Fixing Foggy Headlights Before the Sun Kills Them

I'm gonna be blunt: don't bother with the toothpaste 'hack' you saw on TikTok. I tried it once on my missus' old Pulsar just to see the hype, and it lasted about three days before clouding over again. Toothpaste is a mild abrasive, sure, but it doesn't have the grit to level out heavy oxidation, and it offers zero UV protection. You're just wasting good peppermint paste.

If the oxidation is bad, you've gotta sand it back. Start with 1000 grit wet and dry, then move to 2000, and finish with 3000. Keep it soaking wet, I usually keep a bucket of water with a drop of dish soap in it handy. It'll look terrifyingly milky at first (made this mistake myself on a black Commodore and thought I'd ruined it), but keep going until it's smooth as glass. The polish will bring the clarity back, trust me.

This is where most people mess up. Once you've sanded and polished that plastic, it's 'naked'. Without a UV sealant, the Aussie sun will cook it yellow again in a month. I reckon the Meguiar's Two-Step kit is decent for beginners, but if you want it to last, chuck a proper ceramic coating on there like Gtechniq C4. It's the only way to survive a summer in Perth or Brissy without doing the job all over again.

Before you even touch a piece of sandpaper, mask off the paint around the light with decent automotive tape. I once saw a customer who'd tried to 'freehand' it and ended up sanding the clear coat off his bumper. Not a cheap fix. Double up the tape layers, it takes two minutes and saves you a massive headache.