How to refinish your foggy/hazy plastic vehicle headlights cheap and easy. This is a tutorial on how to fix it, without breaking your budget and buying new headlights or lenses. You will need 1000, 1500, 2000 grit, soapy water, rubbing/polishing compound, & wax. Instead of compound, you can also use tooth paste because it does have a small amount of grit in it.

Material/products:

-1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper
-1500 grit wet/dry sandpaper
-2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper
-bucket of water with car wash soap (or dish soap)
-paste or liquid polishing compound/scratch remover
-paste or liquid automotive wax (I used carnauba wax, but it doesn't have to be)
-2 lint free polishing clothes

 

I've been detailing and helping quite a few people over the years.
This is great to get your headlights looking new again, but it's not a long-term solution. You'll be going back to having to polish your headlights at least once a year or worse depending on where you live, how much you drive, etc.
The best solution, after these sanding steps in my opinion, is to add a few layers of clearcoat and then wetsand with 1500 grit and polish. This should eliminate the need to have to revisit this annoying detailing step in the future!

 

Looks good

 

Sometimes sanding is the only thing you can do to recover a headlight to a usable condition but for my money an acrylic lens deoxidizer is the fastest and safest way to go, especially if you have a newer car or one with no damage on the headlight.
You are going to have to clean oxidation from your headlights again as time passes and sanding them is a very aggressive solution to have to repeat either bi yearly of yearly. Oxidation removal does not require sanding. A pure liquid deoxidizer is non abrasive and can be used over and over with no adverse effect to the lens surface.

 

Good info. Really made a difference,