Polishing yellowed signal lights

[Mr. Flibble]

I had severely yellowed signal lights on my L400. I thought I would have to buy new ones to replace them as they looked pretty terrible next to my new factory headlights.

In speaking with Glen from CC auto he recommended Meguiar's headlight restoration kit. I looked it up on the net, and after careful searching finally found some in the Wal Mart in Penticton. (I could not find it anywhere else I looked in the last 2 weeks!)

Before I tried Meguiar's, I tried a trick I saw on youtube. Toothpaste and a cloth, and lots of elbow grease to remove a layer of the yellowed plastic. I can say this. It works, however, I prefer Meguiar's for the $20 it costs as I don't have that much elbow grease left in my elbows....

Meguiar's comes with a drill buffing pad, and that makes all the difference in the world:

Before

Before Polishing

Before.jpg (90.15 KiB) Viewed 2231 times

And, after Polishing (with masking tape still on bodywork to prevent the paint from being polished off):

After Polish

after.jpg (104.63 KiB) Viewed 2231 times

Unfortunately the sun moved while I was taking photos, so the after photo is more brightly lit. Sorry about that.

You can actually see into the lens now from a distance, and it looks much clearer, so there will be no need to replace my signals. However, there is still a yellow tint to the plastic, but this comes from inside the lens where I can't polish the yellow out. It is not as severe as the yellowing was on the exterior however.

[luckydad]

I once bought a used tail light for my car at the wreckers. It was pretty dull but I could not find a better one. The seller said: "polish it with Brasso". Got home, tried it and it looked almost new. I guess it is the same idea as toothpaste except that metal polish is a little more aggressive. A little less elbow grease.

Note: I have not tried it on the Blue Traveller yet but you just reminded me that I should.

Thanks,
Phil

[Chewy]

also, if you're in the nanaimo area, I'm rather skilled with a rotary polisher. I'll do a light wetsand and polish for free for any delica owner who needs their headlights or tail lights polished as it's only a 5 minute job and they come out looking brand new.