yellowing head lite lens

Mine are yellowing on a 2008 Jinma 284, and I'm not holding my breath that polishing will help. I've restored a lot of headlamps and this plastic just has a different look, as though the yellowing goes all the way through. I hope I'm wrong, I guess there's only one way to find out.

A friend of mine says there is a product sold in motorcycle shops for fairings that removes scratches and restore clarity to the Perspex might be worth a go

Meguiars  sells Clear Plastic Polish #M1008, and Plastic Cleaner #M1708, as well as a Headlight restoration kit, don’t have the # off hand. Mothers has 3 different headlight kits, surprisingly Home Depot sells the same one step kit as Northern Tool for half the price, and 3M’s kit is part# 39008. I sell all of them in my store.

I never seem to have the time, maybe I can try this weekend :unsure:  I’ve heard good things about the Sylvania kit, the other brands don’t come with any UV stabilizers to put on when you’re done, but my vendors don’t carry it. Amazon lists it as their #1 seller. The Chinese aftermarket headlamps for your Dodge are definitely different plastic than the factory ones  so it’s quite possible they source them from different places year to year. When I worked at a GM dealers bodyshop I remember reading there were parts from some 10-15 countries in a Delco radio!

Sorry David, after re-reading your post I see you’re talking about 2005-06 tractors. But yes there are at least different quality grades of plastics, amount of UV resistant chemicals in the make up, thickness, etc. I’m really not expecting any difference after polishing the tractor headlights, they aren’t damaged on the surface other than a thin clearcoat appears to have peeled off, they aren’t dull or cloudy, rather they appear to be thin plastic that has yellowed all the way through. I hope I’m wrong, but I doubt it.

I never realized how expensive some of these products can get. I had a detailer come in for a UV clearcoat product good for about 20 sets of lights:

http://www.prestaproducts.com/Headlight_Sealant__6_5_oz___137306-details.aspx    I’m bringing a few cans in to keep in stock for him or anyone else that would otherwise have a 30 mile round trip to get a can.

SEM products has a similar OEM product: https://www.semproducts.com/refinish-uv-cured-clear/solaraytm-uv-clearcoat     I can see the need for these even at the high price since you shake a can, squirt, and put it back away as compared to mixing catalyzed clear, putting it in a spray gun (which needs a compressor) then cleaning out your gun after 10 seconds use, all while parked in a dealers lot. :good:

This may be slightly off topic, but is there a fix for crazed headlight lenses? My ’08 Ford truck lenses have this issue. New lenses are pricey.

Once the plastic is crazed there is only so much sanding and polishing will do. It will help but….  And you’re right about Ford being insanely proud of their parts,  thus the price of aftermarket headlamps…http://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/ford,2008,f-250+super+duty,6.4l+v8+diesel+turbocharged,1440007,body,headlamp+assembly,10762

Keep in mind that as long as they’re CAPA certified insurance companies will use aftermarket lamps whenever they can get away with it, i.e. deer hit, your fault, the other guys fault if you let them, etc. For a model year 2008 I’d guess around 1/3 0f the trucks on the road have at least one aftermarket exterior lamp on them. :unsure:

Thanks. Appreciate that. :good:

DavidPrivett wrote:

the one requires u/v light either natural or artificial ,I wonder if a halogen light with the glass lens u/v light filter taken out would work?

Quote

   Or a Black light bulb?

Certainly not a body guy, but been doing some work on a 96 car. The lenses were pretty hazy and yellow. Saw where sand them with 400 grit then 800 grit ( I then used 1000). After that use some clear coat. I used rustoleum gloss clear coat (Most any hardware store has (3-4 dollars a can in the spray paint section). I must say they look absolutely beautiful, almost like new. Really impressive.

Here is pic. Cost to restore, maybe $5.

Wow, that’s impressive. Very nice work. Were they crazed at all before you began?

I had a professor who’s favorite saying was “define your terms”. If you mean by “crazing” hairline cracks and yellowing, then I would say no. I did not see any hairline cracks at all, but imagine a 20 year old headlight. They were very yellow and very hazy. The sanding dust from them was yellow, and after sanding one would wonder if they did the right thing. But apply the clear coat, things just popped.

I imagine that if there were hairline cracks, they may still be visible after this process; maybe they would look better I don’t know. This was the first time I did this. Took about 15 minutes of effort, a couple of different grades of sandpaper, and a can of clear spray. The spray has uv protection in it. All I can say is that it was quite a change with minimal effort and a low cost.

I just noticed that the crazing isn’t visible head-on, only from an angle.

I would expect 3-4 buck clear to have zero UV protection and last 6 months tops before turning flat and dull. Crazing in plastic is usually caused by excessive heat, or a cheap formula (no UV inhibitors)  of plastic. Do the lenses have Ford logos or something like “TYC”? Maybe a Google search to see if it’s a common problem?

I have the regular Sylvania Super Star bulbs, not the high performance ones, but I suppose they might be a higher temp than the OEM bulbs. After reading up on this issue some more, I find that happens even with OEM bulbs, and that it’s not exclusive to Ford. Seems just about all brands have this issue with polycarbonate headlight lenses. I think it’s just a cosmetic issue for now since it doesn’t seem to impact performance. I’ll just see how long they last.