Restore Neglected Headlights to BETTER THAN NEW Condition

what's going on guys welcome to another episode in today's video I'm gonna show you how to restore headlights - better than new condition now I'm gonna be doing a couple things in this video so I'm not only gonna be restoring some really old headlights but I'm gonna show you how to protect it and how to keep that looking amazing for a very long time now also if you ever get to the point that the headlight starts to look crappy you can fix it probably in a matter of 5 minutes it's that easy so let me first show you what car I'm working on right now so I'm gonna be working on this fixer-upper right here it's a 2004 Audi a4 I already polished and cleaned up these headlights here however you can still kind of see on the inside there's a little bit of grime now there's not really much you can do about that unless you remove the lens from the headlight assembly and that's gonna be a decent amount of work but as for being safe this is a much better finish and a much better result as this so something like this will not pass a safety because the light output and the clarity of this lens is going to be absolutely garbage so in order to pass that safety we need to make both of these headlights look like that so that one's done that one's polished up and I also protected that with a film before I get started with this procedure I know that this process works and I know that it lasts a long time I've done this exact same procedure to my Honda Accord which is my daily I did this over a year and a half ago and you can still see the optical clarity of these headlights so you can see that there's no oxidation especially found on the more horizontal areas of the headlights so usually the oxidation will begin on the top and that'll start to work its way down to the more vertical areas so this is over a year and a half later and it still looks amazing the same thing goes for the passenger side headlight so jumping back in the garage we're gonna work on this passenger side headlight first so what I'm first going to do is pop the hood to remove some of the paint that's basically found on the outside perimeter of the headlight the entire outie is going to need a detail but I'm gonna be focusing on this headlight first so if we can pop the hood we're basically going to be preventing this entire edge of the hood from getting scratched up because we're going to be using some sand papers and some polishing compounds to make this and clear again the secret to making headlights stay looking nice and preventing them from fading due to the Sun is protecting them once you've polished them it seems like this headlight has been polished before as the entire headlight has a uniform yellow haze to it to restore the clarity of these lights the first step is going to be cleaning them and wiping them down if any dirt that we have on the lens you don't want to introduce that into the polishing compounds or even the sandpaper while you're removing the oxidization following that is protecting the surrounding paint you can remove the headlight if that's easier for you but you can just as easily put some 3m Automotive tape around the perimeter of the headlight to prevent the fender the hood and the bumper from getting damaged in this procedure I like having at least two inches around the outside as a buffer for the headlight so just in case the polisher wants to move or it slips it's not going to be removing paint after that we can begin the headlight restoration procedure by using some 1500 grit sandpaper any foam sanding block we'll be using water as a lubricant during this step so the oxidized plastic will stay contained in the water and not be introduced into the air as dust it's crazy how gross the water will become by doing this step you're going to want to do overlapping passes with a sanding block so that you get every square inch of the headlight cleaned up you're going to want to do this until you don't see any more yellow haze from the headlight but you'll start to see some scratches in the headlight as we're using sandpaper to remove all this if you do see any more haze wets and the lens even more until it's perfectly uniform once you're done you should have a finish and a result that looks like this we're now going to begin by using some proper power tools since it's going to be a lot easier to remove all this stuff you can continue to do all this by hand but using power tools is going to be a lot easier I'm using the same 3m headlight restoration kit that I used in a previous video I'm using a Dewalt drill I'm using a 3,000 grit sanding disc and some water as a lubricant you're gonna do the same kind of overlapping passes with this new sandpaper at this point you're trying to remove all the scratches that we induced from the 1500 grit sanding stage you should be getting some really good results so far and you will be able to see that the headlights are starting to look a lot more clear at this step after you've done this procedure to the lens and you wipe off any excess residue you should have results that are similar to this you will be able to note at this point that there are going to be scratches in the headlight but it's not going to be anywhere near as bad as how it was before after the 1500 grit sanding step next up comes polishing we're going to be using the same drill and attachment with a cutting pad and McGuire's n105 after you rub the compound into the pad perform the same overlapping passes just like before by doing this you're going to be removing the very small scratches that were induced into the headlight from the 3000 grit sanding stage the headlights are going to begin to look amazing and you'll be able to see that we've got amazing clarity out of these headlights now it's crazy that we're still going to be able to make the headlights look even better after the next step at this stage you might be able to notice some dirt or imperfections that are found on the inside of the headlight housing now that the outside of the headlight looks so crystal clear the last part of the headlight refinement stage is going to be using some McGuire's m 205 polishing compound and a polishing pad this is going to give the headlights a perfect crystal clear look to them as this is going to be removing all the super tiny scratches that are embedded into the lens once you're done that it's going to look something like this so with the headlights now in this condition this is where you would then put your sort of protection over top of the headlight so at this point this looks like an OEM headlight it looks brand new it looks great the clarity is definitely up there now something to consider too is that when you go ahead and clean out all the imperfections that are found on the surface of the headlight so basically the lens you will then be able to see any dirt or any junk that's found inside the headlight you might not have been able to see it before because the lens was so clouded with dirt but at this point you can see that but as for the protection stage you can do many things you can go ahead and put a layer of wax on here you can go ahead and put a layer of clear coat overtop of the headlight those are both great options they'll both do good they'll keep the headlight looking nice and fully optically clear just like this but I'm not gonna be going that route I'm gonna be going a route that's gonna be a lot more durable and a lot easier to then change down the road and that is using paint protection film so when I showed you the headlights on the Accord there is paint protection film over top of this now if you get really up close to it you can see that there is a slight line in between the front part and bay we the top or the edge of the headlight so you guys can be as precise as you want but with the paint protection film over top of the headlight it's not only going to protect the headlight from Stone chips from scratches but because it's also UV resistant it's going to be preventing the headlight from oxidizing and turning that yellow disgusting color that we had before on the Audi so at this point we're gonna prep this headlight so that we can apply the paint protection film over top of the headland so we're gonna remove all the masking that we had on there before so you're gonna do this and then we're gonna clean up the surrounding area of the headlight so that we can apply the film overtop we want the entire area around here to be perfectly cleaned because any area that has a little bit of dirt to it that will show up underneath the paint protection film so because the headlight is clear along with the paint protection film if there's any dirt that's still there it's going to be noticeable and we won't be able to remove it unless we put a new piece of PPF over top of the headlight so I have a new microfiber towel with some isopropyl alcohol and I'm gonna spray this basically everywhere I'm gonna clean all of this up so any area that the PPF flies onto that's on the surrounding area of the headlight is not going to contaminate it and make it dirty you want to go over the headlight tube with the isopropyl alcohol this is going to remove any of the waxes that are found inside the Polish and it's gonna make it so that we have basically a naked headlight to apply the paint protection film on to whatever panel you're working with your hands need to be incredibly clean they can't have any dirt on them otherwise you'll see those fingerprints on whatever panel that you're working with your hand should also be covered in the soapy water solution that I have made up in this little bottle I have regular Dawn dish soap mixed with regular water this is going to allow the paint protection film to slide around on the surface of the headlight without it in adhering you're going to need to use a solution which is a 50/50 mix of isopropyl alcohol and water apply it to the backside of the film and you'll be able to squeeze you the film onto the headlight and it's going to stick like glue with the 1/2 lay down you'll then want to do the same thing to the other half what's nice about this film is that we can replace it should we want to if it gets to be super corroded if it gets to be super pitted or even really dirty it's really simple because all we have to do is peel back the whole thing and in reapply a new layer of paint protection film which is only gonna take about five minutes versus the whole half an hour or full hour of the headlight restoration procedure to get the headlights looking new again it's entirely up to you which route you guys want to go but if you ask me I think it's worth it to put a little bit of time now into this put the PPF over top and then you're good so it's gonna not only withstand scratches it's going to withstand rock chips and stuff like that but you also have the UV protection of the paint protection film so the Sun isn't going to destroy these headlights in a matter of a year or two once you have the lens covered you can trim the excess with an awful blade and the entire thing will be protected from all the elements not only does this look good but this is going to be much safe for headlight than what we were working with before the light that's generated from the bulbs will actually be able to be projected onto the road these neglected headlights will no longer be a problem should we need to get a safety for the car once the headlights are completely polished any layer of protection is gonna be better than nothing you guys can buy some 3m stuff you guys can buy some expell ultimate stuff whenever you guys want to do any kind of PPF is going to be an awesome way to protect your headlights and keeping them looking this nice if you guys want to pick up any of the stuff that you guys saw in this video check the description box I've got links to everything including this stuff this is a 3m scotch brite paint protection film this is a 1 foot by 4 foot sheet this is enough to get usually a single car done I would measure your headlights before you buy any but that's what I would buy if you guys have any questions regarding the video throw them down in the comment section below I'm gonna be more than happy to help again guys thanks for watching I'll catch you in the next one peace [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: milanmastracci

Views: 2,965,409

Rating: 4.8659797 out of 5

Keywords: restore headlights, paint protection film, restoring neglected headlights to better than new condition, how to fix faded headlights, how to polish faded headlights, how to restore faded headlights, headlight oxidation, how to restore headlights PERMANENTLY, foggy headlights, faded headlights, clear coat, 3m, xpel

Id: rHfOo8Nc7bM

Length: 10min 46sec (646 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 04 2018