Do headlamp housing restoration kits work? If so, which brand(s) do you recommend?

My 97 Buick Park Ave has hazy UV damaged headlamp housings. AFAIK there are no good aftermarket housings. New stock OEM housings would be good, but cost $200 each. That'd be $400 to replace both housings. Ouch!

Consumer Reports tested several headlamp housing restoration kits and reported that Sylvania's restoration kit is the best and is somewhat effective. However, I assume that experienced people at this forum are likely to know more than CR.

Do restoration kits actually work? If so, which brand(s) do you recommend?

I tried the Sylvania kit on my '92 Mercedes 190E fog lights as they were/are in bad shape. I did not have good results, but I think it was part user error.

I have another one for glazed headlights on a '04 Toyota Sienna with HID option. I'm afraid I haven't gotten around to trying it on it...

I need to do this on my 2005 Jeep but I keep putting it off. I've heard nothing but negative feedback on these kits so I think I'll try another technique I saw on youtube by ChirsFix.

markr6 said:

I need to do this on my 2005 Jeep but I keep putting it off. I've heard nothing but negative feedback on these kits so I think I'll try another technique I saw on youtube by ChirsFix.

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Brilliant! I'm going to email Consumer Reports and tell them that looks like a good way (probably best way) to solve it, and it's among the cheapest too.

markr6 said:

I need to do this on my 2005 Jeep but I keep putting it off. I've heard nothing but negative feedback on these kits so I think I'll try another technique I saw on youtube by ChirsFix.

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That looks like it has long-lasting results. Considering Tennessee's UV indices, that's really lasted a long time.

Good luck. Personally, I'd jump at factory new headlights for my primary use car for $200 a pop. In fact, I did. Brand new lights in place of originals with 300,000 miles, plus high end 9011 and 9012 bulbs in place of the original 9005 & 9006 bulbs, make for really good headlights on a 9th generation Corolla.

If you're going with a restoration kit, get the best you can. Then try to park the car under cover from UV light (ours are always outdoors).

I'm going to get new OE lamp housings because the reflectors inside are probably not in the best shape. The car is 20 years old. Other than dim headlights, I love this car. So my Buick is worthy of new headlamp housings.

BTW - the DIY headlamp restoration method described earlier in that YouTube video sounds like a good way to repair and prevent UV damage to exterior of headlight lamp housings. Unfortunately it cannot repair the lenses/reflectors inside the housings (as pointed out to me by one of the moderators).

jzchen said:

I tried the Sylvania kit on my '92 Mercedes 190E fog lights as they were/are in bad shape. I did not have good results, but I think it was part user error.

I have another one for glazed headlights on a '04 Toyota Sienna with HID option. I'm afraid I haven't gotten around to trying it on it...

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I had great luck with the Sylvania Kit on my 01 Nissan Xterra. It did a good job but it requires some time and elbow grease. It sure beat buying and installing new housings.

Bob

There's something missing from that YouTube video: no durability follow-up. A very similar procedure was followed in this article, with a super-premium, extra-tough clear coat (Nyalic), and while the results right after the work were just as nice as in the YouTube video, if you read on down you'll find they said "However, after a year, the headlights did not look nearly as good".

The techniques and materials described in this other writeup seem to give better long-lasting results, if the reports in the discussion thread over there serve to indicate.

-Virgil- said:

There's something missing from that YouTube video: no durability follow-up. A very similar procedure was followed in this article, with a super-premium, extra-tough clear coat (Nyalic), and while the results right after the work were just as nice as in the YouTube video, if you read on down you'll find they said "However, after a year, the headlights did not look nearly as good".

The techniques and materials described in this other writeup seem to give better long-lasting results, if the reports in the discussion thread over there serve to indicate.

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I kept the Xterra for two years after I did the headlamps with the Sylvania kit and it held up very well during that time.

Charley3 said:

I'm going to get new OE lamp housings because the reflectors inside are probably not in the best shape. The car is 20 years old. Other than dim headlights, I love this car. So my Buick is worthy of new headlamp housings.

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Keep in mind that a 20 year old car will have 20 year old headlight technology no matter what you do.

Bob

Keep in mind that a 20 year old car will have 20 year old headlight technology no matter what you do.

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That doesn't necessarily make the headlamps inherently weak or bad. Newer headlamp designs are not necessarily better performers than older headlamp designs.

Sylvania has some sort of "lifetime" warranty on the kit with registration I believe. I'm guessing you can ask for a replacement kit to redo the lamps if they cloud up again....

I use: 1500, then 2000 grit paper and water sand them. Then high speed buff with ultra fine compound. Then some Blue Magic headlamp sealer. You have to have a UV stabilizer to coat the lens with after sanding and buffing. Remember don't let the plastic heat up too much when polishing. It will burn marks in it.

-Virgil- said:

There's something missing from that YouTube video: no durability follow-up.

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He has a 1- and 2-year followup-- the 2-year isn't all that bad-- 'cept they still look worse than the factory headlamps would have looked in their first two years.

jzchen said:

Sylvania has some sort of "lifetime" warranty on the kit with registration I believe. I'm guessing you can ask for a replacement kit to redo the lamps if they cloud up again....

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Sure, you'll get the kit replaced but there's no resurrecting the headlamps after the first restoration is done and then fails.

I've used the 3M kit on a couple of cars and was able to get crystal clear results after several hours of polishing.
That said, of course the plastic clouded up again after a year or so.
Auto headlamp housings are made of polycarbonate, which is vulnerable to UV. A film is applied to the housings at the factory which allows them to survive as long as they do, but the film doesn't last forever. The first step in the instructions say to sand off the remnants of the protective film. Then you polish out the damaged polycarbonate.
Bare polycarbonate will last a year or so outside before it starts to cloud. At least that how long I got on a couple of cars I polished.
But I figured I'd rather polish them once a year than give Nissan my hard earned money.

Alaric Darconville said:

He has a 1- and 2-year followup-- the 2-year isn't all that bad-- 'cept they still look worse than the factory headlamps would have looked in their first two years.

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Looks great! Mine probably isn't bad enough to go thru the effort; mostly just patchy spots of haze. I still want to try it though.

OK I'm finally going to try this. I just picked up some 800, 2000 grit, and the gloss coat at home depot.

In my shop we've been doing headlight restorations for years. Sand back to remove the discolouration and ALL of the previous coating and finish to P1500. A coat of adhesion promoter then 2 coats of two pack automotive urethane clear. Wetsand and buff to remove any peel or nibs and leave coating ideally 60μm thick. Lights we did 10 years ago still look almost like new. I'd back this against an air dry urethane intended for timber and put on with a pad, any day. Smoother finish has less potential to upset the beam pattern and, being sprayed on, is more consistent in thickness. Quality clears are water clear.

Depending on make/model, the cost is usually less than replacement of one headlight while, for prestige cars, it can be as little as 10% of the cost of one new unit.

This turned out OK on my 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee. It wasn't horrible to start, but enough to bother me since the other headlamp is brand new and the difference was huge.



I did a lot of light coats, but still ended up with some running towards the top corner where I sprayed a little heavy. I may try to sand that down, but it's not a big deal since the hood almost covers it when down.

Would I do it again? Sure. $15 is about all I'm willing to spend on a 12+ year old vehicle. Of course, after all this work I put a deep 1" long scratch in the paint with my pocket knife clip as I was walking around the car :shakehead