Headlight cleaners

I thought we had a thread on this, but it must have been on the old forum. Finally got around to trying my Meguiars Powerball, that I've had for almost a year. Tried it on my 01 Taurus, which had very yellowed lights. The lights look new from a distance, and up close they only thing you can tell is some pitting and the like from rocks, bugs, birds, and other flying objects that have hit them.

I will try and remember to report back over a little time to see, if they stay clear or revert back to yellow within a week. I'm hoping it improves the brightness of the headlights, because they weren't impressive before.

I found the best way to clean em is to wet sand with 1,000 grit and buff with buffer and compound. Repeat this several times as needed. Use a foam or other soft sanding block if you have one.

I'm sure that works well, but I'm lazy and using the cordless drill is much easier lol. The results may not be as good though.

I got an 8" buffing wheel and a couple of grades of buffing compound to to mine with. The cordless drill just didn't spin fast enough, so I got out the corded drill and it worked great. Did my wife's minivan's headlights, too. That was about a year and a half or so ago, I noticed my headlights were getting a little foggy again, so I got ready to redo them. In the meantime I'd gotten a 4 1/2" grinder that spins 11,000 rpm, so I got a buffing wheel for it and went at it. More is better, right? Wrong. The grinder spins so fast it melts the plastic really easily. I went back to the corded drill and cleaned up most of the mess, but there's still a couple of places with fibers from the grinder's buffing wheel still sticking out. Oh, well, one more learning experience in the past now.

I use a 5 inch pad and an air powered "D.A." in locked position but you are better off getting a small variable speed grinder/ buffer to fit that pad at Sears, Kmart or Walmart. They're fairly cheap and as long as they are making plastic headlights you will need it.

Well I won't get to follow up on how long it lasts with my Taurus, as the transmission was going out and I decided to trade it off. I have used it on Dad's Dodge truck since. Doubt it will be going anywhere soon since its still low mileage and great for pulling trailers.

The polishing definitely improved the headlight brightness on each vehicle.

My wife has mentioned her headlights are getting foggy again, so I'm gathering my stuff. They aren't near as bad as they were the first time I polished them, but they are foggy. There is a definite increase in the quality of light after polishing. The light goes where the lens points it, as designed, instead of being scattered all over.