Refinishing headlight lense vs buying new/near new headlights?

[tmontague]

Originally Posted by tarkus

With the lenses newly polished by a professional body shop, I found a very subtle yellowness compared to a brand new lens. But this is really subtle and wouldn't be noticed without placing a brand new one right beside. Overall, I highly recommend repolishing.

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I haven't compared my results to brand new lenses but I sand them with various grits for about 3 hours and the whole process takes me about 5 hours. I suppose a professional could also use power tools to speed it up but generally time is of the essence with them so it could be possible that they didn't take enough off. Or it may not be possible to get them the same as brand new lenses.