Often overlooked cleaning your headlamp lenses, corner lenses and tail light lenses can make a very big difference and protect them from further damage

Headlight / lense cleaning 101 by Matt P. of http://www.phatkokracing.com

I've decided to write this up because it's a fun little project and the results are pretty good. If you have just an extra 20 minutes and about $10 you can take your car that extra step while cleaning it. Often overlooked cleaning your headlamp lenses, corner lenses and tail light lenses can make a very big difference and protect them from further damage. It also cleans up old faded or yellowed lenses making them look like new.

Items needed:
- Standard glass cleaner: any will do, I just used whatever we had in the house
- Plastic cleaner: something with light scratch remover
- Plastic polish
- 1000 - 2000 grit sandpaper (optional)
- a handfull of terry clothes

For the plastic cleaner I used Bluemagic Plastic & Plexiglass Cleaner w/ light scratch remover and for the polish I used Mother Plastic polish. Both can be found at most local auto stores and easily online.

What to do:
It simple really, first thing you need to do is take the standard glass cleaner and clean your lenses as good as possible to remove any loose dirt and bugs or whatever else could be on your lenses. After that take a look at your lenses and see what sorta scratches / chips / dings / fading and so forth.

*If you have bad fading and some decent chips or scratches bust out the sand paper.*

*If you don't think you need to sand just skip the sanding section and move on to the next one.*

sanding:
Don't be scurred to sand your lenses, if you are worried just do a tiny section to practice on and assure yourself you are doing it correctly.

Start by spraying the outer lenses with water. Take some 1000 grit sand paper and in a NON circular motion start sanding out any big scratches or dings. Keep the lense wet and stop periodically so you can wipe it off and take a look at your progress. After you've smoothed out the lenses with the 1000 grit move on to 1500 grit. Continue the same steps as with the 1000. Then move on to the 2000 grit.

cleaning:
After you've finished sanding with the 2000 grit take the basic glass cleaner and clean your lense off as good as posssible and make sure they are dry afterwards.

Then take your plastic & plexiglass cleaner (ie; blue magic) and apply a generous amount to a clean terry cloth or whatever you use to wax your car with. Working in a NON circular motion wipe your whole lense with a little force but not to much. The chemicals and solvants will do the job for the most part. After you've wiped the whole lense take a clean cloth and wipe clean / dry.

Polishing:
Now that your lense is as clean as it can get take your plastic polish (ie: mothers plastic polish) and pour a generous amount onto a terry towel or whatever you use to wax your car with. Polish the whole lense in a circular motion and allow the polish to dry (just like a wax). After that buff out or wipe off with a clean cloth or terry towel.

You can repeat the cleaning & polishing steps again if you want that EXTRA shine but just one coat of each seems to work pretty good..

that's it!!! you now have a super shiney lense and the whole process doesn't take more then 15 - 20 minutes to do both headlights (if you do them at the same time).

here's some pictures I snapped.

here we have a picture of two old and dirty headlights: