Review: Meguiar's Heavy Duty Headlight Restoration Kit

[GhOsT1321]

This is a review for the Meguiar's Heavy Duty Headlight Restoration Kit.
I recently used it on my 2000 Ford Escort ZX2 headlights. One headlight looked nearly new, while the other one was a bit cloudy, and has moisture behind the lens (keep this in mind when viewing the pictures).

First, the contents.



As you can see, included is PlastX, Headlight Protectant, Hand Pad, Wool Buffing Pad, 1000 grit pad, 3000 grit pad, and an orange microfiber. The kit also has instructions, which I followed as best as I could.

Here is my right headlight without any sanding or polishing, prior to the restoration.


It is a bit cloudy, but has water behind it so it's tricky to assess how cloudy that it is. I found that looking at the right quadrant of the lens where the metal and orange is to be the best part to see for results as no water is behind it.

Here is the headlight after 1000 grit sanding.


As you can see, it is uniformly white in color and a bit duller than earlier. The 1000 grit removed all of the oxidation and left scratched of it's own.

Here is the headlight after 3000 grit.


The headlight is now much clearer, but there is some haziness that the camera can't seem to pick up very well.

Now, for the wool pad with PlastX, finished with PlastX by hand.


The headlight lens is now much sharper, very close to my much newer left headlight. Headlight Protectant was then applied, the image below.



Unexpectedly, the lens became a bit more clear. I assume that this is from the protectant filling in micro scratches left by the plastx, in very much the same way that wax/sealant tends to do.

I tried to sand and improve the left headlight, which was nearly in new condition, but there was minimal improvement. The headlight, however, is much smoother now and has slightly more clarity.

Left Untouched


As you can see, the clarity is like new. When sanding this lens, I encountered a problem, the sanding pads could barely scratch it, if at all. Next is a picture after following the same process as above, 1000 grit, 3000 grit, PlastX on a wool pad.



There was a small improvement in clarity, but the lens is much smoother.

Here is a shot of the headlight after applying Headlight Protectant.

[GhOsT1321]

Re: Review: Meguiar's Heavy Duty Headlight Restoration Kit

I had posted more pictures, and said more in the first thread, but it has not shown up for me.
I will continue my review in the following posts, please do not post a response until I am finished.

When considering something such as this headlight restoration kit, value becomes a top priority. If the product worth the money it costs?
In the case of this headlight kit, the answer is Yes!

How many sets of headlights could you do? I estimate 4, however, you may run out of PlastX after 2 or 3 sets, as I am about half way through the bottle, and it came filled about 90% of the way.

The images below show the amount of wear on the wool pad, sand discs, and hand pad.

Sanding Discs Wear


The sandpaper discs wore the second most, losing 10-15% of their abrasiveness. The edges are a bit worn, and small bits in the center are worn off.

Wool Pad Wear


The wool pad wore the most, losing a bit of wool. It made a bit of a mess, but has a lot of wool left. The center of the pad is slightly thinner after using it on one set of headlights. I would estimate 15% worn off. Here's a tip for removing the wool pieces from your paint. Fold a microfiber towel 3 times in half each time, grab an edge of the rectangle, and use the weight of the towel to remove the wool pieces from your paint. This will prevent marring that the wool may induce, and works effectively. Occasionally, walk away from your car and shake the towel off, to remove the wool fibers that have clung to the microfiber via static electricity.

Hand Pad


The Hand pad wore the least out of the mentioned products. Some of the outer hooks bent a bit and some of the foam has permanent denting due to my grip, but that is mostly aesthetic wear and does not affect the longevity of the product much at all. I estimate the wear to be 5-7%.

Overall, this is an excellent product and can be had for around $30, usually a bit cheaper. It can be used multiple times and comes with Headlight Protectant, which is very important. I have used a different headlight kit to restore my father's headlights and they are now hazed over a few months later. His headlights are more consistent in cloudiness and do not have water behind them if I recall. I plan on doing his headlights in very much the same way that I did mine. If I do, I will post my results here and hopefully remember to take before and after pictures.
I look forward to seeing how long these results last with the Headlight Protectant, and will do my best to reapply the protectant every 6-8 weeks.
I highly recommend this product!

How I used this product: I used the 1000 grit sanding disc from left to right, dipping it in water to wet as needed. I then wiped off the headlight and proceeded to use the 3000 grit pad up and down. I wiped the headlight off, then applied a nickel sized amount of PlastX about 3 times total per lens. I then applied half a nickel size of Headlight Protectant to each lens, wiping off after about 10 seconds, followed by another coat which was wiped off after 20-30 seconds.
All defect removal processes were done until no further improvement was seen.

That's all.

[GhOsT1321]

Re: Review: Meguiar's Heavy Duty Headlight Restoration Kit

Review Finished!
Can a moderator delete two of my posts?
The ones that say:
"2_Reserved2"
and
"I had posted more pictures, and said more in the first thread, but it has not shown up for me.
I will continue my review in the following posts, please do not post a response until I am finished."

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Review: Meguiar's Heavy Duty Headlight Restoration Kit

Requested posts deleted.


Great review, thanks for taking the time to document the process so thoroughly. Your headlights look line new again, which is really the whole point, isn't it? Were you at all concerned about actually wet sanding the lenses, and if so, how easy do you think it was to actually do it?

[GhOsT1321]

Re: Review: Meguiar's Heavy Duty Headlight Restoration Kit

I was not very concerned about sanding the headlights, as they are quite thick plastic. It sounded like an odd idea, but given their thickness; at least from my perspective, they can be sanded many times.
The ease of sanding the lenses I would say was medium. It did take some effort, but I was mostly sweating due to it being 95 degrees Fahrenheit outside.
I sanded my fathers lenses too, and they were a bit easier, despite them being a bit larger. I suppose that some headlights use different plastic, also, this sandpaper is holding up terrifically. One annoying thing about the kit is that the plastic leaves a film behind as it drips off of the lens during the sanding process. However, a wet towel removes this buildup effortlessly.

Edit: One more thing to note about this kit is that the second time I used it, on my father's headlights, it did fling nearly as much wool as it did during the first use. I remember a member here commenting on the wool making a mess. In my experience, the second time using it, it flings only about 30% as much as it did previously.

As a bonus, here is a before and after shot of my father's 2001 Ford Escape. I think that the results are a bit easier to see here.

Before



After

[GhOsT1321]

Re: Review: Meguiar's Heavy Duty Headlight Restoration Kit

Ended up deleting the images, whoops.
Here is a reupload.

Before


After

[Rafael Rakyan]

Re: Review: Meguiar's Heavy Duty Headlight Restoration Kit

I've tried this product for free, yesterday at Meguiar's Indonesia, when we had a Detailing Class.. And it's great! My car's headlight looks new again..

Is it possible if I use DA with 4" woolpad (the white one), instead of using the Headlight Restoration Kit woolpad?

[Fozzwad]

Re: Review: Meguiar's Heavy Duty Headlight Restoration Kit

I had roughly the same results. I have a 2001 Mustang GT and both headlights were in about the same condition (but worse than your Focus). The first headlight I worked on (40 minutes) came out about 80% better than when I started. The second only came about about 50% better. I felt like I knew better what I was doing on the second one and actually spent more time (an hour), but it seemed to make no difference. It was as if the sanding pads and buffer had somehow been "used up" on the first headlight. I sanded at least twice as long and no amount of PlastX seemed to make any difference, and I easily used twice as much on the second headlight.
Over all I liked the system, but maybe two of each the 1000 and 300 grit sanding pads, as well as another buffer should have been included. They could add another $5 to the cost and it would still be cheaper than new headlights, though at this point new headlights may be my next choice. It doesn't seem worth it to buy another kit just to get the second set of everything and HOPE that makes a difference.

[Tysonic]

Re: Review: Meguiar's Heavy Duty Headlight Restoration Kit

This is my result with this kit:

[IMG][/IMG]
[IMG][/IMG]

This is what it looked like before (both sides were about equal in fading):
[IMG][/IMG]
[IMG][/IMG]

Starting to look like some headlights need the Air Tool Headlight restoration system to get that 'like new' appearence while others, like my Ford lights, clean up near perfect with the heavy duty.

[GhOsT1321]

Re: Review: Meguiar's Heavy Duty Headlight Restoration Kit

Thank you all who have posted your results and opinions regarding this headlight kit!
I used the kit again today. The headlight was only moderately hazed so I primarily used the wool pad with PlastX followed by a hand application of PlastX and hand application of HP. It was getting dark, so I had to use the flash to see the details of the headlight. Results below.

Headlight after being cleaned with Perfect Clarity.






Headlight after using included wool pad with PlastX using the method described above.