Hi all,

In the process of slowly continuing the repairs and upgrades to my '95 2wd Dakota standard cab w/ 3.9L V6, I've come to the point where I must address the clouded headlights that are on the truck.

The first option I thought was to get one of those "lens buffer" packages and try to remove the cloudiness from the plastic lenses. But a mechanic I used previously didn't seem to have much love for this sort of product, claiming that the cloudiness returns in a relatively short time (I seem to remember him saying a year later, but I'm not recalling clearly). If anyone has gone this route, I'd love to hear about your experience.

The other obvious option is to simply replace the sealed headlight itself. But I find myself choking on the significant prices for sealed headlights compared to the halogen bulbs I've grown accustomed to purchasing for previous vehicles. So, if I have to go this route I'd prefer to find some headlights that will serve me for years without clouding, and preferably are brighter (though still street legal) than the original equipment still on the truck. Personal recommendations count a lot for me, so any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks for any info that gets passed along!

 

Baking soda and water. Make a thick paste like substance and use a rag to rub onto headlight. Rinse and repeat. Worked wonders on my headlight

 

The baking soda paste certainly sounds economical - thanks for the suggestion! Did you put on a special UV Inhibitor coating afterward to seal the lens? If so, what did you use? I did a quick search online for the stuff, but only seem to be getting hits for products that are already part of a commercial lens restoration kit.

 

A good UV protector is a good coat of car wax. This is what the kit I used for my Caravan said to use and they have lasted for 6 months and still look great. Even if you have to do them once a year it is way cheaper than new lights.

 

I tried this all about 3 months ago. I did taped off test sections.
Baking soda... No go... Or atleast I didnt have the patients cuz I didnt see anything after 2 applications.
Toothpaste... same thing. Nothing.
Flitz polish... Worked awesome. Cant say Id spend $20 on a tube to do my headlights, but I already had some to polish some aluminum. I finished the buffing with a final couple rubs of a shine restorer (super super fine compound with added carnuba wax) looks great. Still good so far (3 months)

 

Before we got the Dakota we had a 93 Plymouth Grand Voyager with yellowed headlights and the toothpast thing worked for us, it didnt make it look new but it cleared it up some, now though we wont have to deal with that happening to the Dakota because it has glass headlights, dont know if it came stock with them or if there aftermaket but its glass

 

Glass can still cloud, but not as bad as plastic.

I used baking soda. It takes some elbow grease. It lightened it around 3-4 shades. Definitely nocticable.

 

Not sure about 87, but 1990 had plastic from the factory(4666P if I remember right). These wouldn't be a problem if they fogged, just replace entire light for cheap as it is a sealed beam light. Replacements are probably going to be all glass now.

 

I used this stuff called 'plastix' - worked like a charm.

 

I used the Permatex headlight kit. It seemed to work pretty well. Look at the picture below for the before and after. The top is before, obviously

I admit it doesn't look all that different but, at night...HOLY COW! literally night and day!