How to Protect Your Headlights After Restoration (Physical Damage)

Bryan Greene October 14, 2020

As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure. Therefore, you need to always make sure that your headlights are spot on each and every time to avoid spending on their restoration every now and then.

There are specifically two main types of headlight damages: physical and ultra-violet commonly known as UV. To protect your headlights after restoration, you need to take into consideration the main causes of headlight damage.

Protect Headlights After Restoration

This article will therefore outline several tested ways to protect your automotive headlights from the above-mentioned causes of headlight damage.

How to Protect Your Headlights After Restoration (9 Ways)

Most of the cases, you can protect your headlight if you follow the instructions which I am writing. Take a cup of coffee and seat back to read it carefully.

1. Protecting from Physical Damage

More often than not, headlights are covered with plastic or glass. These two main types of coverings are not durable when they are struck. Protecting your automotive from any physical damage is a walk in the park. Below are ways to protect your headlights from physical damage.

2. Park your Automotive in Enclosed Parking Spaces

The number one cause of headlight damage is parking in an open space. With parking nowadays being in open spaces, the chances of someone striking your headlights are very high. In addition, owing to the large number of people owning cars, parking spaces have become harder and harder to find, and hence cars are squeezed to share a small space which in turn increases the chances of headlight damage.

It is therefore incumbent upon you, to make sure that you park your car in a safe place. Go for the parking spaces which are enclosed and have good space enough for your car. This will not only help you save your money for headlight restoration, but also the fear of having another rub or scratch it while on parking.

3. Do not drive too close

This is quite a general driving rule, but it goes a long way in protecting your headlights. Driving too close is one of the common causes of headlight damage. This is because whenever you are driving, you never know the person who is behind the wheels of the vehicle that is in front of you. An unpredictable eventuality may come up which in turn can lead to him or her hitting the emergency brakes, thus making you hit the vehicle from behind.

Besides this making you get slapped with a charge sheet, it can also damage your headlights. To avoid all this, it is always advisable to drive a fair distance from the vehicle that is in front of you. This will give you an allowance to hit your break and stop car without hitting the one in front when there is an eventuality.

Read Also: Why Headlight Keeps Burning Out

4. Protecting from environmental damage

Another common cause of headlight damage that you need to be aware of is environment related. When some environmental elements come into contact with your headlight, they tend to make change its color to become yellow, dim or hazy.

This can be very dangerous when driving because it can lead to accidents resulting from poor visibility. It is therefore important to protect your headlights from these environmental elements. Below are some ways to ensure protection against environmental damage.

5. Wash your headlights often

Most roads contain road salt which can be very dangerous to a car. This is because they not only ruin a car’s paint, but also its undercarriage and headlights.

Moreover, when your headlights are constantly exposed to air pollution, they tend to become hazy and dim, as the pollutants builds up on them. The only way that you can avoid this is by washing your car as often as possible, in order to remove these environmental hazards.

Most car owners only concentrate on washing the body of their vehicle. They do forget that headlights are also part of their automobile and they have a duty to insist on their cleanliness.

As a car owner, you have to make sure that you have rinsed them with soap or detergent to offer them a protection cover from pollution as well as dirt.

6. Park under a shade

Contrary to what many people believe, the sun is one of the most notorious causes of headlight damage. This is because the sun contains ultra violet rays which react with the headlights and contribute greatly in making them turn yellow, hazy, and dim.

These types of headlights can be very dangerous when you are driving; they can lead to accident especially at night due to poor visibility. The thing that makes people underrate the sun rays effect on their headlights is the slow pace that it affects their headlights.

This makes it very hard to notice the change in their headlights over time, as the damage takes time. In order to ensure that your headlights are safe, you need to park your car under a shade.

This will not only protect your car’s body but also your headlights from the ultra violet rays damage and thus save you the energy of restoring them every now and then.

7. Install Ultra Violet Protection Sprays

As stated earlier, ultra violet rays are one of the common causes of headlight damage. It is therefore incumbent upon you to make sure that you find the best solution of protecting not only your car but also its headlights from these rays.

In case you find it hard for you to park your car under a shade for a long time, you may opt to install UV protection in your headlights. There are very many UV protection sprays in the market to choose from.

These sprays offer a protection film which in turn dispels the effects that the rays may have on your headlights. This in turn goes a long way in helping you save your headlight restoration costs as well as your time.

8. Clean your headlights with toothpaste

Toothpastes are manufactured to remove chemicals on your teeth. This therefore makes them perfect for dealing with oxidation of the headlights.

Cleaning your headlights with toothpaste is crystal clear; all you need is newspaper, car wax, sponge, clean rag, and toothpaste.

To start off the process, you need to apply toothpaste on the surface of your headlights using a sponge. Do the application in a slow and circular manner, in order to ensure that every part of your headlights is covered with the paste to get the most out of the exercise.

When you apply your headlights with toothpaste, it removes all the film that has built up on the lamps. After you have made sure that all the poly-carbonate lamps of the headlights are applied with toothpaste, you then need to rinse it with water and wipe it off to let it dry.

You can then apply wax and polish it. This will make your headlights to be crystal clear. For the best experience, you can repeat this procedure after 2 to 3 months.

9. Occasionally sand your headlights

In case you want to have long lasting headlights after restoration, you need to occasionally sand them. Sanding goes a long way in forming a protective film on them, thus giving you crystal clear headlights for a very long time.

Doing this not only helps you to save money you would have spent in their restoration, but also your time. Sanding headlights is a very easy and outright exercise. All you need are sand, newspaper, alcohol, clear coat, clean rag and some water.

To start the process, all you need to do is wet your headlights with water. After you have made sure that the headlights are all wet, you then need to apply sand on them and make sure that their entire surfaces are covered.

While doing this, go on splashing small amount of water in order to ensure that sand gets attached to your headlight. After this, you can then go ahead and rinse, then dry it.

Once you have made sure that it is dry, you need to clean it using alcohol so as to ensure that it is dust free for crystal clear headlights. You can then cover the area surrounding of the headlights with a newspaper to ensure that you do not damage the paint of your automobile.

Spray the clear coating evenly and leave it to dry. This will help your headlights to form a protective layer and help it serve you for long time.

Wrapping Up

Headlights are very essential elements for every car. This is because they help you to have a clear visibility while driving at night. In addition, they help you avoid being accidents and inconveniences to other road users.

As such, it is important to make sure that you maintain and service them regularly to ensure that they are in perfect condition. You can do preventative maintenance of your headlights on your own or ask your mechanic to help you. Always remember that your headlights are a very important part of your car, which you need to pay great attention to always.

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