New Headlight Cleaning kit
 

I cleaned the yellow from my headlights using a new kit that I found at Advanced auto parts, with great results. The kit is made by Crystal View and cost $19.99. I had cleaned my headlights numerous times before using plastic polish, but the yellow always returned. I know that Seraph and others have posted instructions on how to do this using different grits of fine wet-sanding paper, but I bought the kit because it also came with everything you might need in one convenient package. You get 1000 grit sand paper, 2500 grit sandpaper, small foil packs of plastic polish, polish applicators, small foil packs of sealer, sealer applicators and a latex glove.

You can use the kit with the headlights still on the car, but I removed both headlights, both corner lamps and the center grill and polished them in the kitchen sink - the kit has sufficient supplies to polish all five parts.

Attached is a pic of kit and the before and after shots. I've also attache a PDF of the instruction sheet. Before, my headlights were the worst with medium yellowing, the center grill was a bit better with some fading and the corners were decently clear. Now all five parts look identical and brand new. I'd love to do Small car clear lenses some day, but for $20, this kit exceeded my expectations. Highly recommended.

Before shots
 

Here are the pics - before and after. They may not look too bad in the before pics, but outdoors, they were pretty yellow and faded. They look brand new now.

Wow, That looks great. I will need to try that stuff out.

Let us know if they stay that way. Usually they turn yellow again, but hopefully they won't this time. Thanks. :)

Warranty
 

I think the difference between this kit and the other methods posted before is the 'sealer' that comes with the kit. The kit does come with a warranty, but I'm not naive in thinking that I could ever collect if the yellow were to return. The sealer might simply be polyurethane (the kit says it cleans up with water).

If so, one can readily duplicate the kit with household items, assuming one has 1000 grit, 2500 grit sandpapers, plastic polish and polyurethane. I will let everyone know how the lenses age now that they're treated, but they do look crystal clear at the moment.

I had heard that Plastx Cleaner and polish will work quite well, in about 15 seconds from a deep yellow to a brilliant clear, and costs around 4.99$. I'm picking up some on the way home, i'll let you know of my results.

It does work but in a couple weeks the headlights will yellow again. You need some sort of sealer....or just buy some clear lenses

I still am not that impressed with the clear lenses. They look good, but I don't like the way that you have to cut the old lense out. :o

I also saw the same product at Wal-Mart the other day. The lights look great.

I went to the Autozone and looked to see if they had the same kit,they didn't.But they had one by Permatex that has all the same supplies for $12,so I picked it up.Hope to try it out this weekend.

the best stuff i used was chrom mag polish it is like cotton swabs, it works really well then after that you put a coat of wax over it, but even that only lasts a few months before turning,, nothing really works

I would suggest a light abrasive polish followed by a plastic polish like Plastix. I would guess that the outside of the plastic is oxidized and must be removed before a fix can be permanent, thus the abrasive polish. If you want to get really aggressive then wet sanding followed by an abrasive polish and plastic polish would probably work even better.

I have a lot of expirence polishing plastic headlights but I've never owned yellowing headlights so I don't know how long it lasts. My new SVX has very yellow headlights so I'll polish them and see how long it lasts.

I sanded mine with 1000 grit, then shot them with clear coat, then sanded the clear coat with 2000 grit, then rubbing compound, then waxed.


I dare the yellow to come back.

this kit sounds like a pretty good temporary solution but im looking to get rid of that damn yellow for good. Instead of dropping 160 bucks for clear ones im thinking about first using abrassive sanding to get rid of damage and the top oxidized layer and then use the kit from autozone to polish the plastic. But to keep that look for an extended period im thinking about putting a thin layer of polyester fiberglass resin(i have had a can siting in my garage for a long time) and then fine sanding it to a transperent level. However im not sure if polyester will leave a clear finish( i dont want to make my night visibility any worse). Anyone know what the finish of polyester resin it self looks like?

Here's a big +1 for Crystal View. Here's an important heads-up: The instructions say that the CV-2 will come out of the package fast. Yeh, it's not a paste like the CV-1... it's a flat-out liquid that will come sca-reeemin' out of that packet! Looks real nice.