if your talking about yellow haze type effect dont bother wasting your time on polish alone, you will only waste time and effort with no results, and DONT use anything like neverdull metal polish or whateve people recomend this will put scratches in the headlight. The best and ONLY way IMO is simple..... go to a body shop and ask them if they will sell you some sandpaper. Im talking about the really good wetsanding kind. Get 1200 1000 and 800 grit. Wet sand them down in stages (obviously start with the rougher grit) and then after you think you got it all just use turtle wax polish to restore them..... If you do this it will make them look just like new again. Its what i did and i couldnt be more pleased with the results. The look as good as the day i got the car.

 

Yes this works well.. I used 1000 to 1200 then a buffer/buffing compound, came out like new.

 

Metal polish will scratch, but not sand paper? New one there.

FYI anytime you polish, you are scratching, just very slightly! Those headlights will never get clean unless you scratch them.

If it is a slight hazing, Metal polish WILL work. It is an abrasive that will smooth out the plastic. If they are really bad, then you may need to use sand paper.... but you will still have to go over them with a buffing wheel.

I contracted out my polishing services to 2 different speed shops when I lived in Maryland. I know what I am talking about.

 

Yes, but you can polish by hand all day long if you want.... its not going to work like wetsanding. I never said that polish didnt scratch, of course it does thats how it works...... im saying its much more effective to wetsand and then use a plastic polish. (I had an error in my previous post when i said i used turtle wax polish, i remembered i actually used a special plastic polish). Also, i didnt have a buffing wheel i did this all by hand and it worked perfect. Its not like there is an end all way to do this, im just saying what worked best for me.

As far as the metal polish goes...... when i used the metal polished it scratched the headlights badly, and i couldnt get them back out with other means of polishing...this was on my old 99 camaro. Maybe i didnt use the right metal polish or something, but this is what happend. Debate this if you want, it was just my expierience....