Clean up your tail lights

Ok. I have finished one, and hopefully over the weekend I will do the other and get some good process pictures, mabye make a writeup. Basically I wanted to clean up the tail lights, without going to the detail of wetsanding and micro polishing that gets you into the realm of diminishing returns. I have done this same process with headlights too, so those of you wanting to clean up a newer model composite headlight car with foggy lenses, this will work there too.

You need:

McGuire's Plastix - it is a white bottled liquid polish for plastics carried at most auto stores - bout $7

Foam sanding sponge 100grit will work fine, finer if you want. I use the foam ones because they conform well - $3ish

a good terry towel or microfiber.

Tear your tail lights apart if they are already separating. This one was only held together with the outside mounting screws, so it was very easy for me, and the other one does not look much harder. Soak them in a hot water and dish soap solution to loosen up the grit and dirt. Go watch a TV show and drink a beer. I enjoyed a nice Yeungling. Come back and clean them up with some scrubbing, and old tooth brush worked great. get them good and clean. Then clean them again.

Next I took an exacto knife and took a lot of the plastic flash and old adhesive off both the light and plastic lens. Now the fun part. My lenses were oxidized pretty bad. The outside of the lens was were 90% of it was. This is good since it is very smooth there. Take the sand paper and lightly scuff the oxidation. The light should become lightly white and uniform. Not too rough or heavy, you do not want to gouge the plastic. You also want to keep it pretty unidirectional. Rince the powder off. Should look better wet.

Next you take the Plastix and squirt a nice gob on the lens. Start rubbing it in in circular patterns. If you shine shoes, just like that. Keep doing it. I put Top Gun in and watched it. After all of the polish is smeared out into a thin film, move to another part of the light and work there. Then come back and work this section. Then the other, then back. Take a break and flex your hand, then come back and do it again.

The end result should turn out a bit like:

I polished the first pic a time or two more to get the final result seen with the tools used, the description sounds harder than it is.

enjoy, hope this helps. I am very happy with the results.

Holy crap!!!! Man those look freakin great. I'll send you mine.. How much??? :yes:

I used a nice permatex black silicone sealer to stick it back together, nice thick bead should help to keep the water out. Keep in mind to be easy with the sander. I am hoping to have a better writeup soon.

I used a nice permatex black silicone sealer to stick it back together, nice thick bead should help to keep the water out. Keep in mind to be easy with the sander. I am hoping to have a better writeup soon.

I was about to say this should go into the DIY

Nice job!

Yea...that PlastX is great stuff. It also does wonders on the faded plastic headlights ;)

Great job on those tails :cheers:

use a Mothers Mini Powerball, really cuts down on the elbow work

use a Mothers Mini Powerball, really cuts down on the elbow work

it does to an extent. Worked great on the headlights I have done. I am not sure how well it would have gone through the angles and corners of the tail light though. You could use it for the bulk of the work though.

100 grit sandpaper seems really rough. I'm surprised you could polish out the scratches by hand or at all for that matter. Not knocking your post. Those things looks awesome. I'm gonna do the same to mine. I'm just a little leary about the 100 grit part.

100 grit sandpaper seems really rough. I'm surprised you could polish out the scratches by hand or at all for that matter. Not knocking your post. Those things looks awesome. I'm gonna do the same to mine. I'm just a little leary about the 100 grit part.

I just looked, it is a yellow sanding sponge and 320 grit. I got it and my other one mixed up. Still not 1000 though. Only light sanding is typically needed.

I just followed your directions on subaru headlights (girlfriends). It worked great, I added one step I used 600 grit paper between the 320 and plast-x to cut down on polishing time. They had 200,000 miles on them and they were a mess.

Anyone know how to remove the lens from the housing? Mine are stuck together pretty good. I planned on baking it in the oven to loosen up the glue that holds it together. Wondering if anyone had a better idea.

might want to post that up in the Tech forum so more eyes will see it. :thumbsup:

I used a thin flathead and worked it slowly around the edge, but mine were coming apart already.

The baking method worked pretty well. 15 minutes at 200 degrees loosened them up and I was able to pull them apart with a putty knife.

The lights look good. :yes: I put this advice/idea to use on an extra pair of tail lights I had. I took a slightly more lazy approach :shake: , but I still like the outcome :thumbsup: . I cleaned them up real good, but I didn't separate the lenses from theirs housings (so I just polished the outside). I still used 320 grit sand paper, a terry towel, and Mequir's Plastx. You just have to make sure all the water drains out of the bulb inlets and let it dry before you re-install it.

Well I'll be doing this. Good writeup!

Love the tech lesson guys. Great job and information

Sub'd I have a few spare pairs I should try this on

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