Headlight restoration

[lloydyyy]

One of my headlights is starting to go hazy around the sidelight area. I was looking at buying this Meguiar's kit. Does anyone have any tips to restore the headlights to almost as new condition? Thanks. 

[Luke4efc]

£30 seems a bit steep.

I always thought the most permanent way was to use wet and dry sandpaper and laquer over the top so you can cut it back, basically treating it like car paintwork. Will probably take a bit longer, but should last the life of the car.

One tip is to take the headlight out to do it if you can. Means you can get right into the corners without the risk of damaging the surrounding paintwork.

[Matt Alsop]

I've been told several times that toothpaste works well. It's worth trying as it'll be much cheaper than £30.

[zain611]

My dad recently restored his friend's car headlights. He bought some sand paper which attaches on a drill and wet sanded them. I think he used a polish after then he sealed them with a UV resistant lacquer. My car's headlights have haze on them as well but I'm planning on changing them as one of the previous owners tried removing it but appears to have worked too much in one area melting the plastic plus the plastic covers have been taken off at one point and there's some condensation dried up. 

Heres before and after. They actually looked as good as new. 

Of my car you can slightly see the burnt plastic on the right.