This channel will be mainly devoted to Headlights and Headlight Restoration at the upper level of proper Headlight Restoration...🤓 It will be a ongoing series of videos showing different techniques, what to do, and what not to do during professional headlight restoration, and even the everyday do it yourself Headlight Restoration. We will also be reviewing products and much more... #theheadlightrestorationpro
I've never heard of anyone offering a polish job on headlights and to offer the same customer to come back every 3 months is just insane. I could've understood if he went back to complain but going back 6 times to actually pay for another application is beyond me.
Quick question. What is the type of product you are using for that final buff/polish before you wipe with the microfiber cloth??? I just ordered all the other stuff, but wasn't sure about the compound used before the Meguire's.
You never see on other detailing channels, C/fix ect, Trying todo a recovery on headlights after having this 2kmax applied?? I hope this your video go's far and wide!! To show the long term damage on headlights, Thanks for this excellent job 🤔🇬🇧👍😍
146,000 miles and 11 years in Arizona and my headlights still look brand new. never been touched. See others 3 years old and they look terrible. Some manufacturers make cheap headlights. kinda wish they would start fogging so I could polish down the stone chips.
I used a graphene coating that says it's good on plastic, it wasn't headlights looked like new for a couple of months. After that I repolished removing the graphene and this time I put on Sylvania's coating. Time will tell but 6 months in, they still look great. I sand mine by hand and use a 5" DA buffer, but I really like that little guy. My final sand before polishing is a 3000 grit and I sand with water running on it.
I’ve never used 3M Trizact as it’s really expensive. But I was surprised to see you go from 800 grit to the Trizact 3000 with no other grades in between, and yet it still took out the 800 marks really quickly. I can’t imagine my 3000 grit doing much straight after using 800. How does the Trizact achieve this?
I dont know man Meguiars doesnt last, i had to redo my after 2 years looked like this headlight, but yes its easy to sand down and redo 2k on the other hand i seen looking good after 5 years but when it does breakdown its mess and its harderd to sand down to redo... I see why you preffer meguiars as professional, easier faster and repeat annual customers
I am also new at this. Watched a bunch of his videos, noted the steps/products etc. I've done 8 of my neighbor's cars to get a feel for this restoration. I've noticed how fast he is through the steps and then "bling", perfection in minutes. Here's my experience so far. Heck, taping up some of these lights can take some time, and yeah, I discovered firsthand what he means by not skimping on the tape area next to the light. Thank god for the cars I worked on were somewhat "beaters" and only slightly burned a tiny bit of paint but saw ol Ralphie with "Ohhh fuuuuudge "What if this was a really nice detailed car? I didn't like that thought. I too discovered some "cloudiness" after the polishing step and thought, dang, I got the white powder going etc..what's going on?.. I had to go back and redo the 800 sanding step and proceed. What I finally figured out was.. I have one of those old Makita drills.. and looking closely, it maxes out at 700 rpm.. and that's if the battery is fully charged. I realized I am working in slow mo.. ie, I have to spend more time on each step vs what I see him doing in his videos. I have to carefully check my work after each step using this drill and I began to see a rough pattern of how the light should correctly appear in each step. Note: The 3000 Trizak is reusable (expensive science), per 3M website, just clean it with warm water, and mild soap. use until the pad breaks apart. I inspect it after each use and compare it to a new one and I've done several cars with 1 pad and no issues. After the trizak step, I'll carefully check the results..It should be a fairly uniform "light fog" (after cleaning) appearance. If I find something that looks more "cloudy", back to the 800 step with my turtle drill (I do this for fun at this stage, so no rush to upgrade the drill.. yet.;), then another round of trizak. Next up, the 3M orange foam "cheese" pad with the Meguiar's PlastX Clear Plastic Cleaner and Polish. I've used this for years on my personal cars. (10 and 12 yrs old, once a week and they are clear and 1 car is a daily driver that sits outside all day So Cal). If I don't like what i see at this point, i usually just go back to the trizak if it's just an isolated spot. I have some 3M 1200 for giggles but up to you, i didn't see much diff going from 800 to the trizak. I too saw some leftover minute scratches after polishing. I didn't spend enough time on the prior steps somewhere. I had to go back and do the 800/triazk step again (time spent on each step is just gonna depend on a bunch of factors, kind of like when you detail your car, inspecting etc, gotta do the same dance here. I've seen one side take more time than the other side for whatever reason doing the same thing but needing more attention. Even using the final Meguir's UV coating spray takes some finesse, like doing a quick squirt to clear the nozzle of any buildup before spraying, otherwise, I've seen funky stuff end up on the lens. There's some skill to evenly apply it, esp when the lens has angles and curves. If you don't thoroughly clean the lens of everything, lint, dust etc, before applying, you may get some of that "roughness" feel too after it drys. Could be it wasn't applied evenly or, not enough. Sure, the lens looked great but didn't feel the same buttery feel after the polish step. You'll notice it but my neighbors were just happy seeing a nice clear headlight, that looked great. Sure, it bothers me, I want that same perfection and when I see the "Pro's" results it just pushes me harder to think about every step. He's done thousands and I've done 8. He makes it look quick n easy cause he's a lot farther down the sidewalk. I've had several "wins" too where they came out very close to his and I know with time/experience I'll get better with trial and error, just like anything new. It's taken me up to 1.5 hours to complete at times but got the results. I've only used the "Pro's" method. Made sense to me and based on his research/experience, I trusted what he had to offer. I purchased the listed products in his bio (3M sandpaper, trizak, green auto tape, meguiar's plastx & UV protector, I use my own non-ammonia window cleaner, and my old drill for now). Business-wise, I've just done neighbor's cars for practice and since I am new, I just asked them for $20 etc, I am just after the experience at this point. I see a lot of cars that need restoration, showing owners photos of the results i can achieve. unless it's something the owner identifies with and, wants to be restored, they seem to have other priorities. Or I get a response like "Oh, i'll do that myself sometime.". If I want to hustle this in the future, it's gonna take what any business requires, online postings, word of mouth, and good old person-to-person selling, handing out cards. You'll notice the "Pro" sets up a business stand and operates at the client's residence, drawing spectators. That's a cheap n easy way to drum up business. At this point, i am not mobile, just have the neighbors bring their car to my garage. Price? I asked my neighbors what they would pay to have their headlights look this way after I finished. (I live in Irvine CA), I got $40 to $60. Like other videos he's posted, there are some "bear trap" headlights from various manufacturers / prior coating removals etc that will drain your products and time. Then it'll be up to the client/you as to a price and how important it is to them to have it done. Some folks just don't care, just like any business. So far I've had fun doing this restoration gig. A car or 2 on weekends for now and even if not as perfect as the "Headlight Pro", it's still exciting to get it close. Keep learning, he's got a ton of videos and I've picked up odds n ends in them to help me out and ya gotta follow his steps. I am seeing results via his methods. Like learning to surf, ya gonna fall a lot but you get better each time you try. Take time to review and think if things don't go right.. "The Truth is Out There." And hey, if you've got a better method, great! I apologize for this anthology but I see a lot of what I've experienced in the comments and conveying what I've experienced, discovered, and corrected so far.
WELL WELL WELL good to see ya back. That would be cool to follow ya around and do lights with ya and learn more. I take care of my mom though and do lights as a side gig. It's artwork to me. I love it. Clear Lights here, see ya.
The fact you can do this with a generic drill adapter and not an actual buffer is what amazes me the most. Proof professional’s can get the job done with any tool.
Got a question for you. I'm doing, to the best of my abilities, everything exactly as you are. When I spray the Maguire's headlight spray on, it looks like a bunch of orange peel. Any advice? Thanks
Many thanks for all your videos, I'm a 72 year old with a 20 year old Ford Galaxy (I'm in the UK by the way), original headlights never been touched so you can imagine. Followed your teachings and had a go myself, worked out fantastic, they look like new. You ARE the god of headlight restoration. :)
Of all the videos I've watched this morning, two of which demonstrated various "diy homemade polishing compounds" such as baking soda, tooth paste, vinegar and baking soda, wd 40 etc..shortcuts., or at least that's what they claim to be. No good I'm heading out to my garage and driveway now. Will let you know how it goes.
Is it me or what from years of watching the pro's tutorials on headlights restoration, The comments are from people who are abusing illegal substances, Drunk, Or just plain stupid or American!!!!
Brilliant as always, I just wish i was 25years younger 😢 I would love to have my own mobil restoration business!! Instead i worked in a dead end job untill i retired!!! Everything i know about headlight restoration is down to this one man, Deadecated honest and most of all consistent!!! 🤔🇬🇧💯👍
I used your technique to restore headlights on my 2014 Silverado and it came out great, thanks! I did however get just a few slight drips like you corrected in this vid, but my clear coat has already cured. Honestly it’s not bad enough to make me want to redo the light, I figure I’ll just correct it when I have to redo the light again in a year or two. The meguairs coat states it lasts for a year, at that point or when it fades do you recommend just replacing the clear like in this video or do you need to get back into the plastic headlight again as well? Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience!
The auto manufacturers are not doing it with one coat because it’s the best …..they do it with one coat because it’s the most most cost-effective When dealing with millions of cars….. It was the best they wouldn’t fade out like they do…. The Plastic is not protected enough that’s why it breaks Down ,degrades and Oxidizes …… High end automotive clear applied the proper way With enough coats will not peel off.
I appreciate all you do brother.. I just started and I have my first client in a few hours. Definitely learning a lot from your experience. Thanks in advance!
So how long will the clear coat last before needing to be sanded off and redone? And which type of clear coat is best to use? Standard one part clear coat for plastic? two part 2K?
Okokok first of all thank you for putting videos like this out there your so to the point while keeping things interesting your the real Five Star. But hear me out in theory … the oils are just filling in the porous material to give it the flat mirror like finish as opposed to completely leveling down the high spots to the low spots and so I’m sure if you do an ipa wipe then it’ll look less clear with the oils removed, my gripe with this is spraying over those oils .. I feel like a 2 step compound and polish with oils removed and meguires clear applied to the virgin surface would last longer than sprayed over the oil what do u think? …coming from a painter at work in are spray booth this is are ideology for paint
Perfect, my daughter's 2008 Buick lacrosse head lamps look new on an old car. the Meguiars headlight coating works better than other products and methods. Thanks.
