Cloudy – Faded – Misty – Milky headlights are cropping up on certain cars as the len’s start to fade due to damage from road (stone chips) and UV damage from the sun making light lens opaque causing a loss of light output
If the lens get to murky, the Mot could for-well fail due to a light pattern not been projected or lack of actual light output
Its a Slow process that gradually gets worse, untill you start wondering did you even put your light on?
Well thats slowly happened to me
Back in 2013, i took a picture which you can see the light hitting the light defects causing it to alter the light patter
As the picture shows – the lens has only gotten worse
Time to tackle the issue
There are kits available to help correct this issue, Like 3M and turtle wax
However if you have the correct items, you can replicate these kits
So i started off masking the area off to prevent damage to the paintwork
So the process of Sanding begins with some 2000grit wet and dry paper, rubbing the surface evenly and smoothly around to remove the defect from the surface
Keeping plenty of fluid on the lens and even pressure produces a slurry and white even haze over the light unit
Next step is to refine, swapping to 3000grit wet and dry, repeat the step above with plenty of fluid to produce a less milky haze
Then the next step is to polish, using a Halfords Medium grade polishing pad intended for a polishing machine, i applied liberal amount of a abbrasive polish and worked it in by hand in a circular fashion, ensuring to cover the light cluster evenly to remove the light haze present
Again i changed polish compound to a final finish which was less abrasive, to give a better finish
Keep working the polish evenly over the light lens
Once the polish has fully broken down, simply buff the light clear
Resulting in a much clearer light lens
Just to compare the 2
The Passenger side received the same treatment resulting in a much younger looking front end once again
Final Step was to give each light cluster several coats of sealant, to help prevent the UV light from causing the milky lights to returns so quickly. Reapplications will also be required in the future
This process can be carried out with any vehicle, If the lights are much worse, you could step down grades to say 1000grit or less to remove the heavier defects before refining with 2000grit
bbautorepairs 