<p>On older cars, the outer plastic surfaces of the headlights become oxidized and cloudy.</p>
<p>There are products out there to remove this oxidation and make the headlights clear (and brighter) again.</p>
<p>Has anyone out there tried any of these products? Do they work?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for any advice.</p>
<p>DH likes them and has used them on one of our older cars. He plans to use it on DD’s car when he sees her again. They don’t become perfect, but better.</p>
<p>I don’t know if this is true or not but somebody told me that barkeepers friend will do it for you.</p>
<p>Our local Toyota dealer parts salesman told me that cleaning products (they offer a very expensive cleaning service through their dept.) would help temporarily, but not as much as new headlights (again, very expensive through the dealership.) I found some very inexpensive (I think around $50/pair) new headlights on eBAY, which the Toyota service guy told me are sometimes the same as the parts they use (around $400/pair!), which my son installed in his car. He’s very happy with them.</p>
<p>I’ve used these products on our old Ford truck. Its been two years and they still look pretty clear.</p>
<p>No luck with using them on my D’s Mustang. I just ordered new covers but it turns out I ordered the wrong thing!</p>
<p>Funny you should ask. H just used one of these polishing kits (Turtle Wax brand, I think he said) on his eight-year-old car. After he did one, the difference between the two headlights was remarkable. It did, however, take him about an hour and a half to do both of them, working carefully. We do live in an area where there is lots of sand put down during snowy weather and a lot of wind, so I would guess that his headlights took more of a beating than they might if we lived in San Diego.</p>
<p>I used one of them on the headlight cover of my 13 y/o Durango that sits out in the sun constantly. The headlight cover was quite opaque and was severely limiting the light output. After I used the polishing kit it brought it back to like new condition. It worked extremely well. </p>
<p>The one I used is from 3M and has the part that attaches to a drill. I highly recommend it if you have this problem with your headlight cover - it works really well and at $10 or so it’s way less expensive than replacing the covers.
[Amazon.com:</a> 3M Headlight Lens Restoration System: Automotive](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/3M-Headlight-Lens-Restoration-System/dp/B001AIZ5HY]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/3M-Headlight-Lens-Restoration-System/dp/B001AIZ5HY)</p>
<p>This question made me chuckle. When my D started to drive, she inherited Granny’s older car. S was three years behind her, and D had been pretty hard on the car which was about 12 years old by the time S got it. He kept complaining that he could not see when he turned the lights on. I bought one of the polishing kits and I could see a little improvement, but S still complained. Not sure how I discovered it, but he was only turning on the parking lights and not the headlights. No wonder he couldn’t see! He said he thought the next “click” of the knob were his brights.</p>
<p>Slightly off topic, but why in the world is that 3M product not for sale on Catalina Island?</p>
<p>I have not tried it, but I just read in a newspaper “helpful hints” column that Mr. Clean Magic Erasers will clear old headlights.</p>
<p>Funny this thread should pop up! A car place wanted $150 to clean the headlights. I passed. Then we saw an ad for something called “lite brite” or somethinglike that. I infact asked my DS do get me some headlight cleaner for my birthday (he got me a gift certificate for a massage instead - what a kid!). Anyway, I grabbed some car cleaning/polishing product off our garage shelf a few weeks ago (something called Meguiar’s) and buffed the headlights, and it worked remarkably well! Just now, after reading the above, I topped them off with a Mr Cleans magic eraser. They look pretty good. Will check back in a little while. Oh, and I booked the birthday massage too :)</p>
<p>
Probably because there are almost no cars on Catalina island - little in the way of demand.</p>
<p>OK, but why would Amazon care? Is there something that makes this product illegal on Catalina?</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Customer Discussions: This item is not for sale in Catalina Island???](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/This-item-sale-Catalina-Island/forum/Fx16DL3DOS1TIGE/TxCGP4DI4JD60R/1?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B001NYYLLG]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/This-item-sale-Catalina-Island/forum/Fx16DL3DOS1TIGE/TxCGP4DI4JD60R/1?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B001NYYLLG)
[Not</a> for sale on Catalina Island - Club Polk](<a href=“http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=109565]Not”>http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=109565)</p>
<p>dadx3:</p>
<p>I didn’t you were referring to shipping it there. I don’t know why other than maybe it’s related to the chemicals in the product (the polishing compounds) that they don’t want to have on the island - i.e. if they dispose of trash somewhere on the island they might be very controlling from an environmental perspective. That might be why the product in jym626’s link can’t ship there either.</p>
<p>Although this probably isn’t the reason for not allowing it there, for this product though, there probably would be almost no demand for it there since there are hardly any cars on the island. People need to have a permit of some kind to have a car there and one can’t rent a car there. There are also hardly any roads the public can drive on. When we visited there we rented a golf cart to get around in which is what most tourists would do if they want to get around but most don’t even do that - they just walk around the small town.</p>
<p>Yes, I’ve been to Catalina and know how small it is. I had just never seen anything for sale on Amazon or elsewhere that says “Not available for sale on Catalina Island” I wonder if there are a whole long list of products not available for sale there, or what?</p>
<p>Totally off topic, of course.</p>
<p>Maybe this is why since Amazon uses UPS a lot -
[UPS:</a> New Requirements](<a href=“http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resources/ship/hazardous/variations.html]UPS:”>http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resources/ship/hazardous/variations.html)</p>
<p>magic erasers did not work. I just try it!</p>
<p>Check out Consumer Reports about 15-20 months ago; they compared the different headlight cleaning products. I used the one that they said was far superior to the others in term of longevity and it worked great! Unfortunately, I can’t recall which brand… but check out the old consumer reports at your local library and you should pull up the reviews!</p>