Allroad Xenon headlights scratched

[mrnice.]

My Allroads Xenon headlight front lenses are quite scratched, it looks like the previous owner got a bit over enthusiastic whilst polishing the bonnet and polished the tops of the plastic light covers as well to the extent of it was noted on the MOT advisory: headlamps deteriorated but light output not reduced" when I viewed the car it had just been washed and as such the headlamps were still damp and so the scratches didnt show up too bad, by the time I had driven home (3 1/2 hours) they had dried out sufficiently and looked really bad.

I have noticed that when wet the scratches are almost unnoticeable, I have applied some Auto Glym Bumper Care to the lights as it contains a transparent coating agent and that has tidied them up considerably but not 100%.

I was wondering if any other members have suffered similiar problems and if so how is the problem overcome?

Is it possible to buy replacement lenses (I very much doubt it) as even second hand replacements are holding their value.

The father in law has a plane and mentioned there is an aviation product that is designed to do just this on the plastic windscreens of light aircraft, he couldnt remember what is was called.

Any help greatly appreciated.

[Peter D]

You can but headlight polishing kits on ebay and the like. It will take you an hour but will do the job. I do not see how car body polich woyld scratch the lenses. I suspect the UV coating is failing so you need to polish it off then polish them each year. Regards Peter

[Kyojitsu]

It depends on how deep the scratches are - if you can run a fingernail across without it catching then they'll probably polish away using a specialist kit.

I used this kit from Meguiars Buy Meguiar's Meguiar's Headlight Restoration Kit from Meguiar's UK (http://www.meguiars.co.uk/product/397/Meguiars-Headlight-Restoration-Kit/) and the results were pretty good if not perfect - the light output is better and the lens is much clearer. There are other more fiddly kits out there which might provide a longer-lasting result but this one is really easy to use and not too expensive. There's also plenty of polish left for repeat treatments.

[allan_audi]

There are numerous kits, I used 3M Headlamp restorer kit, fantastic, headlamps came out crystal clear and looking like new.

I actually bought some uPVC restorer from BnQ couple weeks back and wonder whether that might work on plastic headlamps. Worked wonders around the house so its worth a try for scratches that are not too deep.... I've heard that similar stuff is used for Caravan windows.