3M Headlight restore kit

[Stink Star]

I was having issues with the typical cadillac CTS headlamp fogging/spidering. I was looking into those wipe on, wipe off products and didnt think theyd have enough power to handle my mess. So after some research i found this kit by 3m that includes everything you need to wet sand and buff your headlights. after watching enough videos i felt pretty confident that it was foolproof enough to give it a shot. Boy am i glad i did and im pissed that i waited this long. My lights were so bad i was considering replacing them and now they are easily 90% perfect looking. i say 90% because i got lazy while doing them. i concentrated my sanding on the areas that looked bad when i should have done that same job to the entire light. i feel that if i had done that it would easily be 99% new looking. the whole process took about 1 hour and would likely take me even less time if i had to do another set and wasnt using a shitty cordless drill. anyway... on with the pix

here is the kit

and the before pics

and the after

rating 9/10 simply because even though its foolproof, its still a good bit of work and your 2nd time using it will be much better than your 1st. The price is right too... picked it up for $19.95 at napa

Click to read more...

 

[PANDA]

damn

 

[SHOmuff]

A guy at work used this kit on his Jetta (which are notorious for hazed headlights) and they looked bran new.

 

[Mook]

Damn that came out great

 

[Stink Star]

Yea I have a feeling that wipe on/ wipe off crap wouldn't have came out nearly as well.

 

[99PONTIACGP]

Nice job.

 

[ThirdgenTa]

You coulda just used some compound and polish and would have gotten the same results. Or if they are really really bad you could just get some 800, 1500, 3000 grit sandpaper for a lot cheaper and do all your friends cars for $40-60 a pop and make some money.

 

[slowchevy]

dumb question for you .. but the haziness.. did it have sort of a pitted feel to it or was it just on the surface? my stocks are doing that.. would like to know if i can save them, or if i should just invest in new lights. trying to save the money since everything else is

 

[Shadow99]

Nice!

 

[ThirdgenTa]

dumb question for you .. but the haziness.. did it have sort of a pitted feel to it or was it just on the surface? my stocks are doing that.. would like to know if i can save them, or if i should just invest in new lights. trying to save the money since everything else is

Pitting needs sandpaper to smooth out the surface, just a haze you can usually get out with compound and polish.

 

[Stink Star]

You coulda just used some compound and polish and would have gotten the same results. Or if they are really really bad you could just get some 800, 1500, 3000 grit sandpaper for a lot cheaper and do all your friends cars for $40-60 a pop and make some money.

I tried just compounding them a while ago and it did nothing. This kit is essentially the same thing you are describing but I doubt I could piece it together for as cheap as this kit was.

dumb question for you .. but the haziness.. did it have sort of a pitted feel to it or was it just on the surface? my stocks are doing that.. would like to know if i can save them, or if i should just invest in new lights. trying to save the money since everything else is

It was beyond pitted... It was literally like sandpaper before I started. Running my fingers over my headlights felt like sidewalk chalk

 

[slowchevy]

Where can you find this kit? I remember doing a 3M kit on mine a few months ago and never being able to get them quite right despite following all the directions.. ended up throwing junkyard headlights on the car for the time being and forgot about the stocks. This looks like a more involved kit

 

[Stink Star]

Any parts store? I got mine at napa (walked there during lunch) and they usually don't stock shit and they had 3 or 4 in stock so I'd imagine any name brand parts store would have this. As far as the kit goes its just an arbor for your drill and you use the 500 grit paper, 800 grit paper, then wet sand with the 3000 grit disc, then polish them out with the supplied cutting pad and rubbing compound. I'm not sure what kit you got but like I said as long as you take your time you pretty much can't mess this up even though you will feel nervous after making your clear headlights frosted by sanding them with 500 grit paper lol

 

[slowchevy]

They can't be any worse than they are already.. thanks for the help. Wanna do mine?

 

[ThirdgenTa]

Make sure you use a sealent that has UV protection often so that it doesn't happen again so fast.

 

[CrawlinTBSS]

i can do all of that in like 5 mins. a little wet sand and my 2 compounds and ... boom! back to new!

 

[Stink Star]

Make sure you use a sealent that has UV protection often so that it doesn't happen again so fast.

I kinda don't understand how this happened in the first place... I keep my cars in the garage and generally park in the shade when I can... My emblems are all peeling internally as well.... GM quality at its finest I guess lol

 

[slowchevy]

From my understanding, the lights have a UV protective coating to protect against yellowing, hazing, and this stuff we see here.. over time, (this is what I've read..and what I get from that) I guess it evaporates or wears off, and the plastic isn't protected. I can tell you this shit never happened on my cars that had glass headlights (Suburban, Bonneville)

 

[Stink Star]

There was definitely a clear coat on these lights before I started, and it's definitely not on there anymore. Oh well.... I'll do it again in 6 1/2 years when it gets bad again

 

[EmersonHart13]

I need to pick this up for my Suburban... Thanks for the review.

 

[Bob Kazamakis]

Do mine those look great. K thnx.

 

[CrawlinTBSS]

most headlights can be pretty well fixed with just wetsanding.

those kits are basically the same thing i do but made to use and toss if you want. sandpaper scratches it up, and that little orange buffer pad is like compound pads and just cleans up the scratches.

 

[Bob Kazamakis]

I usually hit mine with a terry cloth towel and some scratch X every couple months but they get hazy fast. Is there anything I could do to slow that hazing down? Clear coat? Wax of some sort?

 

[Bru]

Wow that turned out really nice.

I'm going to move this to general car discussion, though. The redirect message in off topic will disappear in two days so people don't lose the thread.

 

[ThirdgenTa]

I usually hit mine with a terry cloth towel and some scratch X every couple months but they get hazy fast. Is there anything I could do to slow that hazing down? Clear coat? Wax of some sort?

Apply sealent every couple months or so and it will slow the process way down.