More permanant fix for the yellowing headlights

[Legacy777]

Just had a talk with a guy at a body shop today. He was telling me how to fix the yellowing headlights, and pretty much for a much longer time then the persistant cleaning.

He said to use some higher grit sand paper, 400-600, prob use wet as final step.

This should clean the yellow off. Then paint the lenses with clear coat paint. The clear coat helps protect the plastic lense from oxidizing.

[ciper]

Interesting, is it possible to remove the lense from the housing easily in order to do both sides?

[entirelyturbo]

Hmmm, that sounds very promising, I might try that...

No, there is no way to take the plastic off without breaking the seal, already tried it, I don't think much yellowing occurs inside anyway...

[vrg3]

You can take the plastic off. I did it yesterday after reading Jason's post about JDM headlights.

You have to be careful not to let the inside of the lamp get dirty or too humid or anything, but don't be too worried about breaking the seal; these aren't sealed headlamps anyway. Consider the fact that you open a big hole in them when you change the bulbs.

To open up a 92-94 headlight, I first pried off the four clips that hold the lens to the housing. These little guys look like they're metal but are actually chrome-colored plastic, so be careful not to break them. After that, I set my oven at its lowest temperature (250 degrees F) and baked the headlight for about 5 minutes, and then checked if I could pull the housing and lens apart. I couldn't, so I kept baking it, checking every few minutes. Eventually the adhesive holding it together softens enough for you to pull it apart. It'll get hot enough that you'll want to wear oven mitts or something.

I haven't put it back together yet, but I'm pretty sure it will work fine to just heat it back up and press the lens onto the housing. Then I can put the clips back on (although they don't actually appear to serve a purpose).

The lens can be a lot easier to work on when it's separated from the lens, but make sure not to contaminate or rub off the adhesive too much. I'm sure you could replace it with some other adhesive if you do, though...

[Legacy777]

yeah I think you could do as vrg3 mentioned and take the lenses apart and clean them.

Since I have another set, I will experiment & play with the ones that are really really yellow and are on the car.

I'll probably have to replace the adheasive with something else because I'm sure It'll come off from cleaning the inside and outside of the lens.