your time: pretty much just how you'd (properly) brush & rinse your toothypegs. One standard size tube is more than adequate for two 4.2 lenses. Any brand will do but if you want a nice, fresh minty smell wafting back as you drive along, McCleans is good.

I've also used Maguires lens restorer kit and that worked really well, too. But it's a bit pricey; probably better results than the toothpaste for lenses that are severely yellowed.

[Loobs]

Interesting, I used the Meguiars kit and thought I could get just as good a finish with something like Brasso (that's what I used to use on my ipod for scratches. I've got them a lot better but it looks as if the chrome inside the glass has yellowed too. Might well give the toothpaste a go though.

There is certainly more definition and brightness at night now.

I was thinking of changing to the bright headlight bulbs but I'm concerned that chucking in blue white bulbs will give some weirdness due to the yellowing. Any thoughts?

[Uncle Bob]

There is a wide spectrum of discoloured headlamps from different manufactures, French and German cars seem to suffer badly, on the other hand the Rav4 2001-2005, seems to suffer yellowing just along the top edge, my car was just the same, 10 years old and starting to go yellow.

This was the product that done it for me, it's more of a motor trade item, used in bodyshops, it's very gritty, but the more you rub it in, it gets finer just don't let it dry out on the cloth.

.

I done my headlamps with it a few months back, and can just see the yellow returning, it is an ongoing problem, short of buying new headlamps as £200 ago ( genuine ) £80 pattern, so at that expense, I'm happy to buff them up every few months :)

[njbrice]

My 2010 RAV4 has yellowing on the headlights, I'm surprised since sunshine is a rare occurrence.

 

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[IanML]

On 6/2/2014 at 10:07 PM, Loobs said:

I was thinking of changing to the bright headlight bulbs but I'm concerned that chucking in blue white bulbs will give some weirdness due to the yellowing. Any thoughts?

The yellowing will stop some of the blue /green end light but not affect the red/yellow light as much.  As you are thinking of choosing the blue spectrum bulbs, the yellowing should reduce the benefit.  Putting it another way, blueish bulbs will loose more light through yellowed plastic than would yellowish bulbs,

[ffej]

I use G3 paste 500grm eBay about a tener  

[fastbob72]

On 02/06/2014 at 11:19 PM, Uncle Bob said:

There is a wide spectrum of discoloured headlamps from different manufactures, French and German cars seem to suffer badly, on the other hand the Rav4 2001-2005, seems to suffer yellowing just along the top edge, my car was just the same, 10 years old and starting to go yellow.

This was the product that done it for me, it's more of a motor trade item, used in bodyshops, it's very gritty, but the more you rub it in, it gets finer just don't let it dry out on the cloth.

.

I done my headlamps with it a few months back, and can just see the yellow returning, it is an ongoing problem, short of buying new headlamps as £200 ago ( genuine ) £80 pattern, so at that expense, I'm happy to buff them up every few months :)

The 'trade' version of G3 is a very good product we used it when I worked as a valeter in a Ford dealership to remove the dried out, scuffed, scratched, faded, damaged or discoloured top layer of paint to get back to the fresher paintwork.It is very gritty, pretty thick too so you're right it does dry out very quickly on the cloth very much like TCut does (in fact, it's as effective as TCut but maybe not quite as easy to burn through the paintwork with as TCut can be).

As with TCut though, if it does dry out and becomes hard to polish or buff off by hand i.e the cloth drags and catches on the surface of the panel when you try to polish it off then the simplest and easiest thing to do is put a layer of fresh generic polish on top of the G3 or TCut and you'll find it'll cone off as easy as just polish alone. 

 

Ideally that version of G3 is best used with a proper machine buff with a compounding head,working it in manually is of value but nowhere near as effective as when used with a machine buff. 

 

Funny enough though I have used it myself, by hand to clean up the badly yellow headlights on, yes a bloody Renault Clio and it worked beautifully but as has been said the yellowing does return in time 

You can buy Fracela G3 from Halfords or online no doubt but it's marketed for the owner/amatuer enthusiast rather than trade unsurprisingly it isn't as effective as the original product. I bought some a month or so ago to try it out but it's completely different, a lot thinner with no grittiness at all  although it does have some cut to it.

I get my original G3 and G10 from eBay and it's not expensive at all.In fact for cutting back through the top layers of paint back to decent colour and prepping the surface it is hard to beat the traditional TCut, G3, G10 combo 😆😆

As for the ongoing yellowing I have no. idea how you can remove it permanently, if that's even possible.The Clio headlights appear to be made out of pretty cheap low quality plastic and it seems like fading and yellowing is an inherent property of the material itself.

Having no experience of the quality or knowledge of what the Rav4's headlights are made from it's hard to say if you could eradicate the problem altogether but my T22 Avensis has what appears to be headlight lenses made of glass and I've never had any issues with them at all :)