Head lamps.

[Scott and Colleen Miller]

Headlight maintenance question: I polished the front of the headlights. I can still see oxidation/film on the inside of the headlamp cover. Can I take off the front headlamp face to polish inside, or are they a closed system? If so, would I need to purchase new ones? 
 

2004 Endeavor

Thanks again everyone for the help!

James

[Paul Busch]

I replaced mine for 150 with new ones with bulbs. I had a hard time cleaning up the old ones

2005 Monaco

[DavidL]

If the inside needs polishing (unlikely) then it's technically possible to remove the lenses on many.  Requires the headlamp to be stripped and put in an oven @ 175F for 12 minutes to loosen the sealant.  But...the inside typically isn't smooth.  It may have reflectors to aim the light.  And you can't polish that.  But it's more likely that it's just dirty.  You can try to wash the housing out.  Use distilled water to avoid water spots.

When you get tired of doing that, then upgrade to some aftermarket projector style housings with new LED bulbs 😉

[Scotty Hutto]

What @DavidL said above.  I originally sanded, polished, and coated the outside of my headlights and they looked great until moisture got in them an the insides got dirty...  I took them out and disassembled them, but it's a fair amount of work and for me the sealant was messy... so I chunked the old headlights and bought shiny new ones...  I went with the OEM 2000 Buick Century fixtures from GM rather than the TYCO knock-offs that Monaco used.  (As a side note I strongly prefer to fix things to replacing them, but this was one instance I decided it just wasn't worth the time...)

[sailingmyway]

With the somewhat low cost of replacing the whole assembly I just put new ones in that are much more modern  looking. 

[Scott and Colleen Miller]

On 2/1/2021 at 1:37 PM, Paul Busch said:

I replaced mine for 150 with new ones with bulbs. I had a hard time cleaning up the old ones

2005 Monaco

👍

On 2/20/2021 at 3:57 PM, sailingmyway said:

With the somewhat low cost of replacing the whole assembly I just put new ones in that are much more modern  looking. 

Thank you!

On 2/2/2021 at 2:16 PM, Scotty Hutto said:

What @DavidL said above.  I originally sanded, polished, and coated the outside of my headlights and they looked great until moisture got in them an the insides got dirty...  I took them out and disassembled them, but it's a fair amount of work and for me the sealant was messy... so I chunked the old headlights and bought shiny new ones...  I went with the OEM 2000 Buick Century fixtures from GM rather than the TYCO knock-offs that Monaco used.  (As a side note I strongly prefer to fix things to replacing them, but this was one instance I decided it just wasn't worth the time...)

Will do. New ones on the way

On 2/2/2021 at 2:16 PM, Scotty Hutto said:

What @DavidL said above.  I originally sanded, polished, and coated the outside of my headlights and they looked great until moisture got in them an the insides got dirty...  I took them out and disassembled them, but it's a fair amount of work and for me the sealant was messy... so I chunked the old headlights and bought shiny new ones...  I went with the OEM 2000 Buick Century fixtures from GM rather than the TYCO knock-offs that Monaco used.  (As a side note I strongly prefer to fix things to replacing them, but this was one instance I decided it just wasn't worth the time...)

Good insights! Thank you

On 2/1/2021 at 1:45 PM, DavidL said:

If the inside needs polishing (unlikely) then it's technically possible to remove the lenses on many.  Requires the headlamp to be stripped and put in an oven @ 175F for 12 minutes to loosen the sealant.  But...the inside typically isn't smooth.  It may have reflectors to aim the light.  And you can't polish that.  But it's more likely that it's just dirty.  You can try to wash the housing out.  Use distilled water to avoid water spots.

When you get tired of doing that, then upgrade to some aftermarket projector style housings with new LED bulbs 😉

Ha! Right. Ordered the new ones. Thank you!