PaoChe

I've tried everything to buff my headlight lenses clean and clear of yellow discoloration. I've come to realize that the exterior of the lenses are smooth and shiny. The pitting and yellowing is all on the inside of the lens. Anyone every experience this before?

Is my only choice to remove the headlight and disassemble it to buff the inside of the lens?
If so, is there a nice, step-by-step with photos of how to remove the lens from the headlight from the car and then the lens from the headlight without damage? I understand they're not exactly meant to come apart, but this seems to be the only way to get at the problem.

PaoChe

I almost gasped just looking at my signature picture. I can't believe the difference in about 4 years since I took that picture. The driver side headlight is completely hazed over now.

nomis_nehc

You can't exactly polish out the inside of the headlights. Not naming names, but there has been guys that tried with less than desirable results.

Your damage is most likely from sitting under the sun for long duration of time. Unfortunately, the damage is within, and not just on the surface anymore. So no wet sand or polishing will really get it out.

Real solution is to replace the lights unfortunately.

PaoChe

I was afraid that'd be the answer. I'd imagine all new units aren't cheap...
I always park in the shade, my car has been parked in a car port the whole time I've owned it and I keep everything well waxed. I wonder how it got some bad.

nomis_nehc

Post some pictures and I can give you some feedback.

PaoChe

Couldn't find my macro lens, so I wasn't able to get the super fine detail I wanted. When you inspect the lens very close you can see what looks like pitting and spidering but the lens has been wet sanded with 2000 grit on the outside so I know its smooth as can be, it must be on the inside. I added both driver and passenger side for comparison. One is fine, the other, horrible. I only scaled the images down to about 10MP so they're too large to attach directly

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...ps90f035d8.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...ps44f98b6b.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...ps36d7874a.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...ps9ad02e9c.jpg

nomis_nehc

Yah, holy crap that is pretty damn bad. You may have to go lower than 400 to try to clean that up. If that doesn't clean it up, you're down to replacing the headlights.

PaoChe

I suppose I can follow the instructions for installing things like Orions to open up the headlight. I've tried sanding the outside of the lens, all the haze you see is on the inside of the lens.

nomis_nehc

Yes, however, like I said, that damage is most likely in BETWEEN the front and rear part of the plastic. Meaning even if you have access to the back of the lens, it wouldn't matter.

Additionally, I know nobody that has successfully cleared the inside of the lens using restore.

lightfytr

PaoChe, my lights looked the same. But I bought the 3M kit that has the 500 grit paper with the drill attachment. Mine came out crystal clear. It just seems odd that the lenses got that way on the inside. Never seen that before... Good luck.