Customer Reviews 3M Headlight Lens Restoration System

Daugenet Breaux (Charleston, SC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

I own an 11 year old car and the headlights had become significantly glazed over. The only thing the drill doesnt come with is a drill. (which would really drive up the cost of the kit) The steps are pretty easy to restore your headlight

1. Clean the headlight and tape around the headlight edgeds to protect the paint job.
2. Use the "yellow" sanding disk with the drill attachment. The headlight will take on a more cloudy, but uniform, appearance
3. Use the "white" disk and smooth out the surface
4. Use the "gray" disk (with water) and begin the polishing of the surface
5. Finally use the "orange" foam disk with the polishing compound and complete the job.

Instructions are included with the kit and are pretty straightforward. I would say that anyone can do this job in approximately 2 hours or less. The drill attachment is WELL worth the money.

I was actually able to do two cars with one kit. Obviously this will depend on the condition of your headlights. I would recommend buying one kit per car though.

When using the kit I actually wiped off the "dust" that was created between steps. This wasnt mentioned in the instructions but I dont feel that it effected the results either. If you do the same thing then you will not see much of the "white slurry" described in the instructions when using the gray disk.

I hope this review helps and I will try to check back later to see if anyone has some comments that need answering.

By 

Colin Mattson (Phoenix, AZ USA) -
      

When I saw the 3M Headlight Lens Restoration System, I liked the idea. Speed up my headlight polishing by using an electric drill? Count me in! It's got to beat wetsanding lenses for 30 minutes a pop.

In execution, though, it definitely falls short of the idea for a couple reasons:

1. 3M demonstrates the product on a mid-90s Ford Taurus, which has huge, round headlamps proud of the bodywork--perfect for the system 3M has created. If you drive anything else, you'll rapidly discover you can't safely machine sand your entire headlamp. The pad is just plain too big for many other applications, where you have tight radiuses, 90° corners, and lamps recessed into and/or abutting bodywork. You can cover the most important part on any vehicle, but if looks are a priority, you may want to buy another (manual) product.

2. 3M uses their cheapest dry-only papers in this kit. Most competing products use wet sanding or wet polishing; this one mostly uses dry sanding and kicks up a lot of plastic dust. Definitely follow the admonition to use eye and respiratory protection.

3. Jumps in grit give the results you'd expect. You jump from 500 to 800, then to 3000, and then compound the lens. The results aren't bad by any means, but if looks are a factor you'd do well to do some intermediate sanding (or use a product like Meguiar's G12310 PlastX Clear Plastic Cleaner and Polish -10 oz. to finish off after the compounding).

You could definitely do worse than the 3M kit if your goal is just to see, but you can definitely do better if you want that showroom-new look and aren't driving a Taurus.