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Re: McKee's 37 Headlight Coating
Originally Posted by
grovlet
My new plan is once prior to winter and again in spring.
Is that even better than nothing, or the LSP you're doing the rest of the car with?
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Super Member
Re: McKee's 37 Headlight Coating
grovlet, are you talking about Mckees Headlight coating or Headlight Protectant?
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Re: McKee's 37 Headlight Coating
Originally Posted by
acuRAS82
grovlet, are you talking about Mckees Headlight coating or Headlight Protectant?
Good question - I had thought it was the coating - but turns out it was only the "protectant" - so that may explain away some of the results.
Here's a comparison from start to finish over time: (You can see how it was and how it's returning - but not as bad) (as well as how they came out on Driver Side)
Under Way (Last Year)
Now - Passenger Side (Today)
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Super Member
Re: McKee's 37 Headlight Coating
I never got an answer on how long the Protectant lasts, but I’m assuming 2-4 weeks. Two on the safer side.
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Re: McKee's 37 Headlight Coating
I gave up on these types of 'protectant'. Opti-lens lasted a year before it was totally yellow. Around the 8 months mark, I could already see some yellowing. This time around, I said the heck with it and sprayed them with automotive clear coat.
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Re: McKee's 37 Headlight Coating
There is a headlight restoration kit with 1k clearcoat primer to prime the surface so the stronger 2k clearcoat don't haze when you paint the headlights. It's brand is Spray Max and is a Germany based company but have a reseller in the US. So just type spraymax dot com and see how to get it if interested. The important thing to make it last longer is to sanding of the old oem clearcoat. You would be starting to dry sanding with as low as p500 grit and move up in grit and finish of with a wet sanding p3000 grit. And then spray the 1k primer and the 2k clearcoat. This way if you are thorough with sanding of the old oem clearcoat you could get another 5 years before adressing it again. And with a coating or sealant protection even longer like McKees 37 options. And I would recommend to apply the coating after 3 months or so to get an awesome protection on them.
The problem when you start to get the headlights oxidized is that the thin clearcoat is cracked down to the plastic surface of the headlight. So that's why you experience it starting to oxidized under the coating or if clearcoated under that. If you would had been getting the old oem clearcoat of you would only get the oxidized after the coating fails.
You often feels and see when you get through the oem clearcoat and down to the plastic surface of it. Think of it to sanding through paint to bare metall. And don't polish or compounding after the p3000 wet sanding as you would want that to get the clearcoat primer and clearcoat to bond as hard as possible.
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Regular Member
Re: McKee's 37 Headlight Coating
Hey OP, how’s the coating holding up so far?
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Super Member
Re: McKee's 37 Headlight Coating
Originally Posted by
mhphoto
Hey OP, how’s the coating holding up so far?
Not the OP here, but I applied Mckees coating on my 2016 Q5 and 04 TSX at the end of November 2018. The Q5 I only used coating prep polish since those headlights still look new. They still look new today.
The TSX have all factory headlight protection long gone. I had applied Meg’s headlight coating 2 years ago and they started to look grimy at about 6 months, so assuming that coating wore off after 3-4 months. I did the Mckees headlight polish to get these back to clear again. It’s going on 5 months now with the Mckees coating. Headlights still look like they did when I applied the coating. Will update back here eventually for further status.
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Super Member
Re: McKee's 37 Headlight Coating
I use McKees, Optimum and Dr. Beasley's. I bought all three at various times when they were on sale here. For sure, for sure, for sure, you need to prep the lens and strip it of all degraded polycarbonate. This means deep sanding to get it down to raw polycarbonate. If you leave anything behind it will grow like organic mold. That said, if you prepped your lens properly the McKees product should be fine. I spray wax my headlights frequently (after every wash) so this also provides further protection.
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Super Member
Re: McKee's 37 Headlight Coating
I have not deep sanded the old headlights, but still looking good so far. They would typically have started hazing/yellowing by this 5 month mark.
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