What is the best replacement headlight housings (pref. real glass)?

You will never find glass look at the piece of plastic if you bake it in the oven for about 30 minutes and get it hot the plastic will lift right off the housing and you tell me where you're going to find a piece of glass shaped like that I would even be willing to pay a company to make me two. If I could get it done for say under $350 for two left and right I don't even know who I would go about beginning to question about this windshield makers PPG I have no clue You will not do better than the factory original housings the plastic is thick if the car was garaged and taking care of. They should still look good today and just starting to get cloudy buffing them out with the proper kit with the proper steps should yield you another 15 years of no problem If you're going to take lenses off to try and fit glass or something like that might as well go all the way and put in a small projector been done been done on several other makes too no problems It's about $80 aside for something worth your while projectors that is then you've got whole engineered system for your car Great The only problem is I don't do much night driving anymore but there's a post right here in this generation two section of a guy that just got through doing this couple of weeks ago.

 

No to the glass lenses.

If your current lenses buff up nice and clear, then you should consider a proper headlight restoration kit like the ones made by Turtle Wax or Cerakote. With these you will do a three-stage sanding process followed by polishing, then applying a UV protectant coating. You need to apply the UV coating because the sanding removes the old UV coating which you need to do because that is what yellows with age.

If you then want the best outcome go to a detailer that does paint protection film (PPF) and have them seal them with PPF. The PPF is an additional UV protection. After that, you won't have to worry about your lenses for many years.

 

Tell me how you think or explain how a projector would wear out faster than say a halogen bulb in a plastic housing with a high and low beam filament? In the projector system you have a vessel that houses a single lamp no high and low beam You have a shutter literally that's usually electronically operated that moves up and down in front of the lamp bulb that activates and forces and makes you a high beam The cutoff shutter is what gives you cut off and what mimics a low beam action this is what your BMWs and your Maseratis and Lamborghinis all have forget whether they're LED bulbs or gas filled doesn't matter so actually the projector should sail a lot less It's missing a filament in a glass bulb so there's just one filament it comes on it's bright as all get out and then this is shutter that electronically lifts up and down in front of this lamp to create a low beam and a wide open high beam even the Toyota projectors the projection part of it works relatively steadfast it's the ballast and the bulb being excited or the gas being excited by the electricity and not lighting properly that is the failure point so that's the bulb and ballast when you put a high-powered LED in a projector assembly you've eliminated the ballast and most of the problems now all you have is the shutter moving up and down when you pull the high beam switch in the car The gas and the excitement of that gas by electricity is no longer happening as your lighting an LED or Cob LED module so actually things should get a lot more stable as far as lasting long goes I have LED bulbs in my factory projectors on an '07 generation 2 and they'll probably last 20 years there's nothing left to fail The ballast and the bulbs have been removed and the LEDs have been installed and they are much brighter than they've ever been We polished the lenses they are way past respectable they may not be BMW or Lamborghini lights but let me tell you there are plenty bright and I don't spend all my life driving at night. Night time is the time that I generally do not want to be on the road under current conditions More hassle than it'll ever be worth That's for sure.

 

Outlawed in the USA since 1967.

The key to living with polycarbonate headlights is to get good at polishing them, and then immediately treat them with a UV-blocking clearcoat after the polish.

 

I had no idea I have a 94 Honda Civic that I just got and like some of my older Corollas It has glass headlights fixed to it right now as far as I know came from the factory it's a glass headlight lens glued to or molded to a polycarbonate reflector and bulb housing socket this is how all my Toyotas were at least through I don't know man 1990 I believe That's what the old 9004 and the square glass pop up headlights that were on all my Toyota celicas and even Corollas I still have some of the headlights sitting here on the shop shelf ready to go in vehicles I no longer own I had no idea that they had outlawed though since 1967 that's quite interesting there must have been a way manufacturers got around that all the way up until well about 95 it looks like or maybe that's how they got around it The glass headlight front glued or molded to a polycarbonate reflector and holder for the bulb maybe that was the workaround?

 

You're probably SOL on that. Our first few cars, early to mid eighties, were (glass) sealed-beam headlights, $20 a pop. Never any issues. But we "progress".

Not sure what the best course for you would be; this is a 2007 (or 2008?) Prius, US Touring model? Take a look on this page:

Headlamp for Toyota Prius XW20, 2 generation, restyling 11.2005 - 05.2009 - Toyota Car and Auto Spare Parts - Genuine Online Car Parts Catalogue - Amayama

It's a little bewildering which of the headlamps you'd need; most of the options are $300~400 CDN for me, and one over a grand, for some reason. Anyway, if I put right/left hand of the lower priced in a cart, it comes to under a grand CDN for me, with shipping:



And then, how to keep your headlamps like-new: what's your parking situation? Are you street parked a lot? Try to park in shade and/or with the front of the car pointed away from the sun.

 

Never done headlight polishing myself. Our 10's headlights are pristine, but only because it's almost always garaged. Which is nuts.

 

Project farm channel on youtube has a comparison review of these lens kits.

The Sylania kit worked well for me.

A kit isn't really needed. Sanding headlights by hand is slightly tedious but not difficult. Start with medium coarse and work to fine (like 2000 grit), wet sanding always. Then buff with some sort of polish (I used a metal polish that I already had, a plastic polish might be a better choice) and it will be perfectly smooth and clear.

Problem is that it will immediately start going to hell as there is no UV or other protection on that surface whatsoever. The Sylvania kit comes with a wipe on clearcoat. It lasts a couple of years in sunny Southern California. When that starts to go lightly buffing it will remove some of the surface damage, and then protect with wax (see below). It won't make it perfectly clear, but much better. That might also work on headlights that are just starting to go with the original clearcoat or any other headlight kit finish.

If I ever do a full restore again I will try to find a paint shop which will spray them with 2k clearcoat for cheap. That is substantially tougher than 1k clearcoat, which is I think what was in the Sylvania kit. 2k is very toxic, I don't have the equipment to work with that safely, but paint shops do. I think (but have not actually done it) that it shouldn't cost very much to spray these if you give them to the paint shop with the back already taped off and the front already cleaned up. It is almost no work for the shop, they just do it at the same time as any other car they are painting.

In the meantime, on our Prius with slightly foggy headlights I had been just waxing them, but that tends to attract dirt. Last weekend they were stripped (using Dawn detergent) and then treated twice with Nufinish. It is clear enough to be safe now, but not glass clear. (Specifically, if I stand above the headlight and look down at the flat mirror section between the upper and lower compartments I see a slightly out of focus image of my face. Without a coating of wax or Nufinish I cannot see that image.) The headlights are bright enough and focused enough to be useful again. The wax and this stuff match the index of refraction in the little scratches and pits and produce a smooth surface, so there is less scattering of light from the front of the lens. But looking with a magnifying glass at the surface, larger nicks are still visible. Only way to remove those is by sanding.

 

I like the mothers and the 3M kits the ones with the multiple grades of sandpaper into the thousands of grit fineness and all that multiple steps It's good to have a variable speed drill you will not be going fast The idea generally is to keep the headlamp wet or not dry etc and take your time which will go by relatively quickly this is not a long drawn out thing You want to take some painters tape and put that all around the body next to the headlight where your drill will go over your pad will go over the space You can make ugly if you really want to so.

 

Well quality Auto body in Durham North Carolina Sam is a great friend of mine I don't know anything about 1 and 2K clear coats but I can assure you he does he paints classic cars or used to He's getting old now and just those little stuff but he finally got control of the building that he's in funny how things like that work out as you're about to age out and die people all of a sudden want to be good to you anybody down this way that's the guy to go see Sam quality Auto downtown Durham.

 

I don't have any personal experience with restoration kits, I but have watched a few reviews of various kits and all the ones mentioned in this thread would probably be okay. Have a look at the Project Farm mentioned by pasadena_commut, that is as good as any comparison. This is the earlier one here and he did a follow-up video this year here.

As pasadena_commut said, a kit isn't necessary, but finding the UV protection part is what trips people up. One of the benefits of a kit is that everything you need is included. It's worth the price IMO.

No, it will just take a bit longer. In any case, I would do the sanding by hand and would recommend not machine sanding. It does not take long to do by hand and you have far more control over the process. I would machine polish though and as Tom says a variable-speed drill could be used for this if you have one and a suitable backing plate.