2003 Lincoln Town Car Executive: Headlight lens cover are about shot,

The head lamp assembly is not made to be disassembled.
One could do that by cutting the plastic. And there are no replacements for just the lens.

Buying the entire assembly is necessary.

Action
 
An alternative would be to buy a headlamp restorer kit from just about any automotive parts store. YMMV
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To add a comment, I have replace head lamp assemblies on three vehicles rather than fiddle with any head lamp restoration.
All of those vehicles were older than 19 years with milage well into 6 figures.

Not exactly sure if there is a preventive measure to the degradation. I am coating the lens with a generic plastic treatment to see if I can extend the service life.

Action
 
Action said:
The head lamp assembly is not made to be disassembled.
One could do that by cutting the plastic. And there are no replacements for just the lens.

Buying the entire assembly is necessary.

Action
Click to expand...
Was afraid of that . . . LOL 😁
 
Action said:
To add a comment, I have replace head lamp assemblies on three vehicles rather than fiddle with any head lamp restoration.
All of those vehicles were older than 19 years with milage well into 6 figures.

Not exactly sure if there is a preventive measure to the degradation. I am coating the lens with a generic plastic treatment to see if I can extend the service life.

Action
Click to expand...
What are you using?

Just curious, anyone have a good guess on how long a set of assemblies will last until they will not pass state inspection?
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Thank you all! Looks like a set of new ones is my most logical option.

Now, the question is: What makes the best quality replacement sets? Where do I begin to look?
 
ScatCat said:
I am not very good at those kind of projects but you got me thinking, are there any guys who do this?
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Hi ScatCat. As others mentioned, virtually any auto detailing shop will perform headlight restoration. And you can have both restored for less than the price of buying one replacement.
Many regular auto repair shops will also restore headlights nowadays.
Try Googling “Headlight restoration near me”, scroll past the sponsored links, and you will find some shops in your general area.

In addition, as others also mentioned, there are inexpensive kits (and more expensive ones) available to do it yourself.

Let us know how you make out and good luck.
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The automotive detail shop local to me does offer headlight restoration.

As far as replacement recommendations, there are many available across the price spectrum. I tend to shy away from cheap eBay/Amazon offerings. When I replaced the headlamp housings in my 2006 Designer (due to water infiltration, not from foggy lenses), I chose a set from Oracle through CarID.com . Pricey, but I intend on keeping the car for a long time.
 
I use the Cerakote product for this issue. Works quite well and gives about 18-24 months of clear lens results.

It seems no amount of UV protective solution will keep these lens forever clear. Just keep up with the problem as it becomes evident and you should be okay.
 
I've tried DIY polishing and have not liked the results; and I'm okish with the tools of the trade. Using a detail shop, the guys that do paint correction, are the best option short of replacement. A local guy near me does BETTER paint polishing than even a full-line paint and body shop that I also use; the little shop does nice work on headlights too. There is a big difference in experience of the guys doing it.
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driller said:
The automotive detail shop local to me does offer headlight restoration.

As far as replacement recommendations, there are many available across the price spectrum. I tend to shy away from cheap eBay/Amazon offerings. When I replaced the headlamp housings in my 2006 Designer (due to water infiltration, not from foggy lenses), I chose a set from Oracle through CarID.com . Pricey, but I intend on keeping the car for a long time.
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You sound like me! We are 3rd owners.

Owner 1 was a little old lady who was the mother of 2nd owner's best friend. She sold it to owner 2 with 20,000 miles on it who bought it to use for trips from Virginia to Florida to visit his sick brother. Owner 2 is my best friend. When Owner 2's brother died in 2020 he asked me if we'd be interested. It had 85,000 +/- miles on it and was in almost perfect condition, so we jumped on it. It now has just rolled over to 100,000 miles and still in excellent condition.

So the set from Oracle sounds like it might suit us very well. Would you mind posting a link on CarID.com to the set you bought. Did you also replace all the bulbs or use your old ones?

https://www.carid.com/2003-lincoln-town-car-headlights/

Thanks!
 
Nongmin said:
I use the Cerakote product for this issue. Works quite well and gives about 18-24 months of clear lens results.
Click to expand...
As I stated above, I have replaced my head lamps. There is no discoloration at this point. The headlamps I have replaced are anywhere from 6 months to 4 years from replacement. (And I did get the least expensive headlamps possible from various sources)

At this point, I would be very interested in being proactive to making the service life last as long as possible.

Is Cerakote for the repair of discolored plastic? Or can it be used as maintenance to make the plastic lens last longer?

Action
 
ScatCat said:
So the set from Oracle sounds like it might suit us very well. Would you mind posting a link on CarID.com to the set you bought. Did you also replace all the bulbs or use your old ones?
Click to expand...

I believe these are the ones I bought... Oracle Headlamp

I used Sylvania halogen bulbs if I recall correctly. My OEM headlamps were HID and supposedly the halogen lamps won't work. But after some research I became convinced they would work and guess what? They did! I was impressed with the look of the halos but slightly disappointed with the halogens after having the HIDs. But since the car is rarely driven, and almost not at all at night, there is no regret. I have recently bought a set of LEDs for them but haven't gotten around to swapping them in.

Here is a pic of the Oracle Halo headlamps installed:

halos.webp

Looks like the price has increased rather dramatically plus it doesn't come up for your model year? I'm not sure what the difference(s) are between these and the earlier model years.
 
Those look sharp. Wish the HID system could be used in aftermarket like that.
 
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