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TEN minute headlight cleaning* (pics)

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Old 09-24-2008, 02:04 PM
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Brasso avail @ Wal-Mart

Originally Posted by omike
Hey, first of all, great tip and great set of headlamps. Can brasso be bought at any auto store? Also, can this be used inside the headlamp to take care of moisture and corrosion?

Thanks.

Ya.. After reading this thread, I went to Walmart at 1 A.M. right before I began to Wet-sand.... Im glad I did that..
Price for the Brasso was 2.67 at the local WalMart..
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Old 09-24-2008, 03:29 PM
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Yea man the oxidation generally is on the outside of the lamp, but not always. Sometimes water can seep through worn down seals creating like a condensation effect or a resovoir water on the interior of the lamp. I think fr33 is speaking about the exterior of the lamp is the area where he applied the brasso.
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Old 10-01-2008, 10:55 PM
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Clearing the Head lights

Does anyone know if you can use any of this stuff on a VW Jetta. My GF headlights are plastic and I really need to remove all the yellow on them without damaging the paint or the lense.
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Old 10-12-2008, 04:06 PM
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dude that looks really good man, nice job
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Old 10-27-2008, 05:19 PM
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WOW!!!!!

Awesome is all I have to say! This stuff works great and my lights look like new again! Thanks Fr33Way for letting us know!

BTW, that coat of wax at the end really is the finishing touch


Steve
2003 SE/TE 6MT
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Old 10-27-2008, 07:34 PM
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Glad to see this is still going, for those wondering what it will work on remember try a small TEST SECTION before you go to town with it.
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Old 10-27-2008, 09:07 PM
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I'm goin. To save this thread. Very useful thanks
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Old 10-28-2008, 05:50 AM
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Brasso is supposed to work very well... I've done the whole wet-sanding + respraying clear, works out well too.... just take a lot more time :P
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Old 10-31-2008, 06:41 PM
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Well, I just did this today after work and the result is incredible. I just used one sponge to wipe on the Brasso and rubbed for about 2 minutes, then used another sponge to rub it all back off. If my girl didn't have the camera I would have done a before/after. It makes sense. What causes brass to turn dark? Oxidation. What causes modern headlights to go foggy? Oxidation. Thus Brasso takes care of it. Thank you so much for the tip. This is my first post here. I just got my first Maxima last week and the headlights were buggin' me bigtime. I'll post a shot of it when I have time. In the meanwhile, nice to read all this stuff. I'm loving my '99 GXE, already replaced all the struts since I have a winding hilly ride to work every day. It's an awesome ride.
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Old 12-29-2008, 12:30 PM
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Originally Posted by EH STEVE!!
Awesome is all I have to say! This stuff works great and my lights look like new again! Thanks Fr33Way for letting us know!

BTW, that coat of wax at the end really is the finishing touch


Steve
2003 SE/TE 6MT

+1
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Old 01-12-2009, 07:34 PM
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i tried the sandpaper trick this past weekend and it worked only a little...ima have to try this brasso stuff...
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Old 01-12-2009, 09:01 PM
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what section of the store is this located??
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Old 01-12-2009, 11:44 PM
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Originally Posted by NardGoHard
what section of the store is this located??
I found mine at Lowes - Detergents section.

I still think mothers Mag is better though.
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Old 02-12-2009, 07:21 AM
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I have a 2000 passat . It appears the headlights are foged on the inside . Can they be cleaned . If so how do you take them apart.
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Old 03-06-2009, 07:28 PM
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I am going to have to try this Brasso stuff. I would like to try it on rear lights. Has anyone done this?
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Old 03-08-2009, 12:21 PM
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brasso, the marine corps favorite thing...i shall be doing this soon
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Old 03-10-2009, 03:55 PM
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That's a hell of a trick.my friends civic has that same problem so I'm gonna tell him to try that..thanks alot
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Old 03-11-2009, 06:11 PM
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great tip
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Old 03-11-2009, 11:06 PM
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Okay, I was just gifted a 2000 Maxima and the lenses were totally toast. They were yellow, splotchy, and had some small pits and cracks. It looks like they were hit by a swarm of bugs and the guts soaked in. Anyway, I went to Autozone and asked for a "headlight restoration kit" and a guy pointed me to the stuff that "really works."

The Kit was one from 3M, it only cost me 20 bucks. It comes with a drill insert, foam pad, 6 rough disks, 2 fine disks, a clayish wetsanding pad, a buffer, and finally 3m headlight polish. I spent lots of time sanding off the yellow, smoothing out that sanding with a fine pad, a wet sanding/polishing, and then finally I buffed it out. IT WENT FROM MILKY YELLOW TO NEAR GLASS!!!

It was amazing! It couldn't remove the deep fractures but it made my car look brand new!




The left side is the hazy yellow lens, it looked much MUCH worse in person, and the right side looks brand new.
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Old 03-12-2009, 06:52 PM
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i did the brasso trick as well when i ae'd my headlights and it did wonders..

before brasso





and after one application


and finished product.

Last edited by 1HotA32; 03-12-2009 at 06:56 PM.
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Old 03-17-2009, 09:49 PM
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it seems like the 6th gen maximas have a weird coating on them. Kinda reflects blue or something. Mine are starting to get some hazing around the top edges. Will these products remove that ??
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Old 03-21-2009, 01:02 PM
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cant hurt to try it the brasso costed me bout 5 bucks..
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Old 03-25-2009, 05:22 AM
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Real Nice Job!
My boy treid to convince me to wetsand my heads, his came out much cleaner (not as much as yours) but a big difference was visible. There was only one problem:

I dont know if these heads come with a filtering sheet of lens or something of that sort, because he only cleaned one of them, yea strangly the projection of the light is far worse. I know when it is dirty the light has a more scattered and broad look, but the light coming from the cleaned lens looks handicap.

All we could think was that the lens is a certain thickness for a reason and he may have sanded too deep.

Anyone ran into this problem?
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Old 03-30-2009, 07:37 PM
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Damnnn, came out perfect!
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Old 03-31-2009, 09:44 AM
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Have any of your guys used banking soda toothpaste to clean your lenses? I heard it works pretty good as well.
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Old 03-31-2009, 09:44 AM
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Excuse me, i meant baking soda...
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Old 03-31-2009, 09:49 AM
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came out really good man!

baking soda toothpaste dont work as well, i tried?
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Old 04-01-2009, 08:32 AM
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I started off with 600 grit sandpaper on mine and went up to 1600 then polish. They look brand new.
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Old 04-08-2009, 08:08 PM
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gonna try this when I get the chance. should definitely sticky this.
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Old 04-08-2009, 08:24 PM
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wait this is probably a stupid question but what happens if I applied this stuff on my rims?
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Old 04-08-2009, 08:46 PM
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a fine grade clay bar works pretty good too, just when you are washing the car, while its stil suddzy run the clay bar over the lights af few times should come right up
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Old 04-14-2009, 08:09 AM
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hello all, i dont have the ***** to go at headlights with some sandpaper but I got one for yall. im sure its been done before but it worked great. the headlights on my moms mustang were awful, they felt like sand paper and night time visibility was ****. I tried everything I could think of, nothing worked. Well I found an old jar of turtle wax rubbing compound, very gritty. So i got out the CORDED drill and went to town on them. Spent about an hour on each all together. I used rubbing compound, polish, meguiaras(?) next gen and plastx. They look brand new now. Just a little FYI for everyone.
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Old 04-16-2009, 06:52 PM
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Billion angle before and after!

I picked up some Brasso last night for like $3 and some change at Home Depot. The headlights on my 2002 were mildly hazy; some of it was probably surface grime since I haven't washed my car in a good while ( ), but nonetheless. I also have a 2003 with a comparatively diminutive degree of haziness, so I'm going to do the same thing to it when I get the time.

This is what I started with:






I used two shop towels to apply / wipe, careful to avoid the paint....gave one arm a thorough workout....and I didn't wax / polish at the end. Took me maybe 30 minutes. Here are my results:





I am confident I could have made them look even better with more time, more effort, a wash in between and a polish. Too bad I'm lazy. But I was pleased with the result and will keep a bottle of this stuff around.
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Old 04-16-2009, 06:55 PM
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Very nice, minivan!

Last edited by 00MaxSE; 04-16-2009 at 07:00 PM.
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Old 04-16-2009, 07:04 PM
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Minivan......

That damn name follows me everywhere.....
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Old 04-16-2009, 07:06 PM
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You'll have to tell me the orgins of it someday.
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Old 04-18-2009, 06:07 PM
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Is it possible for the inside of the headlight lens to become oxidized? Or is it only on the outer layer?
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Old 04-18-2009, 10:38 PM
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I was in Advance Auto Parts yesterday and saw this new product by Meguiar's. It appears to be just PlastX and a buffing pad.

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Old 04-18-2009, 10:42 PM
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Originally Posted by tigersharkdude
Well I found an old jar of turtle wax rubbing compound, very gritty. So i got out the CORDED drill and went to town on them. Spent about an hour on each all together. I used rubbing compound, polish, meguiaras(?) next gen and plastx. They look brand new now. Just a little FYI for everyone.
What kind of attachment did you use on the drill? Did you use the rubbing compound dry or add some water?
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Old 04-19-2009, 02:52 PM
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i used a powerball attachment on the drill. The rubbing compound was a little wet, it slung everywhere!
No before pics, but believe me they were ****** up. Felt like sandpaper and were very vellow

Last edited by tigersharkdude; 04-19-2009 at 02:56 PM.
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