2008 Expedition Limited headlight lens exterior hazy
 

The headlight lens on my Expedition are becoming cloudy / hazy. It is not on the inside moisture, but normal uv degradation and road salt debris pits light scratches. I have seen many restore kits using compounds to buff and clean. Looking for real experienced advice on what you used or worked best. Thanks for all replies !!!

I've used two different kits now.
The first being 3M's Headlight Restoration kit:
Restoring a Headlight with the 3M Headlight Lens Restoration System. Video instructions and product recommendations. 3M: US
This is a great kit with a multistage sanding and then a polish. It works REALLY WELL on lenses that are completely oxidized. One thing to be careful of though is that the sanding can damage your paint pretty badly if you get off line with the drill. Just one thing to consider. I taped off my bezel surround when I used this kit, 2 layers of tape in fact, with the blue painters tape.

Most recently I have used the Mothers' kit:
Mothers® PowerBall 4Lights Headlight Restoration Kit
This kit is extremely easy to use. It works best on lenses that are not horribly oxidized. They do provide a sanding kit, but I've found that the polishing compound and the powerball with a little elbow grease behind the drill removes just about all of the haze.

Can't go wrong with either. I like them both, but in different manners.

Try toothpaste with a mothers polishing ball or similar. Scratch Out with super fine sandpaper or steel wool works well too.

+1 on MCDavis' 3M recommendation. I used it on my wifes Acura MDX whose lights were really yellowed. These were really bad and in need of serious attention. I would also +1 on the two or three layers of blue painters tape on the body colored parts near the lights. Make sure that you over protect as a $5 roll of tape is tons cheaper than a paint repair. It seems really counter intuitive to run sandpaper on your headlights but the 3M kit takes you through progressively higher grit sanders. It worked really well for me. I used a cordless 18v DeWalt drill and had plenty of power and battery for this.

Big

i too used the 3m kit on my wifes saab, it worked great.

I did this on my wife's care. Here are the results.

Before
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-c...s800/photo.JPG

After

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-_...281%252529.JPG

I used 1500 grit wet dry sandpaper. I kept the paper/lense wet and hand sanded with light pressure the entire lens for about 4-5 minutes until I could see the yellow degraded coating removed. I then used a Porter Cable 7424xp buffer with a yellow softbuff Meguiars foam pad with Meguiars Fine Cut Cleaner polish. I worked the polish at low then high speed of about 5 minutes total. It's really easy when you have the right tools. Looks brand new. Total time for both lights was about $25.

Problem is my whole family wants theirs done now...

I read that one of the best (and cheapest) solutions is to apply any product which contains DEET, such as Off. You are supposed to apply a light coat and let it dry. Several coats are needed, but people swear by how good of a job it does.

Here is one copy and paste from one of the forums I've read this on.

This is gonna sound crazy, but here goes. I did the routine of ridding my headlights of the oxidation but it didn't take long for the haze to come back. Well, the other night I was spraying some bug spray (OFF Sportsman brand) on myself before I went outside and didn't notice that I accidently sprayed a little bit on my car headlights which was behind me. About 2 hours later I come back inside the garage and noticed that where the overspray is on my headlight it is totally clear. A light bulb went off in my head and I sprayed some on a rag and wiped the headlight down being very careful not to get it onto any painted surface and I was amazed to see how well it worked. That was 2 weeks ago and NONE of the haze has come back so far, though usually it would have already begun to haze up again. Just thought I'd share this. I'm gonna keep an eye on this to see how it loox later on and I will keep you posted.