Tuesday - October 02, 2012

Another Unpaid Product Endorsement

I finally got around to polishing my tired old headlights this afternoon. I got this kit as a Christmas present ... Ok, I’m a bad putitoffski. But it’s cool and rainy today, and there isn’t much else to do around here other than housework ... so, off to the garage I went.

Mothers PowerBall 4 Headlights, about $20

The headlights on my 1997 Saturn have an aerodynamic polycarbonate cover on them just like every other car’s headlights built in the last 20 or so years. I have never polished the covers, and the car has spent most of its life outdoors. So they were beyond just a little scratched and murky. They looked rather frosted and almost milky. I knew it was high time to do the job when I was driving home the other night and I couldn’t see the side of the road from my own lights, but could see the other side of the road from the lights from the guy behind me. Past time.

So I got out the power drill and followed the instructions. Put down some thing cardboard shielding under the light, and open the hood so the polisher can’t scratch your paint. Use a little polish on the spongy PowrBall™ and go over the headlight gently, running the drill at moderate speed and moving the ball in overlapping rows. I had to add more polish a couple of times.  And after about 4 minutes of effort ... almost nothing.

Which is to be expected. The first application just polishes most of the dirt off. So go over the lens cover with a wet paper towel, wipe it clean, and use the little wet sanders that come in the kit. I had them soaking in a cup of water. You get 2 1.5” square pads, with increasing grit wet/dry paper on each side. I think they start you off with #1 800 grit, #2 1000 grit, followed by #3 1500 grit and #4 2000 grit. These are the things that do the real work, like the coarse stone when you sharpen your knives. So you go back and forth a hundred times with the course pad, then wet it again and go the other way 150 times with the medium grit side. Rinse the lens cover off, and repeat things on the diagonal stroke with #3 and #4. The finer the pad is, the more times you rub it back and forth, and the harder you can rub. It doesn’t require arm breaking force.

And when you’ve got the sanding done ... your headlight cover looks awful. So you give it another damp wipe, and use the polish and the polisher ball again. And this time around it works like magic.

It took me about 15 minutes per headlight to do the whole job, and now my lens covers are nearly factory new looking again. I’m sure I’ll be able to see the difference tonight.

Sure, you could do the job yourself for less, if you had some of those foam pad backed wet/dry sanding sheets of the appropriately fine grits. We use them in bowling. My brother gets them for woodworking projects. And you could use some plain old v.fine polishing compound followed by a quick coat of car wax, instead of the pint bottle of lens polish they give you in the kit. And you might save $10, if you happen to have a polishing sponge ball for your drill around. I didn’t.

The $20 kit gives you 2 of the double sided sanding squares, which are half worn out after doing a pair of headlights. You also get a decent sized microfiber cloth that’s softer than the ones you can find in the Dollar Store. The pint bottle of lens cover polish is enough to do 50 or more sets of headlights. I was generous with the polish, and I doubt if I used as much as a tablespoon. The 3” sponge ball polisher can be washed by hand, and if it ever starts looking ratty the head is reversible. All said, if I had half a dozen of the sanding disks we use for bowling, I could just about go into business with this kit. I’m guessing the polisher ball will last for several dozen uses. So it’s far more than you need to do just one car’s worth, even if you have to repeat the task once or twice a year.

And I have perfectly clear headlights again. Nice.

Posted by Drew458     on 10/02/2012 at 02:37 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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