Cloudy headlights

I had an MOT advisory this year of "product on headlights"....do they think I'm a boy racer in a fart can or what? ......I'm just going to use toothpaste and an old toothbrush ......product my arse......

They are easy to polish up with toothpaste, autosol, or colourcut, but once done they will decline more rapidly, because the UV coating has been removed. I would like to know what UV coating works.

Yacht varnish?

Clear self adhesive window film?

dennis@home used his keyboard to write :

They are polycarb I think, so what ever used needs to not attack that material - could be expensive if it does make a headlight lens craze.

Mine are sort of OK, but could do with a polish up. I bought a kit, which included sachets of some cream which was supposed to retard the hazing.

I would be tempted to try Foam Gun Cleaner, which is acetone.

I use this on my white upvc windows when spiders and other insects leave brown stain marks.

Seems to work a treat.

It happens that dennis@home formulated :

Thanks, but all those just report the immediate result. I am more interested in how well it lasts, the UV protection.

I can get my lens back to gleaming with what I have at the moment, I have done it before, but given a few months they are as bad again due to lack of UV protection.

Really bad advice to put acetone on polycarbonate. Google it.

I thought this was UV damage and could not be cleared without some kind of replacement? Certainly another famous French car seems to have this issue. Brian

It is UV damage. Its only on the surface and as far as I know its caused by overzealous polishing that removes the UV coating.

If it were a manufacturing fault they would probably cloud on the inside too as there is a lot of UV from halogen lamps and even more from HID lamps.

There are various UV varnishes that can be applied to increase the UV resistance once the misting has been polished off. I use Vallero matt varnish on models to do this as its an water based acrylic that works quite well.

the french can't make a good car......or the italians ...

Not no way. I spent absolutely ages trying things like that - both manually and using power tools. Made not more than the slightest impact. Had them done by a friendly local car fixer using a serious grinder. The frosting effect was far too deep to expect things like toothpaste or T-cut to work. The result was not perfect but good enough to get through MoT and see where I was driving.

Be careful from which shelf you pick up things.

Autosol and Alusol should not be confused with Anusol :-)

Interesting. So maybe some of the (US) posts that say you have to go through the abrasive papers first are correct. I will report back after trying a heavy cutting compound on felt at 10,000 rpm.

Lots of modern car headlights have this issue. Polycarbonate absorbs UV, which crazes the out surfaces. So surface removal works, but when manufactured, they had some sort of UV proofing coating. That coating eventually wears away, leaving the polycarbonate with little protection. Fine abrasive polishing brings the clarity, but with none of the original protection, they very quickly degrade again.

Ideally, what is needed is a DIY clear spray, which is proof against UV to protect the polycarbonate lens once it has been restored.

bring back glass headlights ...

Sorry, cannot comment at all on the actual process - as I didn't do it myself. But be careful. There are loads of kits available - again, I don't know anything about them.

Thinking back, we had already complained to the main dealer and they did a very half-hearted job. The headlamp had never been mistreated - seemed just to happen from the effect of sunlight over the years.

The local place I went to really knew about the issue and did a far better job.

Don't use power tools, just use a wiping motion by hand.

NT