[JustinID]

Anyone know of any sort of compound that can be used to clean up old hazy plastic headlight lenses? I have an Explorer and I'm just about to the point of replacing the entire assemblies because of how bad it's getting. They're not broken or cracked, just can't get them to clear up with anything like normal glass/plastic cleaners.

[prockbp]

You can get Meguiar's PlastX plastic polish at most autoparts stores... it works great. You may only need to polish depending on how picky you are.

You can make the lenses look as good as new(or better than new) if you wet sand. I wouldn't start with 1000 grit though. I suggest starting with a grit in the 150-300 range and then work your way to 2000 grit. But beware that wet sanding will also destroy any raised lettering that is on your lenses. I think The lenses look better without the lettering, but state law may require that the lenses have all the proper information on them.

Just let the polish or sand paper do the work. Don't use your fingers directly behind the paper or cloth that you are polishing with. You need a buffer like a sponge or a rolled up cloth between your hand and the abrasive surface.