"oh that's normal"

[dublifecrisis]

So I'm at Target the other night and my brother in-law calls me on my cell:

"hey man, I'm up here at Car Max looking at this Passat. The headlights are real foggy!! The salesman says that this is normal and there is nothing you can do about it."

me-Dude If you like the car buy it. So he comes by today with the Passat.

PC-4 inch orange pads hit first with M105 then M83, then PlastX. I could still see some pits in it but I've never done any wetsanding or anything but not bad at all considering. He was stoked for the 20 minutes I put into it. Since the Meguiars was throwing so much dust, I ONR'd the hood, fenders and bumper a little for him.

Before:

After:

 

[Joshs2013MSAltimaSL]

Wow...great turnaround man. That salesman doesn't know his a** from a hole in the ground. "That's normal." That made me lol.

 

[bignfuzzy]

OMG!!! That's incredible! I didn't know that that could be done. Wow!

 

[dublifecrisis]

fuzzy-It was kind of a guessing game for me too. I'm no pro detailer. I wasn't aiming for perfection, but I figured I could make it look a little better.
and yeah Josh...typical car sales banter "ehhh nothing you can do about that". pfft

 

[Joshs2013MSAltimaSL]

I would have said, "It's normal for the buyer to walk away now." haha.

 

[AudiTTman]

Wow that 20 minutes was about the best it could have possibly been. The headlights stand out most too me(of course, not downing your other work which is great as well). I guess a dealer is out for one thing...money. If it were normal for headlights to be like that, then i guess the one on the showroom floor has it too hahah. Its then new sporty look

 

[ObsessiveClean]

Those lights turned out really good. Now that you have them all polished and looking good, you should suggest having paint protection film applied. That will prevent the headlights from getting back to that point. A clean car is a happy car.

 

[dublifecrisis]

AudiTTman-All I did for this car was the headlights. This wasn't a full detail. I did a quick ONR wash on the front parts of the car to get rid of polish dust and gave a little bit of DGAW.

Thanks all for the positive remarks. It was a learning experience for me. Plus it's always fun to break out the PC and not spend all day with it.

 

[ScottB]

I'll give you another hint ... remove the headlamps and once polished perfect consider a coat of clearcoat. We actually have companies down here selling the service and thats what they are doing. It appears most manufacturers dont or cannot coat with any type of UV protection and thus the plastic discolors.

 

[Emile]

Really nice turn-around. I think it also helps to wash/detail the car regularly to prevent that kind of effect. Whenever I see a car with foggy headlights, the vehicle is always guilty of rarely being washed, if at all.

That's why I like to seal up my headlights and tail lights with Klasse AIO or some other sealant that bonds to plastic. I figure some protection is better than nothing.

 

[tcollins33]

I think what the dealer meant by "that's normal" is that a lot of VW headlights suffer from that issue. B5.5 Passats (of which that is one) and MkIV Golfs and Jettas suffer from the same issue. Passat lenses get cloudy and Golfs and Jettas actually yellow. I'm only defending the dealer in that, technically, he was correct that most Passats from those years have that same issue.

That said, you made a HUGE turnaround to those headlights. Great job!

 

[maddenbowler]

yeah im a member on a volkswagen site and its a common problem. But plastic polish takes care of it no problem. I usually put wax over mine afterwards

 

[dublifecrisis]

yup I always seal mine with opti-seal or an AIO. I'm a dubber as well so yup certainly familiar with MKIV problems and we all know yellow headlights are the least of the problems. We won't go into window regulators, oil sludge, coil packs etcc.I could go on...LOL

 

[longdx]

VW's are an enigma to me. I love the way they drive, handle and look. But, I have already had one window regulator go on me in the middle of a detail which really ate into my profit margin. (I know it is a common problem with VW's but it was on my watch when the rear window decided it liked the down position and elected not to come up for air)

 

[Reddwarf]

Very nice work! You really cleaned up those headlights. :applause:

 

[Harleyguy]

Vw isn't the only one that has that problem .We carry volvo,jaguar,Range Rover,Infinti,All the plastic headlamps fog out it just depends how long it takes .Most last the first two years no problem after that it goes down hill.We cover them under factory warranty and just replace the complete unit.If your car any car is under warranty fight for new ones just don't let them polish them out.It has become a very large bussiness down here now guys who go to dealers to repair them.The pros on here should consider doing it if they don't all ready