....or are they either a waste of time and money or at the best jst temporary ?

If you can buy an inexpensive reproduction new, that is the route to go. For my wife's 300M, the OE headlights were getting hazy & never illuminated the road in front of you at night very well. I bought a pair of aftermarket ones from the internet ("Eagle Eyes" brand) & they were perfect fit, & functioned MUCH better than the OE ones. They have been on the car for 2 years now & still look perfect.

The problem with plastic lenses is similar to the old enamel paints: over time & aggravated by UV light, the resins evaporate to the surface. Some resins also yellow with age.
What I've done with customer cars is to wet-sand the lenses with 1000 grit, and then polish them with rubbing compound using a small pad (mask around the lens). That helps a lot, depending on how bad they were beforehand.

Cloudy lenses also reduce light output; that seems lost on a lot of people.

The 3M kit is the best I have used and works well.

Eventually, though the UV rays will do their thing again.

I use toothpaste works pretty food is not

i tried the toothpaste ,worked pretty good for about a year then turned yellow again.But no cavities

😂

Are there any replacements that have good UV protection?

If you don't want to buff your headlights periodically (and you will), check out Rock Auto's prices on headlights. I buffed mine for several years, but when I broke one (not in the buffing process), I replaced them both. Wish I would have done it sooner.

I did the ones in my old Ram. Sanded with 1000 grit then polished with the 3M stuff and a Powerball. Cleaned them really well and coated them with Valspar Marine varnish. They still looked good when I sold the truck a year later.

For UV protection, lightly scuff them (800 grit wet) and spray 'em with a catalyzed urethane clear. Also, the clear chip-guard stuff will work.

This

If you want to polish them, you don't have to buy anything special. Any polish will do the job. Depending on how rough the surface is, you can start with anything between 600 and 1000 sandpaper. Finish with 1500 or 2000.

The plastic is soft enough that you don't need compound. Polish will do it. It would go a little quicker if you use some compound, but not much if you use some 1500 to 2000 paper. And don't let the surface go dry. The plastic will burn and smear much easier than paint.

If you decide to polish them, they usually look better and are clearer. But you will need to redo them periodically.

As mentioned above, the best and fairly permanent fix is to spray them with catalized clear after sanding with 600 or so sandpaper. Spray bomb clear doesn't work, it just lays on top of the plastic and looks like fish eye.

We spray the headlights in just about ever car we get in. It is amazing how headlights that are yellow and completely fogged look almost new after clearing.

Either way, it is important to sand the surface enough to remove the oxidation and old sealer.

Sand/scrape off the outer film on the headlight, then sand with 1000 grit and spray with a clearcoat that uses hardener. Eastwood has some 2 part spray bomb stuff now that works decent. A/M is very hit or miss. Some are ok, but I have bought some that have you hunting racoons without enough adjustment to fix it. They also do not focus the light beam nearly as well so are not as bright. Fix the oem ones as suggested above and they will likely last as long as you have the car.

Mothers mag wheel polish works good but like said unless clearcoated they will dull again.

Think it’s happening from the inside out too. I’m on set #3 in my 01. Headlight get hazy, but the plastic turn signal lenses stay looking new.

THX guyz .... Lots of options here ! Since this 2005 vehicle is such a sweetie pie I'm thinking maybe new ones. Is the quality of plastic THESE DAYS way better than 05 ? And I should mention that the plastic covers on this one ISNT all that bad.

Ooooops .....what kind of money are new ones ?

rockauto.com

Huge price range on headlights for the 05 Ram. I have seen them priced at $35 and up for the aftermarket ones and up to $250 plus for the mopar brand.