We've all heard it said: They just don't make cars like they used to. And we must admit there is truth to the statement. In some ways, cars are far more refined than the Mopars we remember from the '60s and '70s, offering modern safety equipment, independent suspension, rack and pinion steering, and powerful, efficient powerplants, but in other ways they just aren't as solid as older models.
The headlight lenses on our '09 Challenger are still pretty sweet, so we decided to really test this product on our 240,000-mile '01 Dually and 110,000-mile '95 LHS.
You can blame the federal government for much of the plastic in today's cars, as it is simply a reaction to mandated safety items and efficiency ratings for new automobiles. All of the airbags, associated wiring, and bracing required to make our cars safer adds significant weight, which must be offset somehow for the car to offer competitive performance and meet the government's mileage requirements. This requires that non-structural items be manufactured from lightweight parts, like plastic, which has the added benefit of often being less expensive as well, keeping the cost of the car down.
Headlights with minor damage can simply be buffed using the Powerball, but lenses with major damage like ours need the full treatment. Mother's includes four grades of very fine sandpaper with the kit, used to progressively sand the damage from the outer layer of plastic.
Of all the parts of our new car that are made from plastic, the most obvious (at least after a couple years of driving) are the headlights. Instead of glass bulbs like our older cars, modern Mopar cars and trucks utilize a plastic bezel and lens, with a replaceable element. While the result is a lighter, more user friendly headlight assembly, the plastic lenses themselves are subjected to all of the dirt, debris, sand, and sunlight that driving offers, often resulting in scratches and discoloration.
Fortunately, Mother's has an all-inclusive product designed to fully restore plastic headlight lenses to the clarity they had when new. The Powerball 4lights kit contains all of the items necessary to wet-sand your plastics lenses, and then polish them using the supplied buffing pad and compound, resulting in a dramatic improvement in the appearance and performance of the headlights. Our '09 Challenger project car is too new to need headlight restoration, but like most enthusiasts we had a couple of older Mopars to test this product on. Spending about 30 minutes each on our '01 Dodge truck and '95 Chrysler LHS, we must say we were impressed with the results. Follow along and we'll show you how easy it is to restore plastic headlight lenses.
Using the same method as wet-sanding paint, the plastic lenses are sanded with progressively finer sandpaper, using water to wash away contaminants. The pieces are numbered one through four, making this a no-brainer.
