Benjamin Can See Clearly Now...

He can see all obstacles in his way...  Benjamin is driving a 2000 Toyota Prerunner to college.  First, it was my Dad's farm truck.  Then it became Russ' truck in high school and took him to college for four years.  After he got a job, Russ bought a car and the Toyota became Benjamin's truck.  He drove it all through high school and now he'll take it to college. 

The truck has about 230,000 miles on it, so before he went off to college, we changed the oil, checked the tires, filled all the fluids.  I made a short list of things we needed to repair.  He has a bulb that is burned out - not the headlight, but the light on the side where the turn signal is.  I'll need to change it.  He also needs new windshield wiper blades.  The thing most pressing is his headlights!

They are so dull.  The glass cover is faded, rough and yellowed and oxidized.  The light has a hard time shining through, making it dangerous out on the road.  You need to see where you are going!

Hide it under a bush, oh no!  I'm gonna let it shine!

They make a product to restore headlights, and I selected the one that had the highest rating on the Internet.  The kit cost me about $23.

First, I cleaned the headlights with some Windex and completely dried.  Next, I used some painter's tape to tape off the paint so that I don't damage it.  I'll use a 100 grit sandpaper pad, keeping it wet constantly while I sand the headlight down.  When I'm finished with that, I remove the 1000 grit sanding disk from my hand sander and replace it with a 3000 grit sanding pad.  I'll use up and down motions, overlapping and continuing to keep the sanding disk wet.  When done, I dry the headlights off with a towel.  I repeat on the other side.

Then I pour a nickel sized amount of PlastX to a buffing pad that I put on my battery-powered drill, buffing and buffing.  I add more PlastX as needed and buff until I can start seeing a change.  Then I buff out the other headlight.

Once that is complete, I wipe off any excess with a towel and get ready for the final step.

The final step is to apply a headlight coating with a foam applicator by using vertical strokes until completely coated. 

Then you let that dry for 24 hours.  I thought it did a good job.  These headlights are almost 20 years old.  If you scroll up to the first photo and compare with the last, you can see the difference.  I feel better about Benjamin getting on the road with "new" sharp headlights.  He will be able to see much better and it will be safer for him.  As he pulled out of the driveway, he turned on his headlights and they were lighting his path once again.  Let your light shine!