I’m a car guy, and since I like to keep my car nice it has always driven me crazy that the xenon headlight lense covers were no longer crystal clear, but yellow and brown. They didn’t shine as bright either, since the aged plastic filtered the light.
I drive a 1999 Toyota vehicle with over 285,000 miles on it, I don’t have a name for it, but I do call it my baby, and it still looks great. I believe it is smart financially to maintain a car well for a long time and extract as many miles out it as possible. I plan to keep this car for many more years. When I keep it clean I seem to appreciate it and treat it better too. Funny, I swear it drives better right after it has been washed I’m not kidding, I’m thinking that ‘my baby’ has a soul and just appreciates being treated right.
No matter how well I cleaned this car, since the headlight lenses looked so bad, it just never looked clean. I’ve tried some headlight restorer products over the years, but none of them worked well so I was skeptical. While at the auto parts store picking up a headlight bulb for my wife’s van, I got into a discussion about the various products for restoring headlights. It seems the manufacturers have gotten much better, which is a good idea since so many cars have the clear lenses over their xenon or halogen bulbs. In the old days, cars only had ‘sealed beam’ headlights and the whole unit was one big light bulb that had the headlight lense built-in.
The sales person recommended several products, but he said the auto detailer guys would mainly buy the 3M kits, so that is what I tried, and the results were amazing, restoring the finish to 90% show room luster. This is the after picture, I wish I had a before picture to show you, but it was very dirty looking.
Not only am I glad that the car looks a lot better, I will be able to see a lot better at night, and during rain, snow and fog. I bought my car for 9,300 in 2005, and have had very little maintenance and repairs and the $25 was a good investment. I am grateful for the great 3m product, and it was easy to use. The kit consisted of an electric drill bit attachment, three different grits of sand paper, and a buffer and rubbing compound. I followed the directions and it worked great. The hour and half process just consists of removing a slight layer of plastic and polishing it clean. Now my wife wants me to do her car. Guess what I am going to do this Saturday morning?
