FEOA Forums banner

How-To: Cleaning Oxidized Headlights.

50K views 95 replies 64 participants last post by  dchawk81 
#1 ·
Written By Skuce

Escorts have a bad History when it comes to headlights. You know how old headlights are barely giving off any usable light because they were all yellow and oxidized (just plain crappy!)

Well all you have to do to fix that (and make them equal to a brand new set!!!!) Without having to pay the $100 PER LENS from the Ford Dealership

Equipment:

Palmsander (not the round orbitals....but the rectangular ones)
40 or 80 sanding drum (medium small)
220 grit wet/dry silicon carbide sandpaper
320 " " " "
600 " " " "
1500 " " " " "
"Mibro" First Stage hevey cleaning compound
"Mibro" Second Stage medium cleaningcompound
"Mibro" Final Polish compound
Dish detergent (non abrasive)
Water
Buffing disk or wheel
Drill (for the buffing disk)

Steps:

1) Take off headlight assemblies from Escort (disconnect wire harness)

(Do "one" of the following...2a or 2b)

2a) Don't touch the Headlight alignment nubs and proceed to step 3

2b) Sand off the Headlight alignment nubs (if you want to have a cleaner look and can align your headlights on a wall) that come out of your lenses with the sanding drum....be carfull not to scratch the lens surface or you'll just be making more work in the next step

3) Get The palm sander and wet sand (with a bit of detergent in the water) with 220 grit to sand the entire surface smooth....including the remainder of the ford logo and the nubs (option 2b) or around the nubs (option 2a) and any scratches

4) continue to wet sand the entire surface with each progressive grit really well...320, 600, 1500.

6) Dry off the whole lens assembly

7) then crack out the buffing disk on the drill (or wheel). Load up the disk with the "heavy" compound and buff out all of the faint swirl marks that the sander left.

8 ) after that is done...most of the compound should be worn out of the disk.....load it up with the "medium" and do the same

9)Finally load up the disk with a lot of the final polishing compound and do a really thorough job of buffing the entire surface.

10) wipe the lense off with a clean cotton cloth and YOUR DONE!!!

The head lights with look near Crystal clear with no yellow, oxidized crap on it and your blue/white Xenon bulbs will now actually look really good (plus you can actually see at night...bonus!)

I didn't write this, Skuce did, so thank him. :wink:
 
See less See more
#4 ·
It's not just Escorts, it's every car.

You can always pick up cheap aftermarket headlights on Ebay and elsewhere.

Yes, you have to clean your headlights on a regular basis.

If I were to repaint the car, I light just get new headlights (and new windshield) just so that car looks really really new.
 
G
#5 ·
zzyzzx said:
It's not just Escorts, it's every car.

You can always pick up cheap aftermarket headlights on Ebay and elsewhere.

Yes, you have to clean your headlights on a regular basis.

If I were to repaint the car, I light just get new headlights (and new windshield) just so that car looks really really new.
It's lots of cars but not every car. Some don't yellow because they used a better choice of plastic composition. Some are glass. Some of the glass ones get rust inside though.
 
#7 ·
to bad they dont fit, but soem protege 1st genners would order glass headlights from europe, and that make a diffrence, to bad that dosent fit ourt.
 
#16 ·
Death Slinger, about that question concerning Blue Magic Metal Polish. it works to remove some of hte oxidation, but unless your lights are almost perfectly clear anyways I haven't been able to get any miracles from it. but after using the sanding technique and smoothing hte headlights I hae kept them pretty dang clear by using that stuff. I'm looking into getting some tracer headlights now that I've got the new bumper coming and they are for sure getting the nubbie-removal treatment, I hate those things when I wash my car, I'll just have to align them on the wall.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top