As a recently new owner of a Copen I am going over the car looking at what needs to be done to make her truly wonderful. I have found so much information out from these forums, which is great but con not find anything relating to misty/foggy head lights. Has anyone else had a similar issue and how was it resolved. Cheers
Another new Copen owner in Soton - greetings ! I’ve similar ‘problems’ with our recent acquisition, and I’m trying to work out whether it’s moisture inside the lights, or hazing of lens itself but I suspect there’s a little of both. Not wanting to dig too deep under the wheel arches just yet, I was going to try some ultra fine wet and dry paper (plenty of masking on the surrounding panels) followed by some metal polish on a mop to see if that’ll do the job. I seem to remember rumours that toothpaste can also do a pretty good job of polishing too. Depending on that how goes I might then look into popping them out and having a look to see how well they’re sealed up, but that’s apparently a bumper off job which I’ll probably save until the summer when we don’t need Dobby for the school run and kill several rusty birds with one stone.
Foggy from the inside because of condensation or foggy from the outside because of wear? If it's the latter, you could try the following: Just don't do it in Germany, its forbidden
after headlight cleaning you need some of this ones too..https://www.amazon.com/Meguiars-G17804-Clear-Headlight-Coating/dp/B01M4RVVX6 sali doesnt need it he s driving a raty repro car.
Dirk Thrust, yes I seem to remember seeing somewhere about tooth paste being good at polishing too. Like you I will try the polishing first before taking the front of the car off to replace them. Cheers Salieri and Welz for the advice and vids on how to clean them. Yesterday I attempted to change the spark plugs (I'm not great with cars and its been 30 years since I last worked on one), Didn't realise I had to dismantle the top part of the engine, so will be doing it today!
Nip to Halfords and buy a bottle of PlastRX (now a tenner but was cheaper) and any old applicator pad or microfibre cloth. Mask the paintwork under the light, lift the bonnet, and make with the elbow grease. It cleared my MX-5 lights a treat. I did it in September and they’re still looking good.
There’s an interesting (?) thread on this over on Pistonheads, Polishing plastic headlights with toothpaste? - Page 1 - General Gassing - PistonHeads Seems all these approaches might work, but I confess I like to try out the low-tech (read: “cheap”) options myself first !
I didnt read all the info , but this is what I do , give the lights a wash , get 2000 wet and dry and give it a rub in all directions use a garden hose while you rubbing it back . dry it off and check if all of the area is now dull . get some cut and pollish , or just cut and spend 5 min or so polishing the dull lights . job done ,
Hi Lex, Hope you did not forget the UV blocker.. like this https://www.amazon.com/SYLVANIA-Headlight-Restoration-Headlights-Protection/dp/B01KIVYE6G
I agree with @welz that a UV blocker is useful but I didn’t use one on the MX-5. 10 months on and the main lens is still clear but a little bit of fringing around the edge of the unit, possibly because I didn’t want to catch the paint and the Mazda lights are recessed. I’ve just (as in today) given both lenses a very light polish again with RX mainly because of light scratches from driving.
hi folks no i dont use the blocker ... i just do this on a regular base , doesnt take long , about 15 min all up . long time no hear from you welz but i might do it next time before i rub thru the plastic lol
Hi....I tried toothpaste but didn't quite do it, and that was with elbow grease to!!....so not impressed.
