99 Taurus Headlight "De-Hazing" Results

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..."

Reply to
Don Byrer
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The best thing I've found is 3M 39002 with an electric buffer. Anything done by hand is going to take a long time and LOTS of elbow grease. (As you have found) The buffing takes off the original UV coating (Like that's a big loss). There needs to be a protective coating added or the fogging will reappear quickly. Gel Gloss is only a polish. The lenses are now shiny and new looking, but totally unprotected. Give them a bunch (6-10) coats of a Urethane Enamel clear(rattle can if you are good), then keep them cleaned and waxed like you would do the rest of your car.

Reply to
Tom Adkins

With the coating polished off the lights I would use Plexus to clean/protect all my clear plastic lenses. Use it regularly on my m/c windshield to clean it, 19k miles and still looking great. I get it at bike dealers, aerosol can spray on, wipe off with microfibre towels. It's made for plastic and it's all I use on my overpriced HD windshield now.

Reply to
Repairman

Available at an M/C shop you say? I need to look into that product. Thanks for the tip.

Reply to
Tom Adkins

Thanks to both of ya for the tips...I knew the Gel Gloss was a VERY temporary measure...but it was free :)

Will look for Plexus around here.

The recoating with poly idea sounds interesting but I'd want to pull them out first. I was being lazy and doing 'em on-car.

Hey, if I can get another few years' before replacing 'em I'll be quite happy.

--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..."

Reply to
Don Byrer

bending the gear..."

do a wev seach for headlight cleaner and you will find all kind of productts that claim to restore headlight covers. One is Briteeyes? Headlight Restorer which sells for around $20.

Reply to
Perry

Anyone know where I can buy Plexus in the Toronto, Canada area?

thanks.

Reply to
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Try Canadian Tire, I bought some there a couple of years ago.

Reply to
Father Guido

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