Headlight Restoration-new UV sealant idea

[jeff79]

I've been out of the business for 2 years. We developed a chemical stripper to eliminate most sanding and 2 different hard coats; a 2 part poly coat and a conventional varnish based coat.

We never fully went into production because the market is so fragmented and production costs for startup were so high.

Here's 2 videos we produced:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBtl68SlcBc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hzcelTUvJo

There are many protective coatings available today; far more than when we were looking at the market.

One reason no one wants to talk about coating lifetime is that it's really a question of environment. You could coat a restored headlight with simple auto wax and it could last years if the car is parked in a garage. Conversely, you could use a very expensive UV cured coating that might start yellowing in a few months if constantly exposed to sunlight.

It might help you choose a coating if you understand the science behind these coatings. I'm working on a post that I'll post next week that explains the science of these coatings.

ray, i hate to call you out because you've provided some good information ITT but it seems like your product is misleading(correct me if im wrong).

i watched both videos and it didnt appear any oxidation/plastic corrosion was being removed. It looks like the lights were already sanded and the haze was from 1500-2000 grit scratches. ive done enough headlights to spot the difference from sanding scratches and oxidation/corrosion. It seems like the "chemical stripper" you applied was IPA which is why it evaporates from the light so quickly and restores clarity momentarily when applied. The black residue on the cotton pad was from the black rubber gasket surrounding the lens, not from oxidation. (this happens a lot when i clean the lens on some cars prior to sanding).

Its possible what your saying about the chemical stripping is accurate but judging by the videos clarity its tough to tell for sure. i know there are many de-oxidizers(rainx) available that will remove oxidation(yellow/brown) from the light very quickly with scrubbing, but ive never seen a product that can remove corrosion/surface damage of the plastic other than sandpaper.
it seems like anything strong enough to eat away the rough corrosion would destroy the underlying plastic as well.

Are you saying your product will remove oxidation or plastic corrosion or both?

[jeff79]

I think it's a good idea to measure it.... at least a few times, so you know how much you are actually using per car.

I use a small tupperware type container as a dip tank. Pour a little into it... whatever I think is needed for the job. I also use it to store the applicator between uses. Keeps it sealed, out of sunlight... helps if you want to reuse it. Putting the applicator in a Ziploc bag with air squeezed out is even better for storing for next day/week.

Blue towels work ok, but they need to be soaking wet... and takes a lot of product to get enough of it soaked to do a large lens in a single step. I would recommend trying the applicator they sell for gclear. It really does work nice. Don't soak the whole thing like in their video.... just use one end or corner of the pad.

I will have to experiment more with removing the uncured product with solvents. I would think the best thing would be urethane reducer. IPA sounds odd to me. I've used 600 grit to remove it. Don't think 1500 would cut it unfortunately. If you catch it immediately, wipe down with thinner/ipa and resand the final step.... 1500-3000 grit.

so ive been using glaswelds gclear for about a week now (applied on about 15 cars) and am pretty impressed with the results.

i measure a teaspoon per light which equates to about 75 cents/lens and is enough to lay down a pretty thick coating on most lights. On a big lens, i will use a little more and a little less on smaller ones.

The clarity of the finished lens is very very good(equal to that of spar/ms), the product isnt that difficult to apply but it should be applied quickly and def out of the direct sunlight. if you pass the same area more then twice it will streak (which is probably a good sign because it probably means the product isnt highly diluted like the cheap sealants at auto-part stores). id say you have about a minute to remove the product with solvents if you screw up. You can also dilute it with ipa if you wanted(not really neccessary though).

The first few cars i used the gclear applicator pads but they are so dense that a TON of liquid gets absorbed which makes it tough to apply even pressure and tough to spread evenly. After a few cars i started using the blue towels just like with the spar and they applied much better and more even. The best part is the lights are dry to the touch after about 10 minutes but i tell everyone to keep there car away from water for a day just to be safe.




so far i give the product a 4/5. i will know whether its a 5 star product next year if i dont get any warranty complaints!

[mr.fusion]

The coating isn't perfect, but it's a step up for sure. I'll be interested to see if you have any issues/failures with it.

Chemical stripper can work pretty good btw, but will not remove the factory coating that is still in good shape. It can remove all the oxidation and some of the old coating that has started to break down. The problem I have is that it can leave a noticeable transition... which I would have to sand to feather out or make look better. Chemical strip works great for certain lights... and is a complete waste of time on others. It doesn't eliminate all sanding, but can definitely cut down on it.

[SameGuy]

After more than a few Spar/OMS jobs I'm ready to move up one peg to Gclear at this point. Anybody using it who isn't using UV to cure? Sunlight works well enough? Yes, I'm aware of the pitfalls of outdoor curing, and the possibility of adverse conditions delaying jobs. Just wondering if I can save $200 for a rainy day, so to speak.

[mr.fusion]

Works fine with natural daylight. Cures very fast in full sun...and will cure ok even in light overcast conditions, or when the sun is not at full strength. Of course, you need to be more careful with that in winter when the sun is weak and disappears by late afternoon....

[SameGuy]

Yeah, weighed the options. Up here we get five months of winter and seven months of s***ty skiing, so I pulled the trigger on their lamp as well. If it goes on almost as easily as Spar and lasts longer, it's a win. I'll still use Spar for wholesalers, flippers and lots, but I think this will be a premium offering for retail customers.

[SameGuy]

BTW, thanks for all your input in this thread. Invaluable input.

[jeff79]

After more than a few Spar/OMS jobs I'm ready to move up one peg to Gclear at this point. Anybody using it who isn't using UV to cure? Sunlight works well enough? Yes, I'm aware of the pitfalls of outdoor curing, and the possibility of adverse conditions delaying jobs. Just wondering if I can save $200 for a rainy day, so to speak.

I've just use the sunlight to cure the gclear and it seems to work fine. The curing lamp seems kinda gimmicky to me but who knows.. maybe the light from the lamp would make the sealant last longer.

Also, you can get the same blue uv lamp at target/walmart for like $30-40 bucks.

[SameGuy]

Tried Gclear for the first time today, on a 2002 Accord sedan. The headlamp lens wasn't completely hazed but I wanted to test the coating as designed so I started with 320 and 500 dry followed by 800, 1500 and 2000 wet. I didn't want to trust the filling ability of Gclear on the first try so I progressed to 3000 Unigrit until I was satisfied.

[Aside] Remind me not to use Frog Tape for wet sanding -- the adhesive dissolved and the tape slid around at will. Back to 3M automotive tape for the next go.

Glclear isn't really more difficult to apply than the Sparathane mix, though it does go on much thicker. I'd like to find a much smaller suede MF applicator as these ones are simply too big.

The carrier appears to be IPA so it should be relatively easy to fix mistakes before it cures, but that starts to happen damn quickly! Because it applies thickly, it looks streaky but self-levels within about a minute. While the ambient temperature in my garage was 70° and RH around 45%, there was a slight bit of blushing as the carrier began to flash off; this disappeared another thirty seconds or so after the levelling. I then positioned the UV lamp close to the lens. Yes, the lamp setup is over-priced for the quality it presents, but whatever. Once under UV, I started a timer. At two and a half minutes, it was no longer tacky. At five minutes I couldn't gouge the coating with my fingernail. I let it go another five minutes anyway. The resulting coat looks as clear as new, and appears (to my eyes) slightly thicker than the Sparathane mix tends to coat.

Now, as Jeff said, it's a matter of confirming how well it holds up.

[BrianMcLeod]

So is anybody still using this UV Sealer-Helmsman Spar Urethane clear coat or whatever its called? What grit should I start off with and finish with should I use a da when sanding? or by hand? and how is this stuff compared to opti-coat?