Ever since car designers wanted to make interesting shapes on the front of vehicles, headlight lenses have been made from plastic. It’s easier to mould than glass, and lighter too.
However, the downside of this is that plastic is easier to scratch than glass, and it can discolour too after being in the sun for a long time.
Scuffed headlights can make your car look scruffy and old, even if the rest of the bodywork is gleaming, and it’s not just a case of running a damp cloth over them. In fact, it can lead to them being replaced. If that seems like a lot of work, the answer can be a headlight restoration kit - it’s certainly a cheaper option than shelling out for a new set of headlights, though it does require a bit of work.
There's an old story that you can shine up your headlights with the strenuous application of toothpaste, and in theory, this makes a bit of sense. The contents of a tube of Colgate are abrasive and can be used to buff scratches out of a DVD if you’re careful and don’t go too deep. In reality, though, headlight plastic is a bit tougher and thicker than the surface of a shiny video disc, and if you attempt to restore them with toothpaste, you’ll be doing a lot of work for little gain.
That’s not to say that using a headlight restoration kit is going to be easy. The cleaner that’s supplied can be applied by hand, which means a lot of rubbing to work it into the scratches and wear away any yellowing - or a machine-driven cleaning pad, which can be as easy as attaching it to an electric drill and letting it spin.
So if you fancy putting in the time to bring your car headlamps back to sparkling condition, these are some of the kits you should consider.
Best headlight restoration kits at a glance:
- Best overall: Cerakote Ceramic Headlight Restoration Kit - £36, Amazon
- Best for applying by hand: Armor All Headlight Restorer - £12, Amazon
- Best for UV blocking: Sylvania Headlight Restoration Kit - £27.50, Amazon
- Best for a familiar name: T-Cut Headlight Restoration Kit - £14, Amazon
- Best for not needing any extras: Xtremeauto Headlight Restoration Kit - £15, Amazon
- Best for use with a drill: 3M Headlight Lens Restoration Kit - £24, Amazon
- Best for buffing to a shine: Holts Headlight Restoration Kit - £13, Amazon
- Best for simplicity: Turtle Wax Headlight Restorer Kit - £27, Amazon
Cerakote Ceramic Headlight Restoration Kit
Best: overall
The Cerakote Ceramic Headlight Restoration Kit is everything you need to restore your headlights in a simple kit, with no power tools required, but several stages to work through.
You’ll need to follow the instructions and prepare the surface of your lamps with oxidation remover, then sand the plastic down with the included applicator and sanding discs, before using more wipes to restore the surface and help prevent further discolouration. It’s a bit of a long process, but it can have great effects.
Buy now £36.00, Amazon
Armor All Headlight Restorer
Best for: applying by hand
These wipes work by chemical means rather than abrasion, which means there are no tools required and much less rubbing and grinding involved, though you will still have to scrub back and forth a bit.
Once the chemical has done its job, there's a lacquer coat to go over the top, and this takes three hours to cure, so it’s not a fix you’ll want to apply a few minutes before going out. One kit cleans both your headlights, so they’re also a good value way to bring a bit of shine back to your lamps.
Buy now £12.00, Amazon
Sylvania Headlight Restoration Kit
Best for: UV blocking
The reason plastic headlights can discolour over time is the effect of UV light from the sun, and it’s unavoidable unless your car is kept indoors all the time. As this is fairly unlikely, the next best thing is to apply a UV-blocking compound over the top, and this is especially important if you’ve been sanding or scrubbing your lights to remove previous damage.
Sylvania’s kit is a three-stage process to restore this sun damage, and requires a surface applicator, sanding and polishing and a clear UV-blocking coat when you’re finished, all of which is included.
Buy now £7.50, Amazon
T-Cut Headlight Restoration Kit
Best for: a familiar name
T-Cut is a name most associated with car polish, and attempts to bring the colour back to faded panels, so it makes a lot of sense to see the name on headlight restoration kits too.
The kit consists of abrasive paste, plus a microfibre cloth and some sealant to go over the top when you’re finished. It’s advertised as tool-free, but a machine polisher will certainly speed up the work and make things easier.
Buy now £15.00, Amazon
Xtremeauto Headlight Restoration Kit
Best for: not needing any extras
There's a lot in this kit, including different grades of sandpaper, a wool polishing disc, a sponge disc, polish paste, protective sealing liquid, masking tape, and a backer pad with M10 thread ready for a machine polisher.
It’s another three-step process of sanding, polishing and sealant application, and claims to be beginner-friendly, though anyone without experience of using a machine polisher might like to do it by hand, as they can scratch nearby panels if they go out of control.
Buy now £15.00, Amazon
3M Headlight Lens Restoration Kit
Best for: use with a drill
3M has a good reputation for creating things that stick and grind, so it’s no surprise to see its name on a headlight restoration kit. This one requires a power drill capable of 1200-1600 rpm, which you can get out of cordless models, and comes with a reel of automotive tape for masking off the areas around the headlights so they don’t get damaged.
There's a two-stage wet sanding process to remove scratches before you start polishing the headlight, followed by buffing to bring out the shine.
Buy now £24.00, Amazon
Holts Headlight Restoration Kit
Best for: buffing to a shine
Murky headlights can potentially mean an MOT failure if they get bad enough, and the Holts kit uses a four-stage cleaning process to bring them back to decent condition. There's a drill adapter for sanding, with abrasive discs, plus bottles of headlight polish and headlight sealant.
First, you clean the plastic to remove road grime and dead flies, then sand it down with the discs before attaching the polishing head to buff it up to a shine and remove any residue left over. The final stage is applying the sealant, which will help keep your lights in top condition for longer.
Buy now £13.00, Amazon
Turtle Wax Headlight Restorer Kit
Best for: simplicity
This kit requires no tools and comes with two different liquids, as well as pads to apply them with. The first is a lens clarifying compound that clears fogging and yellowing.
You spray it over the surface of the headlight, using a pad for any problem spots that won’t clear easily. Then you cover it in a sealing fluid using a wipe that helps prevent future yellowing. It’s simplicity itself, and saves the hard work of using sandpaper.
Buy now £27.00, Amazon
Verdict
Restoring your headlights if they’ve fogged or yellowed with time and sun exposure is a simple way to make your car look a little tidier that doesn’t require a lot of time. What it can require is power tools, and skill in using them, but some kits are available that don’t need you to do anything but wipe liquids across the surface of your lights.
The Cerakote Ceramic Headlight Restoration Kit at the top of this list requires sanding to get the best results, but kits from Armor All and Turtle Wax can be applied without any tools.
