Headlight Restoration Kit - Protection After The Use

[W211E320]

Hi,
I plan to use the headlight restoration kit on my car (not the heavy version - only plastX with a machine) - my headlights just do have a few little scratches.

Do I really need "Headlight Protectant" after doing this - or is Ultimate Wax enough to protect the headlights (I use Ultimate Quick Detailer or Ultimate Quick Wax min. once a week)?

Thanx

[GhOsT1321]

Re: Headlight Restoration Kit - Protection After The Use

If your headlights are slightly hazed, Plast X alone by hand may be enough. I would use the headlight protectant rather than UW, especially if the car you are using this on is the one in your avatar. Those headlights discolor quickly and almost always seem a bit milky/hazy.
UW would work, but headlight protectant would last longer and is much more UV resistant.

[W211E320]

Re: Headlight Restoration Kit - Protection After The Use

Thanks for the tip to start just by hand! O.K. I'll have to think about buying also HP - unfortunately the Meguiars products cost in Germany more than in the US - the HP here is priced at about 17,0 € (today that would be about 22,0 $) - as I use ULW 2 times a year and UQD/UQW once a week I thought about saving that money ...
By the way the headlights of my W211 are not as delicately as the of the W210 were ...

[Murr1525]

Re: Headlight Restoration Kit - Protection After The Use

If you are waxing often, then it probably wont matter too much which you use to protect them.

However, what kind of scratches are we talking about? How bad is the damage?

Since headlights have a clear coat over them, and fixing a scratch in the plastic would mean removing the clear coat.... you may not want to worry a lot if it is barely noticeable. Or even if it is...

[W211E320]

Re: Headlight Restoration Kit - Protection After The Use

10-4!

OK the scratches: Most are little hits caused by stone-chipping while driving fast on the Autobahn. But on the driver site the headlight is in the upper third a bit foggy - not really much but a bit. So I thought a soft run with plastX could be useful to eliminate the fog and to debur the hits from the stones ... but, according to what you said about the clear coat, maybe I should only try to eliminate the fog?

[Murr1525]

Re: Headlight Restoration Kit - Protection After The Use

Well.... unfortunately the fog is most likely the clear coat failing....

[W211E320]

Re: Headlight Restoration Kit - Protection After The Use

ok, thanks ... after getting a bit sensitized about this problem, I've read in different forums about it. Seems so that the clear coat on my xenon headlights is put on the outer and inner side. The reason Mercedes does this is mostly to protect them of uv-radiation. If the light needs to be polished the clear coat at the outside is, as you said, mostly gone. In this thread *EDIT - LINK REMOVED* they did it on a Porsche with plastX. The guys in different threads say that their headlights stay fine for a long time after ... worst case should be that you have to repolish them again sometimes ...
So I'll polish the headlights with plastX - first by hand, and if needed later with the machine. After this I'll put headlight protectant on them to have a better prevention.

[Murr1525]

Re: Headlight Restoration Kit - Protection After The Use

Yeah, if you go over the lights with your usual cleaner or cleaner/wax in the future, and keep whatever protection on then, all should stay well.

[Detailing by M]

You can re-paint then
I use headlight Renew Dr
Headlightrenewdoctor.com

[W211E320]

Re: Headlight Restoration Kit - Protection After The Use

Thanks for this tip! Yesterday I ordered Headlight protectant - so I'll give him a try. If that doesn't work well and protects over an acceptable time, I'll try to do a re-paint.