The headlights were in a bad state. The clear-coat was peeling, and the overall surface was badly oxidized from the 8yrs of sun exposure. When headlights get this bad, I have to wet sand and then bring back the shine via a rotary buffer. I used my PorterCable with an orange pad on 5-5000 rpm. I first wet sanded with 1000, 1500, 2000, and finally 2500 grit sand paper in that order. Then I buffed with Megs Diamond Compound and then Polish.
Before:
First stage of compounding:
After a final polish:
Tail pipe was cleaned by hand with Meguiar’s rubbing compound and followed by polish.
Before:
After: