Good day fellow car detailing enthusiasts! It took me a while to put this thread together because I seriously did not know in which sub-forum I should put it.
The title of the thread should be: "How to do Headlight Restoration like a Boss!!", but I feel it should be less about a "How-To" and more about a product review
The Subject: 2010 Toyota Tundra with some seriously sun faded and weathered headlights
Tools and Products (some I will give you my opinion on)
1) Flex PE8 Kompakt rotary
2) 2" Pneumatic DA
3) Scholl concepts S0 Extreme Cut (Thanks Aaron Bodle for the sample)
4) Scholl Concepts S3XXL
5) CarPro Reflect
6) CarPro Flash Pad (3")
7) BuffDaddy 2" polishing pad
8) Megs 3" MF cutting pad
Before getting involved in the "How-To", let me acknowledge 2 people. The first has to be Aaron Bodle, for not only introducing me to S0 but being so generous but to send me a sample even though I did not have a project for it. Thanks buddy! The second will have to be Bob Eichelberg @ Flex, who offered the PE8 in a contest to name the tool. I was fortunate enough to offer the winning entry, and was provided a free PE8 "Kompakt" as my prize.
The Task: The task of doing headlight restoration is not a complicated one. You basically have to cut and polish the plastic surface to restore clarity, and protect them against future deterioration. The methods may vary greatly between detailers, ranging from sanding, wet sanding, compounding or polishing (or a combination of those steps) and protection can be temporary, in the form of a paint sealant or more permanent with a nano-coating. Regardless of the method(s) employed, our goal as professional detailer is to provide the best "bang" for the buck, and also improve our profit margin without compromising the quality work we produce.
As most of you I am a creature of habit, and as such depend on my "tried and true". When it comes down to headlight restorations I do have a good reputation, but it is definitely not a service I push regularly because the market I am in does not support a price point reasonable enough for me to divert my attention from other more profitable task. Don't get me wrong, it is a very valuable service but...... So why make this How-To?? Simple enough, I was introduce to a product and have on hand a tool which makes this task so much easier (therefore more profitable) that I would be remissed, if I did not share with you guys.
The Process
So what changed?? In short "Liquid Sandpaper". There is no better term to describe Scholl S0. It is nothing more than sandpaper in a bottle. Look at that GRIT!!!!!
This product in combination with a very stiff 3" CarPro Flashpad is just plain MIRACULOUS! The headlights I was working on would have normally required me to sand, then wet sand the haze/opaque surface (not to mention the etched bug splatter), but the combination of the Flash Pad and the S0 on the 3" Kompakt rotary just killed it!! As you can see, S0 is THICK!! so no real option of doing the 10/10 pick up. I placed a dollop of it on the pad and started the PE8 at a low speed to spread and 3 section passes is all it took (and look at all the nastiness it picked up)
Don't get me wrong, this is by no mean a finish polish and will leave some nice scars on the plastic, so for that reason I followed with a 3" MF pad + S3XXL on the PE8. 4 section pass later and it was ready for a finish polish. For that I selected the CarPro Reflect which just consistently produces amazing results.
The Protection
Personally I do not offer an economical headlight restoration. I either get to coat the lenses or the customer has to find someone willing to unscrupulously take their money by putting a sealant on them. I may be a little harsh but I find it preposterous to think that customers will keep up with sealing their headlight regularly enough to keep them protected from the elements. But do not fear, all of my customers are properly educated as to what is involved in the headlight restoration process, and as to the protection I am suggesting they should put on. So far I haven't had one customer go to a different detailer for the restoration. A few may have bought the OTC kits (trying to save money) but they eventually come see meIn any case, I selected DLUX as my coating on this particular job, which was baked to 170 degrees (for early release)
The Results:
Pretty self explanatory wouldn't you say
The Conclusion
Of course using a rotary for the first few steps may have made the process slightly faster than using a DA but I guarantee you that either option would be faster than sanding by hand. I definitely like my little Flex PE8 and will definitely find more use for it now that I have the 1", 2" and 3" backing plates, but the serious winner has to be Scholl Concepts S0 Extreme Cut in combination with the Flash Pad. This combination seriously made me rethink my position of pushing headlight restoration. Why??? Let's look at it in numbers. On average 1 headlight sanded and wet sanded, then compounded and polished would have taken me easily 20-25 minutes, from setup to finish. In comparison..... well, check out my stopwatch! Taping excluded it took me a whole 7 minutes to "sand", compound and coat (with a minute to Erase and coat with DLUX, and 10 minutes to bake).
Any questions??
I sure hope you enjoyed. As always, feel free to comment, suggest, criticize etc....
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Originally Posted by Corey
