I just did my sons 2010 Honda Civic on Sunday for the second time. The first time was about a year and a half ago. I used the Mequire headlight restoration kit. They came out nice, but not as good as new. Next time around I will use a more heavy grit sand paper for the first cleaning and in the end use a rattle can to see if it will hold up longer. I've looked at a new set of headlights but as he moves up in his job he is hinting he may want a new car.

Grin and bear it.

The plastic headlights are a polycarbonate commonly called Lexan.

Lexan was developed for the space program to give high impact resistance to the space helmet visors.

During WWII, Plexiglas was used in aircraft windshields. The difference being that they needed an easily molded material that stayed clear.
Lexan was used in the space program because they were interested in impact and not long clearity. This I learned during a 1968 secession at Houston NASA from the man responsible for developing everything directly related to the astronaut.

Over the past 48+ years, I have used protective glazing for many of my church stained glass windows. Other companies were promoting the use of Lexan, so I had to do a certain amount of educating. First, the Lexan was more than double the price of Plexiglas, it would yellow and become completely opaque within fifteen years in a sunny environment, and the impact resistance would rapidly decrease. Whereas Plexiglas had a greater impact resistance than tempered glass and would never yellow.

I wonder why the auto industry has not used Plexiglas from day one, knowing the limitations of Lexan?
.

I buy a new car when that happens

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Followed it up with a coat (maybe multiple coats, I don't recall) of clear coat, once the lenses were cleaned up to his satisfaction.

What type/brand of clear coat?

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Originally posted by chellim1:

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Followed it up with a coat (maybe multiple coats, I don't recall) of clear coat, once the lenses were cleaned up to his satisfaction.

What type/brand of clear coat?

No idea, honestly, it's been a few years.

I have a '97 Toyota Corolla DX and bought the entire headlamp and turn signal package for both sides for less than $75 on Amazon in 2016. I put less than 200 miles/month on that car, but the headlamps/lenses still look great! Looks like they might have what you need as well...

http://a.co/dQTqHcO

As someone who is fanatical about auto detailing let me share a bit of reality with you concerning headlights.

• All current headlights discolor with time.
• There is no way to prevent discoloration from happening (that I'm aware of today).
• There are kits to remove the hazing but they also remove what little protection came with the stock headlight, resulting in it discoloring even quicker the second time.
• The only real solution to resolving the hazing is to replace the headlight assembly.

I recently replaced both headlight assemblies in my mother-in-laws 2006 Honda Civic. It was a simple and somewhat quick job. I bought the assemblies from Rockauto.com for around $65 each. She should get several years out of those assemblies before any more attention is needed.

I drive a 1986 Olds Cutlass. When my headlights get dirty I get out the Windex and a paper towel and give them a good cleaning.

PS; for you youngsters who don't get the point my headlights are SEALED BEAM GLASS headlights. Sometimes what you think is better isn't actually better. Which is why I drive a car made more than 30 years ago.

I have used the rerstore product but also found aggressive paint products like Scratch X or Poorbooys SSR 2.5 work great.

If you really want to do it right wet sand them first. I think I used 2000/1500/1000 on my sons old mustang that was horrible and then polished with a Porter Cable 7424 w/ orange pad using above mentioned products. I did not spray with cleat but did put a couple of coats of a good wax on and they lasted a long time in the AZ sun