Owner of a 2012 Prius v ver 5. Anyone have experience restoring headlight lenses on the v? Mine are looking pretty cloudy after 90K miles. Being that these lenses are far from smooth like other vehicles, seems the technique of sanding and polishing can get pretty tricky. Please post your suggestions for methods and materials. Thanks!!
I used the Wipe New kit and it has held up for about a year and a half. It has the sanding paper as part of it. It took about an hour and both lenses look good.
If they are really bad as in 80% or more cloudy I would take to Walmart or elsewhere to buff restore. The real problem is not the lens shape, its the polishing compond that may get on your paint. So a complete job has to be carefully masked and the proper buffer controlled. After its clear again you can refresh small areas by hand as the recur a year or two later with lens restore compounds and paper towels.
The video didn’t look all that good to me. It looked like he rushed the sanding process. But I agree that you have to clear coat them after the fact. Otherwise you will have to polish/sand them every couple of months.
I agree that his technique was poor. In fact I would have gone a couple of steps more on finer grits before the final polish.
A good clear-coat with UV block will really slow it down. It's becoming more evident in our 3rd car because we have a 2-car garage, and this age damage is 100% UV-induced. I polished and coated those lenses about 2 years ago, and they're just starting to yellow and fog. In fact I notice much more yellowing and less fogging with the particular clearcoat I used. Either way, it lasted much longer than untreated, and probably won't merit attention for another 6 months.
sounds like a process worth trying, but I think some of my Prius V fogging is on the inside of the lens. Any thoughts on how to clear that? I have the version 5, has LED lights I believe. Can I get into the inside of the lens?
If you remove the headlight assembly from the vehicle and bake it in an oven at about 200°F for 20 minutes, you should be able to pop the lens covers off of the buckets. The heat makes the plastic just flexible enough to pop the lock tabs.
Thanks for the tip! So if I get the lens covers off by warming the lens enough to pop the tabs, how would I seal up the lens assembly after? Maybe a silicone caulking? I like the idea of the clear topcoat of sealer on the outside of the lens, would it be helpful to clear coat the inside? What aftermarket sources are there for new lens assemblies? Seems Toyota wants $500+ for each. I have the LED low beams so some of the aftermarket listings seem not to fit my car.
I havent had to do V yet but for my Sienna, I took my headlights out and took them to a body shop to have them sand them down and clear coat. Almost years of daily driving and they still new.
