I won't wag any fingers at Toyota for this one as I cannot say for sure that this wasn't entirely my own fault, but...
Coming back from a family ski trip we stopped for a fuel up and bathroom break after coming down a pass which was a combo of packed snow, ice and recently plowed/sanded highway. The front end of the LC was all crusted, sensors were blocked, the ADAS nanny was yelling in one ear while the family unit was yelling in the other that their bladders were about to explode. While topping of the tank I took some time to clear the slush and ice off the headlights and the bumper (in that order) using the service station squeegee and then we continued on our travels. I've done this sort of think a million times on other vehicles with no forethought, no afterthought and no issues. Next morning took the truck to the touchless carwash and after drying things off at home found that I had thrashed the headlight glass (lexan). This triggered an OCD meltdown, hours of internet research, multiple failed experiments with turtle wax, toothpaste and W-D40 and a sleepless night while waiting on the Amazon delivery guy to deliver the special magic beans I ordered which promised to put things right and restore my faith in mankind.
You can see below what the squeegee and useless home remedies got me and though I knew that more extreme measures would mean probably stripping of whatever factory coating was already on there I also knew that doing nothing would probably lead to me standing on a ledge and having a conversation with a crisis negotiator.
I settled on the Cerakote kit only after overthinking the options to the point my wife first made a comment about me not caring that the headlights on her Bimmer are so cloudy the weather forecast changes every time she backs out of the garage and then said she was going to stay with her mother "until you figure out what your priorities are."
I also consider the Meguire's solution, which was basically the same though it required a 24hr cure time at the end of the process whereas Cerakote only asks that you not get it wet for an hour. Both have instructions for using hand sanding/polishing only which seemed less dangerous to me versus going at it with power tools and no experience right out of the gate.
Procedure was straight forward, particularly in this case with essentially new headlights, light scratches and no oxidation, everything needed was in the box except for water and dry towels. So after following the instructions, TO A TEE, this is what I get:
Not perfect but better (maybe 60%? 75%? How often do you stare into your headlights from 6 inches away?) and with the right meds I should be able to move on with my life at this point.
So, lessons learned? One, it's unfortunate that Toyota did not include the headlight washers on the North America models, might have prevented this whole event from happening in the first place. Two, be careful when cleaning the headlights without a lot of water and clean towels (yeah, this should be number one but that's not how my brain works). I'm not saying there is a quality issue with the hardness of these polycarbonate lenses though I've not had anything like this happen to this degree on past vehicles. Three, I should have experimented on the wife's car before going at the LC, would have leveled up my experience points and potentially scored some relationship points in the process. Four, on the positive side by not being overly enthusiastic at least I didn't make things particularly worse. Five, next time I will go for a more serious sand and polish using an orbital tool and a wider range of sandpaper grades starting with something a bit more aggressive. The Cerakote kit just comes with a couple of wheels of 2000 and 3000 grit paper which probably wasn't enough to take out the deeper scratches in the recommended 3 to 5 minutes of hand sanding. They also directed you to polish using linear strokes, not circular ones, which is probably the right advice for hand polishing to avoid swirls but given the horizontal shape of the LCLC lights and the horizontal orientation of the initial scratches I probably accentuated some of the deeper cuts while buffing out the more superficial ones.
So there you have it. Time go test out my theories on the X5, after all why pay a professional when for twice the cost you can f*&$ it up yourself, right?
Here endeth the lesson...
Coming back from a family ski trip we stopped for a fuel up and bathroom break after coming down a pass which was a combo of packed snow, ice and recently plowed/sanded highway. The front end of the LC was all crusted, sensors were blocked, the ADAS nanny was yelling in one ear while the family unit was yelling in the other that their bladders were about to explode. While topping of the tank I took some time to clear the slush and ice off the headlights and the bumper (in that order) using the service station squeegee and then we continued on our travels. I've done this sort of think a million times on other vehicles with no forethought, no afterthought and no issues. Next morning took the truck to the touchless carwash and after drying things off at home found that I had thrashed the headlight glass (lexan). This triggered an OCD meltdown, hours of internet research, multiple failed experiments with turtle wax, toothpaste and W-D40 and a sleepless night while waiting on the Amazon delivery guy to deliver the special magic beans I ordered which promised to put things right and restore my faith in mankind.
You can see below what the squeegee and useless home remedies got me and though I knew that more extreme measures would mean probably stripping of whatever factory coating was already on there I also knew that doing nothing would probably lead to me standing on a ledge and having a conversation with a crisis negotiator.
I settled on the Cerakote kit only after overthinking the options to the point my wife first made a comment about me not caring that the headlights on her Bimmer are so cloudy the weather forecast changes every time she backs out of the garage and then said she was going to stay with her mother "until you figure out what your priorities are."
I also consider the Meguire's solution, which was basically the same though it required a 24hr cure time at the end of the process whereas Cerakote only asks that you not get it wet for an hour. Both have instructions for using hand sanding/polishing only which seemed less dangerous to me versus going at it with power tools and no experience right out of the gate.
Procedure was straight forward, particularly in this case with essentially new headlights, light scratches and no oxidation, everything needed was in the box except for water and dry towels. So after following the instructions, TO A TEE, this is what I get:
Not perfect but better (maybe 60%? 75%? How often do you stare into your headlights from 6 inches away?) and with the right meds I should be able to move on with my life at this point.
So, lessons learned? One, it's unfortunate that Toyota did not include the headlight washers on the North America models, might have prevented this whole event from happening in the first place. Two, be careful when cleaning the headlights without a lot of water and clean towels (yeah, this should be number one but that's not how my brain works). I'm not saying there is a quality issue with the hardness of these polycarbonate lenses though I've not had anything like this happen to this degree on past vehicles. Three, I should have experimented on the wife's car before going at the LC, would have leveled up my experience points and potentially scored some relationship points in the process. Four, on the positive side by not being overly enthusiastic at least I didn't make things particularly worse. Five, next time I will go for a more serious sand and polish using an orbital tool and a wider range of sandpaper grades starting with something a bit more aggressive. The Cerakote kit just comes with a couple of wheels of 2000 and 3000 grit paper which probably wasn't enough to take out the deeper scratches in the recommended 3 to 5 minutes of hand sanding. They also directed you to polish using linear strokes, not circular ones, which is probably the right advice for hand polishing to avoid swirls but given the horizontal shape of the LCLC lights and the horizontal orientation of the initial scratches I probably accentuated some of the deeper cuts while buffing out the more superficial ones.
So there you have it. Time go test out my theories on the X5, after all why pay a professional when for twice the cost you can f*&$ it up yourself, right?
Here endeth the lesson...
