crystal clear headlights????

[Bundy]

When I replaced my headlights at mazda, they also gave me an offer if I wanna change the whole headlights or just the plastic clear cover sitting on the light. Changing the cover itself is a little cheaper and I believe that's what I did on one of mine. They also told me that it would take a half day to finish it because of the grew or something that I don't remember exactly. If you blow up the bulb in that housing, it probably burned some plastic inside because those lights get so hot, and I don't know how hot it would be when exploding. Still, if you wanna open it, you'd better go to junk yard and find a good pair of front headlight, or go to Mazda dealership an pay them like $250 for each plastic clear part on the headlights.<P>bungo<P>I used to use compound on mine, but the new ones look much brighter. It's a matter of money we can spend. I had the car accident and blow up my headlights, and that's the reason I got the new ones.

[Stan W.]

Had a paint shop screw up the headlights by trying to wipe off the overspray with acetone (Can you believe that?). Anyway, the acetone "etched" the lenses real bad. Fortunately, the shop agreed to replace both headlights at there expense. Out here in California, Mazda charges two hours of labor ($146)to replace both lamps. The key to removing the headlights is to drop the front bummper. After that it's real easy. Considering the high price of the headlamps ($256 each) and the labor, it was a real favor the paint shop did for me. Now I have crystal-clear lamps. Prior to that, I used various polishes to "rub out" the fine scratches. I made a "homemade" polish of baking soda toothpaste with additional baking soda for more "polishing power." It worked !! As for the use of the higher wattage Xenon bulbs, it sure does get the headlamp assembly much hotter. I suspect that may add in the discoloration process of the lenses. To get the glass shards out of the headlamp assembly, you must remove the headlamp amd shake the shards out. An air hose helps in this matter.<P>Stan

[Skuce]

This is what the "Escort" guys have been doing...and I actually did it to my car..and it worked great.<P><I>Originally posted on 2/28/02 8:46:04 pm by Skuce</I><P>Escorts have a bad History when it comes to headlights. You know how old headlights are barely giving off any usable light because they were all yellow and oxidized (just plain crappy!)<P>Well all you have to do to fix that (and make them equal to a brand new set!!!!) Without having to pay the $100 PER LENS from the Ford Dealership<P><BR><B>Equipment:</B><P>Palmsander (not the round orbitals....but the rectangular ones)<BR>40 or 80 sanding drum (medium small)<BR>220 grit wet/dry silicon carbide sandpaper<BR>320 " " " "<BR>600 " " " "<BR>1500 " " " " " <BR>"Mibro" First Stage hevey cleaning compound<BR>"Mibro" Second Stage medium cleaningcompound<BR>"Mibro" Final Polish compound<BR>Dish detergent (non abrasive)<BR>Water<BR>Buffing disk or wheel<BR>Drill (for the buffing disk)<P><B>Steps:</B><P>1) Take off headlight assemblies from Escort (disconnect wire harness)<P><B>(Do "one" of the following...2a or 2b)</B><P>2a) Don't touch the Headlight alignment nubs and proceed to step 3<P>2b) Sand off the Headlight alignment nubs (if you want to have a cleaner look and can align your headlights on a wall) that come out of your lenses with the sanding drum....be carfull not to scratch the lens surface or you'll just be making more work in the next step<P>3) Get The palm sander and wet sand (with a bit of detergent in the water) with 220 grit to sand the entire surface smooth....including the remainder of the ford logo and the nubs (option 2b) or around the nubs (option 2a) and any scratches<P>4) continue to wet sand the entire surface with each progressive grit <B>really well</B>...320, 600, 1500.<P>6) Dry off the whole lens assembly<P>7) then crack out the buffing disk on the drill (or wheel). Load up the disk with the "heavy" compound and buff out all of the faint swirl marks that the sander left.<P>8 ) after that is done...most of the compound should be worn out of the disk.....load it up with the "medium" and do the same<P>9)Finally load up the disk with a lot of the final polishing compound and do a really thorough job of buffing the entire surface.<P>10) wipe the lense off with a clean cotton cloth and YOUR DONE!!!<P><BR>The head lights with look "near" Crystal clear with no yellow, oxidized crap on it and your blue/white Xenon bulbs will now actually look really good (plus you can actually see at night...bonus!) <P>BTW...the Mibro Polishes you can get at the big Canadain Tire stores in Hardware.

[Skuce]

wow...old post.

but I just edited it so the formatting works again