My experience with the 3M headlight cleaning kit

[duboy]

The X's headlamps were really foggy/yellow, i've seen worse, but these were pretty bad. I figured it wouldn't hurt to try to polish them, can't do any more damage to them than nature has already right?

I used the 3M kit that included their green body tape.



Instead of taping around the body and working on the housing while it was attached to the body, I opted to pull it out halfway. Pulled off the lower trim, removed all the fastening bolts and pulled it out maybe an inch or two. placed terry clothes all around the body panels/bumper and taped the rubber gaskets.


First step, 500grit. I ended up going through 3 pads to get all the imperfections pretty much gone. In the first pic i had taken one pass and you can already see what was rough from yellowing and what was still sort of clear.



Second step, 800grit. Used 2 pads


Third step, 3000grit + water, about 10 passes

Third step, dried


Fourth step, rubbing compound. Went over the lens 3 times.


Cleaned and reseated all the gaskets (half of the gasket that runs along the bottom of the headlamp and the top of the trim had fallen behind) put everything back in place according to the marks I made on the mounting tabs.


The difference


Took about 2 hours to do the drivers side (disassembly, prep, polishing, cleaning up) and tomorrow I will complete the passenger side. Hopefully on monday my plastix comes in and i'll put a coat of that on it. Final thoughts...definitely a HUGE improvement, it's still not perfect, but I couldnt have wished for anything better for the price. I am curious how it stands the test of time, anyone have ideas about how to keep the yellowing from coming back?