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Repairing Brake Light UV Damage

Some people have noticed a weird pattern of what looks like scratches on their third brake light that seemed to appear over night.

No, you did not scratch it nor did the neighbor kids do it, but our good friend the sun did. The UV light from the sun has started to deteriorate the plastic. The fact that the top of the brake light has a black backing to it may have helped it along. People that applied a polish to their car that offered UV protection may not have this problem.

This is what it looks like. NOT GOOD.

Many people have gone back to the dealer to have it replaced under warranty and Ford has replaced them. I try to avoid going to the dealer though and came up with the following solution.

The lens is pretty easy to remove. Remove the two 10mm nuts from inside the trunk. Lift the lens up and disconnect the electrical connector on the left hand side.

Making use of what I had around the house, I first used 320 wet sand paper. This will take the longest amount of time. You need to go deep enough to get past the scratches.

This is after about 20-30 minutes of sanding.

Next I did the same thing with 400 wet sand paper. Only about 10 minutes on this step.

I would have liked to gone to 600 wet sand paper but I did not have any so I used some 2000 wet sand paper that I had.

I picked up a product call Novus Plastic Polish. They make a #1, #2 and a #3. #1 for cleaning and light scratches, #2 for deeper scratches and then the #3 for deeper scratches.

This is after about 3 applications of the #3.

I then did a couple of applications of the #2 and then tried the #1. To tell you the truth I was pretty happy after just using the #3. This is after using only a couple applications of #3 #2 and then the #1. I will probably polish some more with the #1 when I have it in the sunlight.

Not bad for about 30 minutes worth of work.

Can you tell a difference?

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