I took off my headlight lenses today and polished them with the MeGuiar's plastic cleaner and polish. It seems like a lot of work for only a minor improvement. Anyway, I'm not satisfied - I want new lenses. I saw some on Volvoworld.com for about $40. Does anybody know of a good source? And are they still made by Cibie or by some other company?

Thanks ... Oh, I turned over 200,000 miles last week !!!
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Bill Crump - ('91 245SE & '93 244 'Classic')

FWIW, I bought new aftermarket headlight lenses on ebay over a year ago and they still look great!

Much easier than polishing.

Thanks for the advice. I looked at the lenses again this morning in the bright sunlight and they do look a bit better. I already sealed them back up last night and don't know if I want to go through the trouble of taking them back off right now and scraping the sealant off. Then again, if the sealant is new, will it just peel off like glue?

Greg P: the lenses you bought on e-bay, were they made by Cibie or some other company?
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Bill Crump - ('91 245SE & '93 244 'Classic')

Congrats' on 200k!

Headlight lenses and McGuires... I did the same as you (except I scored some lenses for cheap at the junk yard) and am also not satisfied with the results. I did my polishing by hand, after wet sanding the lenses with progresivly finer grits up to 2000. I can see the plastic polish slowly clearing up the lenses, but it seems like a heck of a lot of work to achieve acceptable results. I want to get a buffing pad for my 4 1/2" grinder and give that a try. I think it is possible to get acceptable results, just takes a bunch of work. But that optimism is still just speculation at this point.

I do know that 3M makes a plastic polisher with a micro-abrasive in it that breaks down and gets finer as you polish. I used it at work with a buffing pad for a grinder to polish some (about 60 sq. ft.) clear acrylic and had great results. That's why I think it's possible with the lenses but don't yet have conclusive evidence.

That's what I know... good luck.

-Steve in Minneapolis
1987 245DL 240k

Hi. I can't speak for this out of personal experience -- but here's a thought. Boaters have a similar problem -- the plastic windows on their canvas boat covers yellow with age, and there are some good products (I've seen their fantastic results, but on canvas windows, not Volvo headlights) that you can buy at boating shops. Why not try a bottle (see what your local boating shop stocks, and try it) -- the problem seems similar, and if you can see out of the canvas windows, maybe it will be good enough for a headlight.
Just a thought. Good luck.

I've heard using brasso (brass polish) works wonders. Couldn't hurt to try.
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Darell

Oven cleaner also will get the yellow off. It's good at getting the main layer of damaged surface off the lens, but they do look dull after and need plastic polish to really brighten them up.
Oven cleaner eats paint, so do not get it on the body of the car or the reflectors if its open.
I've found that a lot of 240 lenses can be removed by pryign around the edges- the seal rubber is garbage. After cleaning and gettign the water out reseal using clear silicone RTV.
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Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '87 244DL/M47- 221K, 88 744GLE- 202K, 91 244 181K, 88 244GL 145K