ncruz1980

newbie on the forum. Hi All I just picked up a Mazda 2 SP23 2005 two weeks ago and I have grown to love this car. So like any used car there are always things that need addressing. One of the few projects I have is to restored the headlights. I ordered a restoration kit from Amazon (Mother's brand) and below are the before and after pictures.

My questions to you guys is that I'm not totally satisfied with the outcome. I do think it was greatly improved but it is not crystal clear. I can buff it once or twice again but I'm perhaps considering picking up a new set a headlights (thinking LED). Had anyone here replace their head units? If so what do you guys recommend?

Before


After

icspots

Does your sp23 have the OEM HID headlights? Most of them did. If you do have them then please don't swap out your housings. The OEM HID is actually a very good projector and with a few tweaks can look even better.

While restoration kits help they aren't a substitute for a good professional polishing. Also when restoring them it wears off the UV coating on the exterior of the light and they will end up yellowing and clowding up again (assuming the UV coat isn't already worn off in the first place). I recommend talking with a few body shops in your area, or any place which does headlight restoration. What you want to have done is a good polishing and then have a coat of clear coat sprayed on the lens to replace the UV coating. It may cost $80/light, but that's way cheap compared to a new housing (OEM HID housing is $815 MSRP).

As far as aftermarket housings. While several of them have nice styling and look cool the innards are actually very low quality and won't provide the same quality/amount of illumination, which if we stop and think about it is the first priority of your headlights.

ncruz1980

Thank you for your feedback and recommendations. I wasn't aware of adding back the clear coating for UV protection; makes total sense.

Btw the housing is OEM so I'm scratching the idea of going after-market. I googled a few shops in the area but they won't be open till tomorrow. I don't mind coughing up 160 for restoring my lights. Will keep you guys posted.

eggynatey

If you DO end up swapping out those headlights, let me know. I'd be interested in buying your old OEM ones.

ncruz1980

"Btw the housing is OEM so I'm scratching the idea of going after-market" changed my mind!

eggynatey

yea, but no LEDs

cmon, you know you want to toss those old cloudy things.

ncruz1980

icspots - thanks a million for your suggestion. Called a shop in my area that does headlight restorations and do add the UV coating back for $80.00 for boths units. I'm not sure what type of quility job he does yet, but I like the fact that he advised me to wait for warner weather. He mentioned the UV coating takes approximaly 20+ minutes to dry up which he can do today using a heat blower to drying it up (temp here are in the mid 30s). but he perfers for it to manurally dry. I like organic work, I think the guy will do a good job.

Oh and he f*cks it up I'll just sell them to eggynatey!

icspots

Awesome.

I really need to get around to having mine restored.... all scratched up and starting to get cloudy.

Also cool you found a person who gave his recommendation on waiting to do the job to do it right. Always nice to find someone willing to take the risk that you won't come back and perhaps lose out on that money vs. someone who just wants your cash.