99 Taurus Headlight "De-Hazing" Results

Like many of you with plastic headlamps, my 99 Taurus' ones were
hazed/fogged/scratched/pitted/etc....Not much light coming thru! Owned
the car since new, never did anything to maintain them...tho I
frequently cleaned them with a filling station window sponge/squeegee
(yeah, THAT didnt help!)

So, I set out to polish 'em back to some semblance of decency.

Here's what I tried:

-Toothpaste (Colgate): I've used toothpaste on a terry towel for
years as a safe plastic cleaner and polish. Started to take the haze
off, but nowhere near aggressive enough.

-Turtle Wax Polishing Compound-green can: Slightly more aggressive
but similar to toothpaste.

-Meguiars Step 1 Paint Cleaner: Some effect on haze, nada on
scratches.

-Fine Brass wool: tried on small area, WAY too aggressive. Wish I'd
had some 0000 steel wool to try out.

-Gel Gloss: Similar to toothpaste & Polishing Compund. Left a nice
coating when wiped off.

-3M 39002 Perfect-it II Rubbing Compound Fine Cut. Did the best job
of all, but still took a lot of elbow grease . Might have been nice
to have this in a medium cut version.

I ended up using the 3M 39002 on a soft ~2" wheel on a drill at slow
speed. I got all the haze off and mitigated the scratches & pitting.
Polished with Gel Gloss. Looks ( & probably works) WAY better.

--Don
Don Byrer KJ5KB
Radar Tech & Smilin' Commercial Pilot Guy
Glider & CFI wannabe
kj5kb-at-hotmail.com

"I have slipped the surly bonds of earth; now if I can just land without bending the gear..."
"Watch out for those doves...<smack-smack-smack-smack...>"

Don Byrer wrote:
<trimmed lots of good info on how NOT to clean headlamps>

> I ended up using the 3M 39002 on a soft ~2" wheel on a drill at slow
> speed. I got all the haze off and mitigated the scratches & pitting.
> Polished with Gel Gloss. Looks ( & probably works) WAY better.
>

> trimmed a pretty cool sig < ...doves...smack, smack, smack...I love it!

The best thing I've found is 3M 39002 with an electric buffer. Anything done by hand
is going to take a long time and LOTS of elbow grease. (As you have found)
The buffing takes off the original UV coating (Like that's a big loss). There needs
to be a protective coating added or the fogging will reappear quickly. Gel Gloss is
only a polish. The lenses are now shiny and new looking, but totally unprotected.
Give them a bunch (6-10) coats of a Urethane Enamel clear(rattle can if you are
good), then keep them cleaned and waxed like you would do the rest of your car.

With the coating polished off the lights I would use Plexus to clean/protect
all my clear plastic lenses. Use it regularly on my m/c windshield to clean
it, 19k miles and still looking great.
I get it at bike dealers, aerosol can spray on, wipe off with microfibre
towels. It's made for plastic and it's all I use on my overpriced HD
windshield now.

Repairman wrote:
> With the coating polished off the lights I would use Plexus to clean/protect
> all my clear plastic lenses. Use it regularly on my m/c windshield to clean
> it, 19k miles and still looking great.
> I get it at bike dealers, aerosol can spray on, wipe off with microfibre
> towels. It's made for plastic and it's all I use on my overpriced HD
> windshield now.
>
>
Available at an M/C shop you say? I need to look into that product. Thanks for the tip.

Thanks to both of ya for the tips...I knew the Gel Gloss was a VERY
temporary measure...but it was free

Will look for Plexus around here.

The recoating with poly idea sounds interesting but I'd want to pull
them out first. I was being lazy and doing 'em on-car.

Hey, if I can get another few years' before replacing 'em I'll be
quite happy.

--Don
Don Byrer KJ5KB
Radar Tech & Smilin' Commercial Pilot Guy
Glider & CFI wannabe
kj5kb-at-hotmail.com

"I have slipped the surly bonds of earth; now if I can just land without bending the gear..."
"Watch out for those doves...<smack-smack-smack-smack...>"

On Fri, 15 Jun 2007 18:38:53 -0400, Don Byrer >
wrote:

>Like many of you with plastic headlamps, my 99 Taurus' ones were
>hazed/fogged/scratched/pitted/etc....Not much light coming thru! Owned
>the car since new, never did anything to maintain them...tho I
>frequently cleaned them with a filling station window sponge/squeegee
>(yeah, THAT didnt help!)
>
>So, I set out to polish 'em back to some semblance of decency.
>
>Here's what I tried:
>
>-Toothpaste (Colgate): I've used toothpaste on a terry towel for
>years as a safe plastic cleaner and polish. Started to take the haze
>off, but nowhere near aggressive enough.
>
>-Turtle Wax Polishing Compound-green can: Slightly more aggressive
>but similar to toothpaste.
>
>-Meguiars Step 1 Paint Cleaner: Some effect on haze, nada on
>scratches.
>
>-Fine Brass wool: tried on small area, WAY too aggressive. Wish I'd
>had some 0000 steel wool to try out.
>
>-Gel Gloss: Similar to toothpaste & Polishing Compund. Left a nice
>coating when wiped off.
>
>-3M 39002 Perfect-it II Rubbing Compound Fine Cut. Did the best job
>of all, but still took a lot of elbow grease . Might have been nice
>to have this in a medium cut version.
>
>I ended up using the 3M 39002 on a soft ~2" wheel on a drill at slow
>speed. I got all the haze off and mitigated the scratches & pitting.
>Polished with Gel Gloss. Looks ( & probably works) WAY better.
>
>--Don
>Don Byrer KJ5KB
>Radar Tech & Smilin' Commercial Pilot Guy
>Glider & CFI wannabe
>kj5kb-at-hotmail.com
>
>"I have slipped the surly bonds of earth; now if I can just land without bending the gear..."
>"Watch out for those doves...<smack-smack-smack-smack...>"

do a wev seach for headlight cleaner and you will find all kind of
productts that claim to restore headlight covers. One is Briteeyes™
Headlight Restorer which sells for around $20.

Anyone know where I can buy Plexus in the Toronto, Canada area?

thanks.

"Don Byrer" > wrote in message
...
> Like many of you with plastic headlamps, my 99 Taurus' ones were
> hazed/fogged/scratched/pitted/etc....Not much light coming thru! Owned
> the car since new, never did anything to maintain them...tho I
> frequently cleaned them with a filling station window sponge/squeegee
> (yeah, THAT didnt help!)
>
> So, I set out to polish 'em back to some semblance of decency.
>
> Here's what I tried:
>
> -Toothpaste (Colgate): I've used toothpaste on a terry towel for
> years as a safe plastic cleaner and polish. Started to take the haze
> off, but nowhere near aggressive enough.
>
> -Turtle Wax Polishing Compound-green can: Slightly more aggressive
> but similar to toothpaste.
>
> -Meguiars Step 1 Paint Cleaner: Some effect on haze, nada on
> scratches.
>
> -Fine Brass wool: tried on small area, WAY too aggressive. Wish I'd
> had some 0000 steel wool to try out.
>
> -Gel Gloss: Similar to toothpaste & Polishing Compund. Left a nice
> coating when wiped off.
>
> -3M 39002 Perfect-it II Rubbing Compound Fine Cut. Did the best job
> of all, but still took a lot of elbow grease . Might have been nice
> to have this in a medium cut version.
>
> I ended up using the 3M 39002 on a soft ~2" wheel on a drill at slow
> speed. I got all the haze off and mitigated the scratches & pitting.
> Polished with Gel Gloss. Looks ( & probably works) WAY better.
>
> --Don
> Don Byrer KJ5KB
> Radar Tech & Smilin' Commercial Pilot Guy
> Glider & CFI wannabe
> kj5kb-at-hotmail.com
>
> "I have slipped the surly bonds of earth; now if I can just land without
> bending the gear..."
> "Watch out for those doves...<smack-smack-smack-smack...>"

On Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:30:34 -0400, <a> wrote:

>Anyone know where I can buy Plexus in the Toronto, Canada area?
>
>thanks.

Try Canadian Tire, I bought some there a couple of years ago.

>
>"Don Byrer" > wrote in message
.. .
>> Like many of you with plastic headlamps, my 99 Taurus' ones were
>> hazed/fogged/scratched/pitted/etc....Not much light coming thru! Owned
>> the car since new, never did anything to maintain them...tho I
>> frequently cleaned them with a filling station window sponge/squeegee
>> (yeah, THAT didnt help!)
>>
>> So, I set out to polish 'em back to some semblance of decency.
>>
>> Here's what I tried:
>>
>> -Toothpaste (Colgate): I've used toothpaste on a terry towel for
>> years as a safe plastic cleaner and polish. Started to take the haze
>> off, but nowhere near aggressive enough.
>>
>> -Turtle Wax Polishing Compound-green can: Slightly more aggressive
>> but similar to toothpaste.
>>
>> -Meguiars Step 1 Paint Cleaner: Some effect on haze, nada on
>> scratches.
>>
>> -Fine Brass wool: tried on small area, WAY too aggressive. Wish I'd
>> had some 0000 steel wool to try out.
>>
>> -Gel Gloss: Similar to toothpaste & Polishing Compund. Left a nice
>> coating when wiped off.
>>
>> -3M 39002 Perfect-it II Rubbing Compound Fine Cut. Did the best job
>> of all, but still took a lot of elbow grease . Might have been nice
>> to have this in a medium cut version.
>>
>> I ended up using the 3M 39002 on a soft ~2" wheel on a drill at slow
>> speed. I got all the haze off and mitigated the scratches & pitting.
>> Polished with Gel Gloss. Looks ( & probably works) WAY better.
>>
>> --Don
>> Don Byrer KJ5KB
>> Radar Tech & Smilin' Commercial Pilot Guy
>> Glider & CFI wannabe
>> kj5kb-at-hotmail.com
>>
>> "I have slipped the surly bonds of earth; now if I can just land without
>> bending the gear..."
>> "Watch out for those doves...<smack-smack-smack-smack...>"
>