Three years ago we purchased a used BMX X5, even when we got it the headlights were suffering from the extra UV pounding down through the blue, ozone depleted Melbourne skies. Finally after many complaints and comments about ‘new headlamps’, an expensive solution with painful wiring options I decided to have a go at refurbishing the original lamps.

The original lamp. Lots of haze.

The internet, “full of kooks and crooks” the other half always says. She usually berates me when I purchase anything off eBay but for forty bucks it was worth a punt.

A couple of weeks later the package turned up. Nothing special:

3 graded sanding block (very small)
A polishing cloth
Some lube for sanding
Finishing compound for the final polish
Finishing liquid to shine those puppies up

I have to say I wasn’t convinced. The sanding blocks looked like they would be worn out in seconds for a start. Anyway a few weeks later I had a go.

I started with the roughest number 3 pad and gave it some for 10 minutes or so. Certainly a crap load of yellow came out but after cleaning it up it was obvious this wasn’t going to work. The roughest sanding block simply wasn’t rough enough so I dug out some 1000 grade wet and dry. 10-15 minutes later the headlamp was totally white.

Using this as a base I went back to the number 3 sanding block (which amazingly never seems to wear out!) and started sanding the opposite way to the 1000 wet and dry. 10 more minutes.

Same again with number 2 sanding block. Another 10 minutes. Arm now getting tired but by the end definite improvement.

Then get out the number 1 sanding block. Yep again. Huge improvement now but you can still see the scratches from the fine sanding

Penultimate step. The polishing compound. Again another improvement, looking really good now.

Finally the Finishing liquid. Spray it on the cloth and wipe over the headlight and bam! Sparkling. Basically a brand new headlamp looking at me.

So there you go. Rainex Headlamp Refurb works. Plus after doing two headlamps theres enough left to do the whole things again so I guess you could do two cars, maybe three if the hazing wasn’t too bad.

I would add that like all these types of things preparation is key. The first lamp took 1.5 hours and looks 99% perfect. I’ll admit though my arm was buggered so lamp 2 only got half the love and close up you can see the difference but its certainly serviceable. Take your time though and do it properly and the results will come.

The other thing is how well does it last? New headlamps almost certainly come with some kind of baked on UV protection, 1000 grade wet and dry probably kills that dead. So it will be interesting to see how it looks after a year of sitting on the driveway.

1000 Grade. Err this better work.

Grade 3. Phew looking better.

Grade 2. Yeah good.

Grade 1. Yep this stands a chance.

Finished LHS.

Finished RHS.