2nd Generation Headlight fogging

I saw a 2nd generation Intrepid (unknown year) the other day and the headlights looked pretty foggy, as in the plastic was no longer clear. Is this a common problem? Mine look crystal clear although I often keep my car in a garage during the day (out of the sun) and the lights were replaced under warranty in 2002 because one of them had condensation issues. Perhaps keeping the sun away helps.

Anything that can be done to keep the headlights like new? I clean them with mild car wash soap when the car is washed.

Reply to
Greg Houston
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Here you go, Greg:

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The fogging is a surface phenomenon.

If they need a little polishing before you install the XPels, you can use plastic polish (Meguiar's makes one called Plastix?; also, I find Zymöl? does well) - if needing more serious polishing, you can use successively finer grades of sandpaper ending with 2000 grit, followed by polish. If yours are in good shape, best to leave them alone (other than install XPels now to prevent future deterioration) because when you sand and polish, you are removing a thin layer of UV protective material

- but if it's already cloudy, no harm in sanding it off. You would need to polish periodically after that as they will cloud up again more quickly (every few weeks).

Some people also use clear coat on the headlights after polishing them out if they don't plan on using the XPels. That essentialy restores them to new appearance and resistance to clouding.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

Thanks for the info! The X-Pel / 3M product looks interesting. Do you have any experience with it? My lights are fine at the moment although the hood has lots of scratches and paint chips from flying debris...

Reply to
Greg Houston

I am embarrassed to say that I have had a pair sitting on my shelf for quite a while now. Just like medicine that is not taken, they aren't doing me much good sitting on the shelf. In my defense, I am planning some mod's to the headlight assemblies, and they are not easy to get in and out, so that mod is still on my to-do list and I'm waiting to get that done before I put them on. In the meantime, I am periodically polishing them following the sanding on two of the headlights and just polishing without sanding on the other two (I have two Concordes). I only hope that when it finally happens that the adhesive will be OK (will release from the backing paper, and will hold well when applied to the headlights).

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

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