Like many of you with plastic headlamps, my 99 Taurus' ones were hazed/fogged/scratched/pitted/etc....Not much light coming thru! Owned the car since new, never did anything to maintain them...tho I frequently cleaned them with a filling station window sponge/squeegee (yeah, THAT didnt help!)
So, I set out to polish 'em back to some semblance of decency.
Here's what I tried:
-Toothpaste (Colgate): I've used toothpaste on a terry towel for years as a safe plastic cleaner and polish. Started to take the haze off, but nowhere near aggressive enough.
-Turtle Wax Polishing Compound-green can: Slightly more aggressive but similar to toothpaste.
-Meguiars Step 1 Paint Cleaner: Some effect on haze, nada on scratches.
-Fine Brass wool: tried on small area, WAY too aggressive. Wish I'd had some 0000 steel wool to try out.
-Gel Gloss: Similar to toothpaste & Polishing Compund. Left a nice coating when wiped off.
-3M 39002 Perfect-it II Rubbing Compound Fine Cut. Did the best job of all, but still took a lot of elbow grease . Might have been nice to have this in a medium cut version.
I ended up using the 3M 39002 on a soft ~2" wheel on a drill at slow speed. I got all the haze off and mitigated the scratches & pitting. Polished with Gel Gloss. Looks ( & probably works) WAY better.
--Don Don Byrer KJ5KB Radar Tech & Smilin' Commercial Pilot Guy Glider & CFI wannabe kj5kb-at-hotmail.com
"I have slipped the surly bonds of earth; now if I can just land without bending the gear..." "Watch out for those doves..."