Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.
4th Gen headlamp lenses are mostly vertical, so they don't normally oxidize that badly. Unfortunately, they have a crap ton of surface area and none of it is flat. The lens is also "tucked in" to the body work making it difficult to finish without affecting the surrounding panels.I have a 2013 Ram 1500 That has a few scratches and smears on the headlight lens.
Looking for some suggestions on how to easily clean up these old healights.
Just did the plastic covers on my wife's Avalon. They were pretty bad. I use wet sand paper starting with 400 grit and progressively go to 500, 600, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, 4000, 5000, 8000. You have to remove the oxidized plastic, not just buff it. Use lots of water. Yeah, it takes time (lots of time) but they look amazing now. Then use a high quality wax to seal it.
There are faster ways but none better.
4th Gen headlamp lenses are mostly vertical, so they don't normally oxidize that badly. Unfortunately, they have a crap ton of surface area and none of it is flat. The lens is also "tucked in" to the body work making it difficult to finish without affecting the surrounding panels.
I'm not sure what a "smear" is, but it doesn't sound good. Depending on the depth/quantity of scratches you may be able to get away with an light polishing compound. If the scratches are deep you will need to wet sand as @RoadRamblerNJ indicated. I normally stop at 2000 grit and use a polishing compound afterward. I basically treat a headlamp like a black painted body panel.
If sanding, I normally remove the headlamp assembly from the vehicle so I can get to all the corners without damaging the bodywork. It's a bit on a pain on a Gen4 - https://duckduckgo.com/?q=2013+ram+1500+headlight+oxidation&t=ffab&atb=v343-1&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRaWwnCuFeU
Last (and maybe most important), use a good sealer. I started using Rejex on my 5th gen back in 2020 to keep bugs off the front end. It's wonderful stuff. Lasts over a year on the front of the truck, and allows me to wash/wipe bugs off without scrubbing. I used Rejex on the headlamps of my 2006 Chry 300 2+ years ago. They are still looking great. I can't wait to get my daughters 2004 Taurus back in the garage to clean/seal the lenses.
These are what I put on my 2011. They look good, especially with the gray truckIncluding a picture of mine on my 2012 Ram. I've tried working on these several times, using wet sanding techniques, polisher, etc. Basically every suggestion I've read about. I've never been able to get them looking new. I'm wondering if I should just replace them. If so, anyone have suggestions on what to order?