Photo from unsplash

Originally Posted On: What Is Headlight Restoration and What Are the Benefits? (quality1dent.com)

 

Driving around with worn-down headlights can be more dangerous than you think.

If you’ve noticed your headlights turning yellow and hazy, it’s probably time to look into headlight restoration by a professional. If you leave your headlights cloudy and yellow for too long, they can reduce your visibility by almost 80%.

Read on to find out how headlight restoration can not only rejuvenate the look of your car but keep you safe.

When You Should Consider Headlight Restoration

Sun, rain, and snow can be tough on headlights. Over time your plastic headlight covers will start to yellow and get cloudy or hazy. This kind of cloudy look can prevent you from seeing properly at night and in bad weather.

This yellowing of the headlight is from oxidation which is caused by UV light. Most headlights on new cars come with a coating to prevent this from happening, but the coating wears off over the years.

When flying debris from years of driving hits your headlights, this can also cause nicks and scratches, contributing to the hazy, cloudy look of headlights.

If the waterproof seal on your headlights has broken, this can also lead to cloudy headlights. Condensation can get into your headlight casing, which can obscure the light and lower your visibility.

If you notice your headlights have this kind of appearance, you should reach out to a qualified mechanic to discuss your headlight restoration options.

Benefits of Headlight Restoration

Restoring your headlights to like-new condition comes with a variety of benefits. These range from cosmetic to ensuring the safety of yourself and others:

Physical Appearance

No one wants to drive in a vehicle with old, yellow headlights. It’s an indicator that you don’t take care of your vehicle. If you are hoping to sell your car at some point, headlight restoration is a great way to increase your vehicle’s resale value.

Safety

It would be best if you were behind the wheel of a safe vehicle. When your lights have reduced luminance, it is harder to see. If you are driving at night or live in a place with snow and bad weather, powerful working headlights are essential.

Regular headlight maintenance will keep you, your passengers, and the other people on the road safe.

Saves You Money

A lot of people don’t realize that you can restore your headlights instead of replacing them. By getting your headlights restored instead, you can save money on having to replace them entirely, which can be very costly.

Taking your vehicle to a professional to have your headlights restored is also more cost-effective. If you try to fix them yourself but don’t do it right, you can damage the lights. At that point, you now have a more costly fix, and you wasted all that money on the supplies you bought to try it yourself.

How to Restore Headlights

The best way to restore headlights is to bring them to a professional. You can find DIY kits on the market, but some require power tools and know-how you may not have.

You may find some “life hacks” that will walk you through how to restore your headlights yourself. The thing is, if you do it wrong, you’ll probably be back in the shop anyway, and you may have caused more of a problem. It’s best to hire a professional right off the bat who knows what they’re doing.

When you hire a professional, you know for sure that the headlight restoration cost will be worth it. A three-year warranty on the work isn’t too bad either.

If you have polycarbonate headlights, they are also coated in a UV hard coat that can oxidize over time. When headlights are not taken care of properly or restored with care, you can get micro-cracks. These types of cracks can do some severe damage to the polycarbonate itself, which can lead to more expensive repairs or replacements down the road.

DIY Headlight Restoration

If you do want to attempt to do a headlight restoration yourself, there are DIY kits you can find, or you use sandpaper, masking tape, and a polishing cloth.

First, you want to tape off the light so you won’t scratch the paint on your car. Once you’re taped off, sand with 1500 grit sandpaper in a horizontal direction. After that, you want to rinse off your headlight and sand vertically. To finish off, you want to use a polishing agent and buff your headlights.

Some people recommend using toothpaste or other household products to polish your headlights.

The reality is if you do it this way, you’ll likely have to keep restoring your headlights every one to three months. This can be time-consuming and expensive. If you go to a professional, they can do the job right, and their work will last for years instead of months.

Ready to Restore Your Headlights?

Not fixing your cloudy yellow headlights can be costly if you require a total replacement. If you aren’t able to see properly at night, it can also become a real safety issue.

You can attempt to restore your headlights yourself, but you will likely have to keep repeating the process, and it won’t necessarily help with future yellowing. Using a professional service is a way to ensure your headlights are sparkling clean for years to come.

Book your one-hour headlight restoration service and enjoy the confidence of a high-quality repair with a trusted professional.