Bruce In Philly

2009 C2S 188K miles

See pics below. For all these years and miles, they look great. Her Lexus lights turned yellow and I had an acquaintance in the business do them using commercial products. The issue with my lights is primarily pitting and some odd clouds in them. At first I thought they were worse than they were... for this post, I used some glass cleaner on them and I was surprised how well they cleaned up! To the touch, the lenses feel really rough.

1 - What are the risks in doing this project?
2 - Are the rewards worth any risk?
3 - Will these systems address the pitting?

I am leaning to using the Sylvania system ... after all Project Farm said so!! The Sylvania kit claims to remove yellow and cloudiness.... I think the biggest issue I have is pitting but I do have some odd clouding/stains.

I am amazed that after all these years and miles, my lights are not yellowed and have done as well as they did.

See this 997 thread for more information: https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...storation.html

Peace
Bruce in Philly (now Atlanta)

My current condition...




Enhanced badnes.... now I positioned a light far to the side to exacerbate the problems... but they are not bad





Project Farm Kit Evaluation:

Meraki Autoworks

Doesn't hurt to try. Lot of our clients have been doing full headlights replacement with Morimoto ones..

https://merakiautoworks.com/products...led-headlights

-Josh

Floyd540

Yelp. Sand 'em down and buff them out. It is a mechanical problem. Just like the paint on the car, they see all the grit thrown up on the road. the pits may be too deep to totally sand out. Let the light be with you!

PV997

There are several reports in the forum of people blowing out one of the 997 front-end modules from electrostatic discharge during the buffing. It's recommended to remove the headlights from the car prior to buffing them. Fortunately they are easy to remove using the supplied tool with the lock/unlock mechanism accessible from the frunk.

Ironman88

If you plan on doing the sanding by hand, if you start now, you should be finished in time for Christmas 2025.

And you'll still have pits in those lenses.

I would recommend using a machine with a 3-inch backing pad.

Fracture

+ 1 on the Sylvania kit - I used it last year and my headlights were not nearly as
decayed as yours - the area over the ribbed section was rough to the touch




I think I spent a casual 90 minutes or so




If I were to do this again I'd look for a spray UV protector
the liquid applied with the wiper thing was ok, but I'm comfortable with
spraying

vokain

​​​​​​​I've seen these being hocked on Facebook 997 groups but I don't want to miss the dynamic headlights

anewman

Do it Bruce. You’ll wonder why you waited once you see the results. Be sure that whatever system you use comes with a UV blocking finish coat to prevent premature yellowing like they came from the factory.

Petza914

For sure do it. Remove the lights from the car though as static of rubbing the headlights car fry the front control module.

I used the Sylvania Kit on a BMW X5 that turned out great. Once you've completed the polishing and coating, have them PPF wrapped so they stay like that for years. The wipe on coating only lasts about a year.

jmanbball

My 987 headlights are looking similar to yours. When I finally decide to do mine, I'll be using the Spray 2k coating. It's a 2 part catalyzed coating that should hold up much better than 1 part wipe on or spray coating. https://www.spraymax.com/en-us/produ...oration-clear/

Bruce In Philly

Thanx all.... I ordered the Sylvania kit... not available in the auto parts stores as of this time... ordered from Amazon with a Friday delivery. But this spray on stuff intrigues me. Hmmm.....

I noted I had an aquaintence do Her Lexus.... the guy is a retired employee of Chrysler and worked in one of their assembly plants. He still has his name in suppier's systems and can still order commercial products. He has a little business doing headlights for dealerships and used car lots. He does the work by hand sanding and then used a rattle can spray on product... no label on the can. I lost touch with him.

So given that I have an instinct to "make it better", so I use this spray stuff and not the Sylvania stuff? Any more data on this stuff? Anything better?

Peace
Bruce in Philly (now Atlanta)

Floyd540

Refinishing headlights is a mechanical thing. If you paint cars, you already have everything you need. It is the same as color sanding and then buffing out the final color coat or the clear coat on two stage paint. Use a grit to start with that is appropriate for the amount of damage to the light. This could be 600, 800 0r 1200. Go thru the grits until you use your 2500 and then buff. I use Norton Ice products on automotive paint and headlights. Be very,very careful on using a spray coating on the Polycarbonate lens when you are done. If you do not know what it is then do not use it. Remember the disaster thread about alcohol?
By the way, Spraymax products are all top notch. If they say it is compatible with PC, then it would be good. Watch out for friction heat and static. Keep the surface wet.

Khloesdad

I took mine to a professional Paint correction guy. He did an amazing job.

myw

any of the kits will work. its it is primarily water sanding to 1000 grit.. and then 2000 ... finished off with plastic polish. The kits will come with a pads that u can attach to an electric screwDriver as a makeshift orbiter to speed things up.

On my lexus daily - i have done this on the handlamps the old school way by just using whatever sandpaper etc i had left over without buying a kit. Same results - there are TONS of excellent youTube videos from carDetailers that show you how this can be done too.

Ive had fog lamps that were so bad that i had to go down I 400 grit - after 400, back to 800, 1500 then 2000... + plastic polish they were absolutely brand new and had them PPF'd after.

make sure you seal the headlamps or PPF them to protect them moving forward - cant wait to see the final result!

okbarnett

if you get them clean put ppf or headlight film on them