Having clean headlights is an essential thing to have on your car. Why? Because it’ll mean that your lights at night will shine brighter. Usually, people scrub the headlights and nothing happens. Sometimes, people scrub them too hard and it just adds scratches instead of actually cleaning them. So, what do you do?
Stained headlights, foggy headlights, or yellowed headlights, these are just some of the names you can give to your headlights that are no longer fully functional. But, instead of buying a whole new set of headlights, maybe you can restore them right at home. We’ll give you three possible ways to clean your stained headlights, so they would look like new or at least almost new!
3 Ways on How to Restore your Car’s Headlights
1. Purchase a Headlight Restoration Kit
You can easily purchase one of these from any Walmart, Kmart, or auto spare shops. These can range from $10 up to $100. It really depends on which brand you select and on how much you’re willing to spend on. However, a $15 one should be good. You’ll just have to follow the manufacturer’s instruction manual to use the headlight restoration kit. If there’s none or you feel like you can’t do it yourself, you can always ask a friend to help you.
2. The toothpaste method
A lot of people would have already probably tried this method. However, some people tried it to no avail. Maybe, they weren’t doing it right. The key thing to this toothpaste method is using the right toothpaste. Although we don’t really endorse any brand, a lot of the most successful people use the Colgate brand. Beyond this, more specifically, they use the “Colgate Baking Soda and Peroxide” variant of the brand. This costs like $13 for three boxes on Amazon. Although you’re going to have to scrub your way into making your headlights cleaner and clearer, you’re going to save a lot of money. Plus, you’ll have extra toothpaste to use.
The way you do this is by grabbing a bunch of clean rags, about three or four should be good. Also, have a bucket of water as well as a tube of toothpaste. On one of the rags, squeeze toothpaste on it and rub it into (like really rub it in) the headlights. Do this until the toothpaste covers the headlights. And, be careful not to get too much of it on the paint. After you’ve covered the headlights with toothpaste, take one of the clean rags and keep rubbing off the toothpaste.
Wipe with new rags as needed, and with the last clean rag, wet it with water. After that, wipe the headlights and you should see a big difference from what they once were. If you’re too lazy to use multiple rags, just grab an old and used, but clean, toothbrush and just brush the headlights hard. Then, wipe off the excess toothpaste, and wipe everything off with a wet rag at the end.
3. Sanding your headlights works too
Wash your car (or just your headlights). If you’re cleaning just the headlights, clean it off with glass cleaner or soap and water. After drying, put tape around the headlights to make sure you don’t sand off the car’s paint. You could also remove your headlights, but you may have to align them after re-installation.
After washing your car, utilize sand-using products like sandpaper to scuff away the outer layer of the yellow or foggy headlights. Here, you can follow instructions on how to sand and what type of sandpaper you’d need. At this stage, though, you’d have to be very thorough and make sure that you don’t leave a rough or dull surface. Afterward, apply some fine polish to clean up any scratches that were left out. Last but not least, apply a UV sealant to protect your headlights from the sun’s UV rays. You can use products like Sylvania and Lenz Solution. These promise extended protection.
Last but not least, you could take your car to a specialist and have them clean your headlights. It’ll cost more as always, but at least you’ll be in good hands and you wouldn’t have to move an arm. All you’ve got to do is drive there, and you’re all good to go.
Let us know if we could help you out in choosing a car! Call Carfect today!
