Nevr used metal polish on either glass or plastic myself. Might work on glass but I suspect the solvents in it could harm the plastic headlights.

 

I hear you, but man did it clean up the wife's RAV4 lenses in a jiffy. They were just starting to cloud. They are like new now!

 

Used the Turtle Wax kit for $10 and some elbow grease. Looks fantastic!

 

Toothpaste works great as well. Just sayin.

 

Used rubbing compound on one & it's better......thinking about using soft scrub on the other....has anybody used softscrub before ?

 

Have the meguiar's headlight restoration kit and polished til I was blue in the face and as good as I thought it looked, once I had a headlight replaced in an accident it looked like utter crap in comparison. I tried polishing the old one again but still nothing like like a new one.

 

I used meguiar's and it looked good for almost 6 months. The yellowing is coming back now. I have some rubbing compound, give it a try before going for the turtle wax brand.

 

Better to just find a professional to buff the lights for best results. I find that metal polishes work in a small time limit. The chemical reaction that takes place on the headlight seems to remove the yellowing oxidated portions. However, it does seem to make the plastic softer as well due to the solvents so be careful

 

Most effective and cheap method ive used is making a baking soda and water paste and rubbing like crazy. Its the same idea as using rubbing compound. Another way is to wet sand and then clear coat, but ive never done it myself.

Buying the kits if a waste of money IMO. Rubbing compound + wax is all you need. Putting several (5-6) coats of wax also helps to keep them looking good.

Either way the gen 4 headlights and cheap, 35$ ea. Its kinda pointless to put to much money in.

 

That's good to hear about baking soda. I've heard toothpaste also works well.

However, I've heard think if you don't put some sort of sealer on there, you lose the effect after a few months.

I also heard good things about the Turtle wax kit, which is often $7-10 (and has some sealer). That's the one I was going to pick up myself, but I may try the toothpaste or baking soda first.

I didn't know that aftermarket Gen 4 headlights were so cheap. It turns out you can get a set of headlights + corner lights on eBay for ~$70 shipped (don't know about the quality though).