How To: Restore & Protect Headlights with Detailer's Total Headlight Restoration Kit

[Nick McKees37]

Headlight restoration has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. The before and after difference is always dramatic, and the look on the customer's face (or lucky co-worker) is most always worth the hard work. The keyword is most, because headlight restoration can be tedious and it often turns out to be a laborious task. Detailer's Pro Series is about to change that with the introduction of two all new headlight care products.

Detailer's Pro Series recently introduced a host of new headlight products, including a couple nifty kits that take the guesswork out of headlight restoration. As any loyal employee would do, I went searching in the parking lot for nasty, oxidized, sun-faded headlights. Since we're located in South Florida, that wasn't difficult to find.


Clear Headlights = Clear View Of the Road

Headlights are supposed to shine bright so you have a clear view of the road at night. If you drive a vehicle that was manufactured in the last 30 years, it most likely has headlight lenses that are constructed out of polycarbonate plastic. Polycarbonate plastic, while extremely durable and resilient against abrasion and impact, has poor resistance to UV rays, causing it to yellow and fade overtime, reducing visibility at night. Detailer’s All In One Headlight Restoring Polish gently polishes away the dull, faded layer of plastic to restore optical clarity so you can see clearly!

Detailer’s All In One Headlight Restoring Polish is the only product you need to restore the headlight lenses on your vehicle. In one simple step it:

• Cleans by removing the embedded dirt and grime that washing doesn’t.
• Compounds using micro and diminishing abrasives that quickly and effortlessly remove years of discoloration and yellowing, revealing a clear lens.
• Polishes with the help of ultra-fine abrasives that further refine the surface, optimizing clarity while increasing vehicle safety.

Headlight Restoration - DP Style

Walk out to any random parking lot and you'll likely see this:




Oxidation, yellowing, and a cloudy haze on the surface of what's supposed to aid in vehicle safety - headlights. Driving around with oxidized headlights is like driving blind folded.

Do you think the headlights on this Toyota Avalon could possibly emit enough light for safe night time driving?




How To: Restore Headlights in ONE step, with ONE product

Remember when I said that headlight restoration is often a tedious and laborious task? Not any longer, thanks to the introduction to Detailer's All In One Headlight Restoring Polish.

Before polishing the headlight lenses, you need to make sure they're clean first. Since I had no interest in washing a beat up old Toyota Avalon, I gave the headlight lenses a quick down with Detailer's Waterless Auto Wash.




Next, I taped off any surrounding trim (this step is optional, but it's well worth the extra time). 3M masking tape worked beautifully.




Detailer's All In One Headlight Restoring Polish works best with a Lake Country THIN Foamed Wool Pad. One of these is included if you purchase the kit.

Note: I'm using a Makita 18 volt cordless drill equipped with a Lake Country Drill Backing Plate, which is also included in the kit (or available separately).




Here you can see I taped off half the lens. This is to give a clear indication of how well Detailer's All In One Headlight Restoring Polish works.

I set the Makita drill to about 1200 RPM. You can also use a rotary or dual action polisher.






There's more involved in restoring optical clarity to a plastic lens than just removing the top layer of oxidation; Detailer's All In One Headlight Restoring Polish is packed pull of micro polishing agents that pull embedded dirt out of the pores of the lens, further increasing clarity. Check out how dirty the pad is after polishing just a small section of the lens:




50/50




Completely restored:




What's impressive about the performance of Detailer's All In One Headlight Restoring Polish is that it made the lens this clear after just one step with a wool pad.




Protecting the Headlight Lens

Headlights come equipped from the factory with a protective coating. As soon as you polish the lens to remove the oxidation, what remains of this coating is removed as well. If you don't apply some type of protection on the lens, it will oxidize and yellow again in no time.

Another headlight-specific product just introduced in the DP line is Headlight Protectant Spray. Detailer’s Headlight Protectant Spray is a polymer sealant that blankets your headlight lenses in a clear, durable film of protection. Advanced cross-linking polymers seal the pores of plastic headlight lenses to prevent degradation caused by UV rays, water, and environmental pollution. Use on clear plastic headlight lenses, vinyl windows, and motorcycle windscreens. Treated surfaces will resist yellowing, fading and discoloration. Application is as simple as spraying on and wiping off. Apply a coat every couple months for maximum protection.




In no time at all the headlights on this Toyota Avalon looked as good if not better than the day the car was new. By removing the oxidation and yellowing, nighttime visibility will increase dramatically as well as the overall appearance of the vehicle.




Detailer's All In One Headlight Restoring Polish makes multi-step headlight restoration systems a thing of the past.

On Autogeek.net

Detailer's Total Headlight Restoration Kit

Detailer's All In One Headlight Restoring Polish

Detailer's Headlight Protectant Spray

Detailer's Waterless Auto Wash

Makita 18V LXT Lithium-Ion Cordless 1/2 inch Driver Drill Kit

3M Automotive Performance Masking Tape

[Romans5.8]

Wow! Looks great!

Do you think it really does perform as well as a traditional wet-sand solution?

[Nick McKees37]

Wow! Looks great!

Do you think it really does perform as well as a traditional wet-sand solution?

Severely oxidized headlights will still require sanding, but for 99.9% of other applications, Detailer's All In One Headlight Restoring Polish is all you need.

[Romans5.8]

Well I ordered the kit. Was actually about to head to the hardware store today to get some wetsanding discs! I'll try this first!

[Safari Car Wash]

Good Morning Nick,
We have been waiting to chime in on the All in One Headlight Restoration Polish.

We have been secretly test-driving this product for an undisclosed number of days now, and we are thoroughly impressed!

We are a high volume, high-end auto wash and detail facility, with customers typically in a hurry. Services have to be efficiently carried out to maintain customer satisfaction.
We see quite a few headlight restorations in a typical day.
We have a number of employees on staff that thought they were familiar with the process and experience in carrying it out.

We put the DP polish to the test against a number of other brand-name kits, as well as different techniques, other than the one instructed by Auto-Geek.

The results:
The DP Headlight Polish blew the others away!!!!!!

We used less product, and finished the jobs in less time.
Clarity was unbelievable on all of the restoration jobs we performed with this product!!

We incorporated a three stage process; 2-stage sand,


and then the polish. Average time for a set was actually timed at right under 12 minutes.

Thank you Auto Geek for allowing us to test your product, and report back to you with the results.
We are always open to you, for the AutoGeek testing grounds!!
Peace....
Tyron

[Safari Car Wash]

Post Script,
I forgot to give thanks to Mike Phillips for instructing the Safari Team, during the Sept 2013 Auto Detailing Boot Camp, on the proper Headlight Restoration technique.
As I stated in the previous post, we tested technique as well, and again, Auto-Geek shines!!!
Outstanding Product, coupled with proper technique equals profits!!!
Our customers are raving about the results!!!
Thanks again guys.....
Continued success...
Tyron

[EvolutionDetail]

Can this product remove swirls and scratches on headlights?

[Nick McKees37]

Good Morning Nick,
We have been waiting to chime in on the All in One Headlight Restoration Polish.

We have been secretly test-driving this product for an undisclosed number of days now, and we are thoroughly impressed!

We are a high volume, high-end auto wash and detail facility, with customers typically in a hurry. Services have to be efficiently carried out to maintain customer satisfaction.
We see quite a few headlight restorations in a typical day.
We have a number of employees on staff that thought they were familiar with the process and experience in carrying it out.

We put the DP polish to the test against a number of other brand-name kits, as well as different techniques, other than the one instructed by Auto-Geek.

The results:
The DP Headlight Polish blew the others away!!!!!!

We used less product, and finished the jobs in less time.
Clarity was unbelievable on all of the restoration jobs we performed with this product!!

We incorporated a three stage process; 2-stage sand,


and then the polish. Average time for a set was actually timed at right under 12 minutes.

Thank you Auto Geek for allowing us to test your product, and report back to you with the results.
We are always open to you, for the AutoGeek testing grounds!!
Peace....
Tyron

Thanks for chiming in Tyron.

Post Script,
I forgot to give thanks to Mike Phillips for instructing the Safari Team, during the Sept 2013 Auto Detailing Boot Camp, on the proper Headlight Restoration technique.
As I stated in the previous post, we tested technique as well, and again, Auto-Geek shines!!!
Outstanding Product, coupled with proper technique equals profits!!!
Our customers are raving about the results!!!
Thanks again guys.....
Continued success...
Tyron

Can this product remove swirls and scratches on headlights?

Detailer's All In One Headlight Restoring Polish will remove swirls and light scratches. If the scratch can be felt with your fingernail, you will need to sand it first.

[Vegas Transplant]

Severely oxidized headlights will still require sanding, but for 99.9% of other applications, Detailer's All In One Headlight Restoring Polish is all you need.

Looking forward to this product. Currently using Mothers 4 Headlights on the 99.9 percentage mentioned above with excellent results.

We incorporated a three stage process; 2-stage sand,and then the polish.

And something similar with the rest...lol

[Nick McKees37]

Looking forward to this product. Currently using Mothers 4 Headlights on the 99.9 percentage mentioned above with excellent results.

Let us know what you think when you try it out.