I decided to clean up the headlights on my 05 XJ8L. They were hazy, and looked pretty bad at night time. Here is the progress so far:

all taped up:


After 600 Grit:


After 2000 Grit:


After clear coats:




I will be doing additional wet sanding and waxing tomorrow, and will post up final results. Hoping they look a LOT better than before!

 

What product are you using to coat them with? I'm ready to sand and polish, but want to seal them also.

 

I used Rustoleum 2x Ultra Cover clear gloss. It works on plastic and protects against UV rays. I let it sit overnight to dry completely, and will be doing the final wet sanding and waxing today. Can't wait to see how they clean up!

 

OK, I did some wet sanding, and followed it up with cleaning and waxing. They are not perfect, but look a LOT better than they did a few days ago. I think I am going to leave them as is until next season, and try to sand them a little more aggressively. There is still a slight haze here and there that I did not get this time around.

As I said though, MUCH better than before!

hood not properly closed in this pic... in case anyone notices :-)


took it for a wash:

 

Meguiars has a new cleaning/sealing kit called Perfect Clarity. After cleaning, you spray on a few coats of the sealer and its sealed and protected for up to a year. I did it on mine, looks great.

 

Repel OFF actually works to perfection believe it or not! (Yes, the Mosquito/bug repellent)

 

I was hoping that this would be a little more permanent. I heard that bug spray, toothpaste, and some of the store kits have to be applied every few months.

I previously tried 2 different store bought cleaners on them, but neither cleared them up as advertised. I gave the one headlight cleaner to a buddy of mine, and it cleaned up his truck's headlights no problem. Not sure why it worked for him, but didn't work at all for me(different kind of plastic maybe).

At any rate, I am happy with the results of sanding and clear coating. I would really like to upgrade to the OEM Xenon headlights, but I need to do some more research before I start collecting parts for that swap.

 

A month or so ago I looked into swapping my halogens for oem xenon but found out it was too expensive and probably wouldn't work. So I retrofitted aftermarket projectors with a 6000k hid kit inside of the stock assemblies. Works perfectly and looks completely stock. Cost less than $100 and a weekend of work.

 

Are your lights significantly brighter?

 

Not much brighter, but more focused on where I want the light to be.