I was in Pep Boys and saw this Headlight Restoration Kit on sale for $10.00 and figured I'd get it because my headlights were getting pretty faded.
Here's a link to 3M's site for the Kit I got.
http://3mcollision.com/products/hea...headlight-lens-restoration/3m-headlight-lens-restoration-system-39008-4218.html
They say you can do this while the headlights are in the car, and that may be true, but I felt you could do a better job with the headlights out of the car, sitting on a bench, so that's what I did.
This DIY is for a 2001 Camry XLE, 1MZ-FE, but could probably apply to most any Gen 3/4 Camry. YMMV. All you need to remove the headlights is a 10MM wrench, socket and a drill. No other tools are required.
The kit comes with a foam mounted velcro pad that you attach to any drill. There are 6 pieces each of 500 grit, 800 grit sandpaper. One Trizact foam pad, one buffing compound pad, and some buffing compound. The supplies were more than adequate. I ended up using only 2 of the 3 pieces of the 500 grit, 800 grit sandpaper. The Trizact pad, the foam buffing pad and the mounting pad, all cleaned up with water and There's plenty of life left in them.
Here's a shot of what I had left over when I was done. A couple of 500/800 grit sandpaper, the Trizact pad, the buffing pad, and the drill mount. Enough to do a little touch up if necessary.
In order to get the headlights out, you must first remove the turn signal lights. For some odd reason, I couldn't find any procedure in the FSM for doing this. I might have missed it, but there was a mention of it in the Haynes Manual but it was incomplete, and if you followed what they said, you would not be able to remove the turn signal lights. In my Haynes Manual, Chapter 12 page 14, item 19, sub section 2 (sounds like a government contract) they say "Remove the side marker light (see Section 21). Well, section 21 is about Bulb Replacement (??) they go on to say "Remove the retaining bolt, detach the housing and withdraw it from the vehicle. (see illustration) If you tried to do this you would have got nowhere, and been confused. The correct section and illustration is 21.1, page 12-15 upper left hand corner. But the instructions are still wrong. Here's how to do it correctly.
First remove the retaining clip, by gently prying up with a small screwdriver. Pull out the center section, and the larger section should come out easily. It will probably disintegrate when you remove it. You can get these clips from a Toyota Dealer, or maybe an auto parts store. I came up with a different solution. More on that later.
Look down at the edge of the headlight closest to the fender, and between the turn signal light and the headlight, you will see a clip connected to the turn signal that clips into the headlight. Get a long, stout screwdriver, and insert in between the headlight and the turn signal modules. Gently pry on the clip, towards the fender while gently pushing it forward. (This step was left out of the Haynes Manual). Once the clip comes loose, grab the turn signal at the back, and wiggle it towards the front of the car. It should slide right out. Be careful not to push down on the turn signal module, and break the thin tab that attaches to the top of the fender. Here's what the secret tab looks like. Pull the turn signal module out, let it dangle on the side of the car.
Here's a close-up shot of what the retaining clips look like. I might give you a better idea of how to get it loose.
Now you can remove the two bolts on the top of the headlight housing.
And the hidden one, now exposed once the turn signal module has been removed. Once it has been removed you will be able to see the third bolt that holds the headlight assembly. Remove this bolt, and the entire headlight module should be be loose.
Wiggle the headlight module a bit and pull out. You might feel some resistance as you try to wiggle it out. There is a square rubber part that fits tightly in the sheet metal. Here's what it looks like.
Once you get it past the square fitting, the headlight module should be loose. Remove the two wires connectors from the back of the headlight module. It's easier to get them loose once the headlight module is loose. The release tab is at the bottom of the connector. Squeeze the bottom tab, and gently pull down. It should come loose easily. If it doesn't then squeeze harder on the clip. Don't force it.
Here's what the headlight looks like before cleaning. Not bad, but yellowing and not very clear.
With the headlight out and on the bench, mount the velcro pad in the drill and attach a 500 grit piece of sandpaper. Sand the entire surface lightly. If you have an air compressor, blow the dust off as it accumulates on the pad and the headlight. Use a back and forth motion, not pressing too hard. After a couple of minutes, change out the worn out 500 grit for another one. After another few minutes, the heavy scratches should be gone. Squirt some water on the plastic lens to check. If there are still scratches, keep at it with the 500 grit.
Then switch to the 800 grit and this removes the scratches left by the 500 grit paper. Follow the same procedure, sand, blow off the excess, check with water. Swap out the worn 800 grip paper and continue. Here's what it looks like after the 800 grit treatment. Next is the Trizact pad. This is the equivalent to 3000 grit. This is just meant to remove the 800 grit scratches, and smooth out the plastic, and to prepare it for the buffing compound.
And here's what it looks like after the buffing compound. All nice and shiny.
Be warned that the buffing compound will splatter everywhere. If you don't take precautions, you will have little cream colored dots covering everything on your bench, your floor, and your clothes. Ask me how I know. :facepalm:
If you are not happy with the results, it's easy to go back to the 500/800/Trizact/buffing compound steps as many times as you want to get it looking the way you want. Once everything is buffed and cleaned up, you can put the headlight modules back into the car. With the connectors exposed, I like to put some di-electic grease on the contacts before I put everything back together. With the headlights out of the car, it's easy to do.
Attach the connectors to the headlight module after applying the grease. Wiggle the square rubber thingie into it's place and be sure everything is seated correctly. You might have to wiggle things around until it seats properly. You will feel it when it does. It kinda "clunks" into place. Then replace the turn signal module. It takes a bit of fiddling to get it back in the correct position. Be careful not to break the thin flat tab that mounts to the fender. Then replace the plastic push connectors. Mine fell apart when I removed them, and I decided not to replace them.
I picked up this tool too many years ago, and it is just what the doctor ordered when it comes to situations like this. It's like a pop rivet tool, but it uses a threaded insert, instead of a pop rivet. You thread the insert onto the tool, insert it into a blind hole, and when you squeeze the handle it compresses the insert against the back of the blind hole. Then you have a threaded insert that you can screw a bolt into. It's a light duty application and cannot be used if there is lots of force being applied. But since the bolt will only be holding a 1/8" thick piece of plastic, it will work just fine.
Here's what it looks like after it is installed. Notice that there is a factory bolt, not 1" away from the threaded insert. That factory bolt goes into a factory installed threaded insert. Why they didn't add another threaded insert is a mystery. Instead Toyota used some cheesy plastic push fastener that falls apart when you remove it. Go figure.
And finally, how it bolts up to the fender.
It took about 1-1/2 hours from start to finish. It's something anybody can do. I'm glad I removed the headlights, because I just cannot imagine the mess I would have made all over the car if I left them in place.
There are many products that do the pretty much the same thing. But if they don't include some sort of sandpaper and automated buffing arrangement, I don't think it will come out nearly as good as a system that does, like this one.
I'm happy with the final results.
.
Here's a link to 3M's site for the Kit I got.
http://3mcollision.com/products/hea...headlight-lens-restoration/3m-headlight-lens-restoration-system-39008-4218.html
They say you can do this while the headlights are in the car, and that may be true, but I felt you could do a better job with the headlights out of the car, sitting on a bench, so that's what I did.
This DIY is for a 2001 Camry XLE, 1MZ-FE, but could probably apply to most any Gen 3/4 Camry. YMMV. All you need to remove the headlights is a 10MM wrench, socket and a drill. No other tools are required.
The kit comes with a foam mounted velcro pad that you attach to any drill. There are 6 pieces each of 500 grit, 800 grit sandpaper. One Trizact foam pad, one buffing compound pad, and some buffing compound. The supplies were more than adequate. I ended up using only 2 of the 3 pieces of the 500 grit, 800 grit sandpaper. The Trizact pad, the foam buffing pad and the mounting pad, all cleaned up with water and There's plenty of life left in them.
Here's a shot of what I had left over when I was done. A couple of 500/800 grit sandpaper, the Trizact pad, the buffing pad, and the drill mount. Enough to do a little touch up if necessary.
In order to get the headlights out, you must first remove the turn signal lights. For some odd reason, I couldn't find any procedure in the FSM for doing this. I might have missed it, but there was a mention of it in the Haynes Manual but it was incomplete, and if you followed what they said, you would not be able to remove the turn signal lights. In my Haynes Manual, Chapter 12 page 14, item 19, sub section 2 (sounds like a government contract) they say "Remove the side marker light (see Section 21). Well, section 21 is about Bulb Replacement (??) they go on to say "Remove the retaining bolt, detach the housing and withdraw it from the vehicle. (see illustration) If you tried to do this you would have got nowhere, and been confused. The correct section and illustration is 21.1, page 12-15 upper left hand corner. But the instructions are still wrong. Here's how to do it correctly.
First remove the retaining clip, by gently prying up with a small screwdriver. Pull out the center section, and the larger section should come out easily. It will probably disintegrate when you remove it. You can get these clips from a Toyota Dealer, or maybe an auto parts store. I came up with a different solution. More on that later.
Look down at the edge of the headlight closest to the fender, and between the turn signal light and the headlight, you will see a clip connected to the turn signal that clips into the headlight. Get a long, stout screwdriver, and insert in between the headlight and the turn signal modules. Gently pry on the clip, towards the fender while gently pushing it forward. (This step was left out of the Haynes Manual). Once the clip comes loose, grab the turn signal at the back, and wiggle it towards the front of the car. It should slide right out. Be careful not to push down on the turn signal module, and break the thin tab that attaches to the top of the fender. Here's what the secret tab looks like. Pull the turn signal module out, let it dangle on the side of the car.
Here's a close-up shot of what the retaining clips look like. I might give you a better idea of how to get it loose.
Now you can remove the two bolts on the top of the headlight housing.
And the hidden one, now exposed once the turn signal module has been removed. Once it has been removed you will be able to see the third bolt that holds the headlight assembly. Remove this bolt, and the entire headlight module should be be loose.
Wiggle the headlight module a bit and pull out. You might feel some resistance as you try to wiggle it out. There is a square rubber part that fits tightly in the sheet metal. Here's what it looks like.
Once you get it past the square fitting, the headlight module should be loose. Remove the two wires connectors from the back of the headlight module. It's easier to get them loose once the headlight module is loose. The release tab is at the bottom of the connector. Squeeze the bottom tab, and gently pull down. It should come loose easily. If it doesn't then squeeze harder on the clip. Don't force it.
Here's what the headlight looks like before cleaning. Not bad, but yellowing and not very clear.
With the headlight out and on the bench, mount the velcro pad in the drill and attach a 500 grit piece of sandpaper. Sand the entire surface lightly. If you have an air compressor, blow the dust off as it accumulates on the pad and the headlight. Use a back and forth motion, not pressing too hard. After a couple of minutes, change out the worn out 500 grit for another one. After another few minutes, the heavy scratches should be gone. Squirt some water on the plastic lens to check. If there are still scratches, keep at it with the 500 grit.
Then switch to the 800 grit and this removes the scratches left by the 500 grit paper. Follow the same procedure, sand, blow off the excess, check with water. Swap out the worn 800 grip paper and continue. Here's what it looks like after the 800 grit treatment. Next is the Trizact pad. This is the equivalent to 3000 grit. This is just meant to remove the 800 grit scratches, and smooth out the plastic, and to prepare it for the buffing compound.
And here's what it looks like after the buffing compound. All nice and shiny.
Be warned that the buffing compound will splatter everywhere. If you don't take precautions, you will have little cream colored dots covering everything on your bench, your floor, and your clothes. Ask me how I know. :facepalm:
If you are not happy with the results, it's easy to go back to the 500/800/Trizact/buffing compound steps as many times as you want to get it looking the way you want. Once everything is buffed and cleaned up, you can put the headlight modules back into the car. With the connectors exposed, I like to put some di-electic grease on the contacts before I put everything back together. With the headlights out of the car, it's easy to do.
Attach the connectors to the headlight module after applying the grease. Wiggle the square rubber thingie into it's place and be sure everything is seated correctly. You might have to wiggle things around until it seats properly. You will feel it when it does. It kinda "clunks" into place. Then replace the turn signal module. It takes a bit of fiddling to get it back in the correct position. Be careful not to break the thin flat tab that mounts to the fender. Then replace the plastic push connectors. Mine fell apart when I removed them, and I decided not to replace them.
I picked up this tool too many years ago, and it is just what the doctor ordered when it comes to situations like this. It's like a pop rivet tool, but it uses a threaded insert, instead of a pop rivet. You thread the insert onto the tool, insert it into a blind hole, and when you squeeze the handle it compresses the insert against the back of the blind hole. Then you have a threaded insert that you can screw a bolt into. It's a light duty application and cannot be used if there is lots of force being applied. But since the bolt will only be holding a 1/8" thick piece of plastic, it will work just fine.
Here's what it looks like after it is installed. Notice that there is a factory bolt, not 1" away from the threaded insert. That factory bolt goes into a factory installed threaded insert. Why they didn't add another threaded insert is a mystery. Instead Toyota used some cheesy plastic push fastener that falls apart when you remove it. Go figure.
And finally, how it bolts up to the fender.
It took about 1-1/2 hours from start to finish. It's something anybody can do. I'm glad I removed the headlights, because I just cannot imagine the mess I would have made all over the car if I left them in place.
There are many products that do the pretty much the same thing. But if they don't include some sort of sandpaper and automated buffing arrangement, I don't think it will come out nearly as good as a system that does, like this one.
I'm happy with the final results.
.
