HID headlight pitting from rocks / sand scratches

[radroach]

My BRZ has pitting and scratches from rocks and bugs hitting it on the highway. I'd like to restore my headlights and am wondering if there's a high quality solution other than toothpaste to fix all the nicks and scratches on my headlights.

I've tried Meguiar's Plastic-X on other cars and it works with great success on older car headlights, but I'm wondering if there's a better product / kit to use on brand new car headlights. I could probably go with a lighter duty product.

[Turbo95eg6]

I've got a nasty chip in mine… I've been told wet sanding may work, I'm not really worried about it.

[rickpalace]

is there anything we can do to prevent these chips? besides avoiding highways!

[Burrcold]

Get them covered with paint protective film.

[Richard Grasa]

For heavy pitting, you're going to need to get pretty aggressive to level the lens material. When you're attempting to remove pits, scratches, etc, you're removing the material around the defects to be equal with the lowest spot of the defect, in turn "removing" the defect. I would recommend the 3M Headlight Restoration kit for something this aggressive. But make sure you know what you're doing or you can cause more harm than good. Make sure to tape off the surrounding paint with masking tape as well.

Also, be aware that when you get this aggressive, you will most definitely be removing the UV resistant coating on top of the lens material. This can cause premature fading of the lenses. I would recommend replacing the coating with something like Optimum Opti-Lens.

If you don't think you need to get that aggressive, if the pits aren't too bad, look into the Meguiar's headlight restoration kit that comes with the buffing pad you put in a drill. It's safer and easier than wetsanding, but most likely won't remove deep pits.