Headlights were SO DIM!

June 09, 2011, 01:48:37 PM

I really hated how the headlights in my 87 Bird were so dim. I could see the shadow of my car in my headlight beams from the cars headlights that were behind me. Seeing how I'm starting a night job I'm gonna need to see on the way home. After I replaced the fuel pump yesterday. I pulled both headlights off the car. I had already sanded and polished the lens but still seemed like no light was really coming out of the lights. So I slowly worked around the edge of the lens and pried the lens from the reflector/bucket. I'm sure that when these were new they had some sort of chrome/reflective stuff to kick the light out of the unit. Wow all I could find inside of mine was some Dull Gray plastic. I took washed them out they were dirty nasty also. After I cleaned them all up and got them dry. I was thinking about some of the chrome paint to coat them in and then I seen I had roll of chrome tape and gave that a shot. The tape was pretty wrinkly so I was worried a little. It wasn't a big deal because just like Bare Metal Foil it formed into shape pretty decent. I still got some wrinkles in the foil but under the lens you have to really look to see them. Before I put them back together I removed all of the old Yellow/Gray glue so that was not a problem. Then I used Silicone to put them back together. After all that work I wasn't happy with how the headlights looked decent and the rest of the lights looked like ASS. So I pulled them all off gave them a sanding and buffing. They all looked much better but were missing that real super new shine. So I gave them all a couple of lights coats with some Clear. Now they look much better than before.

Hope this helps someone
Stuckman

Headlights were SO DIM!

Reply #1 – June 09, 2011, 05:51:43 PM

Nice work. I've spent countless hours wet-sanding and polishing my headlights to preserve as much clarity as possible. My latest experiment will (hopefully) prove my theory that it's UV exposure that turns 'em yellow. I performed the traditional wet-sand and polish routine, but I shot them with a special UV-blocking clearcoat when I was done. I will see over the next few months if it works or not.

Headlights were SO DIM!

Reply #2 – June 10, 2011, 10:15:13 AM

Most all of the auto paint clears are UV blocking. That is the main purpose of the clear coat on the the cars. Protect that paint. Like mine I hope it works out for you. I know I've seen kits on E-bay and Youtube that show how the UV protection comes off the lights and for there one small fee you can buy there kits and make your lights all better. Last night was the first time I got to test my redone headlights. Man what a difference that makes . I can see at night and not just 3feet of the end of the hood either. Now I can see down the road. It also lights up road signs like new cars do. I also had one person bright light me thinking I had my hi beams on. I guess I need to check the headlight adjustments now that they are working good.

Me again Margret
Stuckman