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Turbobricks solution to yellowed headlights?

ME II

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 1, 2008
Location
Northern Michigan
The 95 xc70 I just bought has aging headlights, any good Turbobricks [CHEAP]solutions? factory ones are over $400 each, not sure about aftermarket or just polishing?
 
yellow bulbs to compensate.

but seriously just buy one of those headlight polishing kits. Or if it's light yellowing I just run the buffer over them.
 
I will say the plastic in headlights is chemically close to acetone, as is DEET.

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I used a kit (Mothers IIRC) on the Jetta's headlights. Results were really good, they were nice and sparkly clear afterwards. It only lasted about a year and a half, though, They're back to dull and yellow again. There's enough stuff in the kit to do it again, though. I guess the plastic is still older and closer to fading, even if you polish off the outermost layer. New headlights would probably stay clear for a lot longer, but obviously $$$ vs. $20 and an hour and a half ever other year.
 
Had great results the one time I tried it using the 3M kit (drill powered) on my wife's old Maxima.
 
If they're pretty baked and you're doing the first cut with wet sandpaper don't use coarser than #600 or it will take forever to get the scratch out.

IE:

  1. #600
  2. #1000
  3. #1500
  4. #2000
  5. Polish
 
I've had good luck with the 3M polishing kit, also use the polishing pad to buff up paint imperfections.
 
Get some yellow tinted glasses. Fixed!

s-l1600.jpg
 
You should follow up those polishing kits with UV protective coating or film. Not much extra and it'll keep them from turning yellow again.

Local detailing business will probably do just the headlights for not too much money as well - if you don't have time to DIY but don't want to spend $200 on new lenses.
 
The Sylvania kit seems great on PF's very thorough (as usual) test.

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I used a Sylvania kit. Around $20 on Amazon.
Worked well on my van. Took around two hours or so.
It's only been 6 months, but they're holding up well.
(There's a shadow on the after photo)
 

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