MB Medic Mercedes-Benz Repair Guides, Service, How To DIY
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In this guide (4 sections)
The purpose of this guide is to help you restore the headlights by sanding and polishing the lenses of your Mercedes-Benz. Make your Mercedes-Benz look nice again by restoring the headlights if they look foggy, hazy, or dull. The headlight restoration and polishing method described here is effective and takes at least an hour, and how long the result lasts comes down to sealing the lens at the end rather than to the polishing itself, whether it’s an E, C, S, CLS, SLK, CLK, ML, or GL Class. While this procedure requires hard work, it will make your Mercedes-Benz headlights look new and crystal clear again. Check out the BEFORE & AFTER results below. 
To restore and polish headlights on a Mercedes-Benz car, you will need a $20 headlight restoration kit. When you finish restoring your Mercedes-Benz headlights, people will think you’ve replaced them. This method clears the lens up, which is most of what people are after. It is worth being accurate about what it does not do: the lens left the factory with a UV hard coat on the outside, and after sanding that coating is gone. What you put back on at the end is what decides whether the result lasts a season or a few years.
Here are the main steps you will go through to polish the headlights on your Mercedes-Benz. Step-by-step instructions are provided below.
- You will sand the headlights, starting with 500 grit, and then wet sand with 800 grit.
- Polish headlights
- Clean the headlights
- Seal the headlight lenses using the sealant supplied with the kit.
Following this process, you will polish and restore your headlights to a crystal-clear finish, even if they are completely oxidized, yellow, or cloudy.
Tools and Parts Required
Headlight Restoration Kit. One of the best headlight polish kits is the 3M Headlight Restoration Kit, which we use in this tutorial. There are other kits out there as well. If you purchase a different brand, ensure it has at least 6 sandpaper disks (including 500,800,1000 grit).
Masking Tape 
Electrical Drill 
Towels
DIY Mercedes Headlight Restoration Instructions
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Step 1: Start by cleaning the headlight lens with some water. Tape the area around the headlight. Apply two layers of tape in case you accidentally sand the tape. |
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Step 2: Start sanding your foggy headlights with the 500 grit sandpaper. Continue until your headlights look entirely dull. Even if you had clear areas, you should sand over those areas as well. With the 3M kit, you will have three 500-grid sandpapers for each side. Going through all three sandpaper disks will require time, but this step is crucial. |
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Step 3: Next, use the 800 grit disk to remove a more cloudy yellow layer from the headlight. Please continue using the disk until it is no longer releasing any oxidation. During this step, you should remove the yellowing and any lens defects. Spend at least 15 min per headlight during this step. Step 4: Once you are done using the 800 grit, attach the 1000 grit to the sanding pad. Use the spray bottle to apply water to the surface as you sand with the 1000-grit disk. The 1000 disk is a black foam disk. White residual should come off the headlights, and the lenses should start to look clear again. Spend at least 5 minutes with the foam sanding disk for each headlight. Step 5: The next step is to use the P3000 foam disk. Sand the headlights with the 3000 grit for several minutes. Continue to polish the headlights to remove as many of the fine scratches as possible. At this point, the lenses should look better but may still appear cloudy. You may notice minor scratches if you look closely at the headlight. Step 6: The last step is to clean the headlight lens with a clean and dry cloth. Place a small amount of the rubbing compound on the polishing disk. Buff the headlights until they look crystal clear. One thing to be clear about: this step is polishing, not sealing. Rubbing compound is an abrasive, so it leaves the lens clear but bare. Sealing is a separate step and it follows below. If they don’t look clear, apply some more rubbing compound on the disk and continue to buff the headlight. Once the headlight starts to look clear, use a clean cloth to clean the headlight. Remove the tape from the car, and you are done! |
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Step 7: seal the lens, or you will be doing this again
The overview at the top of this guide lists sealing as the last step, and it is the one that decides whether the work holds. Sanding and polishing leave you with clear, bare polycarbonate. Bare polycarbonate has no UV protection at all, and it begins to yellow again within weeks of regular sun exposure, which is why a set of headlights that looked new in the driveway can look foggy again by the end of the summer. Chemical Guys puts the window at four to six weeks on unprotected polished lenses.
So before you put the tape away, apply the sealant or UV coating that came with the kit, following that kit’s own instructions for how long the lens has to be dry and how long to leave it to cure. Work in the shade rather than in direct sun, keep the masking tape on while you do it so nothing lands on the paint, and leave the car alone afterwards for the cure time on the packet rather than washing it that afternoon.
If the kit you bought has no sealant in it, that is the gap to fill before you start. A dedicated headlight UV sealant or coating sold separately will do the same job. Skipping it is the single most common reason a restoration looks like it failed within a few months, and the lens will need sanding all over again rather than just a wipe.
Two practical notes while sanding. Wear eye protection, because a power drill with a sanding disc throws grit, and keep the lens wet from the spray bottle once you move to the finer grits: dry sanding loads the disc and puts in deeper scratches than the next grit can take out.
Conclusion
The final results depend significantly on the kit you are using and on following the proper instructions. That’s why it is essential to use a high-quality headlight restoration kit. Most kits sell in the $20 range. This job is labor-intensive, so don’t go through this process using cheap equipment.
Once you are done cleaning the headlights of your Mercedes-Benz, you will have a big smile and no longer be impressed by the foggy headlights.
Here is a list of bestselling headlight restoration kits that you will find on Amazon. These are similar to the 3M kit we used in this tutorial.
Before you buy parts, scan every control module, not just the engine. It shows the root fault behind the warning lights and tells you whether the problem is still active. See how to do a full health check.
