i like to start with 400, to remove the UV/clear coat off easily. Then i go to 800, 1000, 1500, then 2000. Then i use Novus plastic polish #3, then finish with #2. I polish with plain ol terry cloth and elbow grease. But i use a high quality, "soft" kind that doesnt leave scratches. (skygeek.com has great prices on novus)
They look brand spankin new after that. You just need to polish with the #2 and wax, every so often to keep it from foggin' up again. It will fog up quicker, after removing the uv/clear coat.
Also some tips, go ahead and remove the weatherstrip that surrounds the lights, makes it 100x easier. Reattach with weather-stripping adhesive.
Also, have a plan of how you do it. I start on the nipples (sand the tops, sides, then bases) then sand the wide open areas last.
I always sand in one direction, then the other (left-right then up-down), to remove all the scratches from the previous grit.
Takes me about 5-10 minutes on each grit, and about 10 minutes total per light to polish. So about 35-60 minutes per light.
Here's some pics from the first headlight I tried. Both were equally yellow, before. They still had some small scratches left over though, which made them look somewhat "hazy". The second attempt came out much better, after getting my technique down. Now i can do a set of lights without any scratches left over, except a few small ones on the nipples. I just finished another set and did the whistler mod, and they are freakin awesome looking.
