Nasty Headlights

did someone mention using toothbrush/toothpaste before?

mine are starting to grunge along the top edge, but for near 10 years old, they´re still pretty clean and clear

Alright thanks for the tip. I tired some wet sanding before but never used different grits, only stuck with one. I am gonna go try that. Thanks!!

This was from the ERDT boards

Originally posted on 2/28/02 8:46:04 pm 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!)

one thing i noticed on mine, after reading this thread, was that mine was sanded once before i bought it.. i´m sure it looks nice when it is finished, but mine looked like it was getting foggier Because it was sanded..
what i did today was take out the headlight and wash it down with tub an tile cleaner to get rid of some of the yellowness.. but i noticed that when they were wet they were clear as hell.. so i went out the garage and sprayed them with a little clear coat spray paint.. two coats of it and now they are beautiful...