How to Restore Your Cloudy Headlights The RIGHT WAY (Fully Explained)

All right, this is probably what you guys are dealing with. Headlights that are oxidized because of UV exposure, chemicals from the road, or even water spots getting on them. These things are ugly, they're unsafe, and they could even keep you in some states from getting your car registered. But I'm actually going to show you how to fix them with little or no tools. On top of that, we're going to test another headlight kit that I've never used before that claims to last much longer than anything else on the market. I'm going to be testing it head to head with the old kit that I've been using for years and let the results speak for themselves. You don't want to miss that. I'm Josh. I've been working on cars since I was 16, so I didn't have to pay the shop. We started this channel so I could share my experience with you so that you could work on your own car and save money too. So stick with me because we're going to take headlights from looking like this to looking like this. Now, a lot of people go out and spend hundreds of dollars replacing their headlights. That's just not necessary. For less than 20 bucks, I'm going to show you how to bring your headlights back to new using a kit that I really like. I use this all the time. And I actually did a comparison between it and all these other kits and this came out way ahead. Now, a lot of people complain to me that they use one of these kits on their headlights and after a while, the headlights go back to being foggy again. And I usually find that comes down to one thing that people miss and are doing wrong after this application process. But don't worry, I'm going to cover that as well. Let's crack open our kit here. Now, one of the reasons I really liked this kit from the beginning was it gives you everything you need, including the masking tape and the little gloves. I mean, you don't have to bring anything. Just get everything you need in this kit. First, I'm just going to give this headlight a little wash. Man, you can see this headlight has got all the issues. Oxidization, it's even got bad hard water spots. So I'm going to use this included masking tape and I'm going to start masking off the light from the rest of the car. Now, the reason that we're doing this is because unlike other kits that try to just get rid of the yellow color of the headlight, chemicals or some cleaners or some, you know, some sort of polish, this kit actually has abrasives that we're going to use to strip off the oxidized layer and you don't want to sand off your paint. Also going to use my tape to divide this headlight in half so we can see in the before and after results. Now, the next step is we're going to start with our heaviest grit sandpaper. This is a 500. You can totally just start rubbing this on. A lot of kits do include buffing pads that are manual application. I really like this one because it includes a bit for a drill. So if you have a drill lying around, it saves you a ton of time. The reason why we're starting with this heavy grit is to really strip off the oxidized layer. And then we're going to go to finer and finer grit sandpapers to essentially smooth out the surface after it's removed. So when you're doing this, you just want to make sure you're going evenly and slowly, not pushing really hard. Because if you push really hard and stay in one spot too long, you can actually start melting the plastic, which would make it look a lot worse. Now, you don't want to move on to the next grit of sandpaper until all the yellowing color has been removed. Usually it's about four or five, six passes, I find usually gets it all out. I'm looking for a uniform kind of frosty look after I'm done with the 500. Okay, moving to the 800 grit sandpaper. So after the 800 grit is done, I'm hoping to see again, uniform frosty, but I want to see all the scratches from the 500 gone. So I'm just going to wipe it off and take a really good look. If I see heavier scratches like right there, I'm going to hit it again with the eight. And then if there's kind of some spots that the drill attachment isn't reaching, sometimes I'll pop the sandpaper off and just hit it by hand. Just again, don't want to press super hard. All right. So far we've successfully stripped off that weathered outer surface of the headlight and we're working our way back up to clear lenses. And the next jump is a big one. We're going to 3000 grit. This is a wet sand process, and this is more like a polishing. So I'm going to re-wet the headlight, kind of wipe it off with some water. And I'm even going to put a little bit of water on my sanding disc here. So because this is a wet sanding step, you want to make sure that the headlight stays wet. And if it dries, add more water. And at first, when I do this step, nothing happens. It just looks like I'm spreading water around. And then eventually you'll see this white filmy stuff start showing up. And that means I'm actually taking a little material off, which is what I want to see. I'm just making sure I get the last little corners by hand. The tape is kind of deteriorating with all the water, but I'm not as worried about it now because this is such a fine sandpaper. It's almost like a polish. If I hit the paint, it's actually probably going to make it better. All right, this drill is crapping out, so I'm going to get a new one. Okay, now I'm just going to clean everything off again and I'm going to dry it and see how it looks really good when it's wet. And now as I dry it off, it's still a little bit hazy, but holy cow, it's already looking so much better. So I'm looking to make sure that all the 500 grit scratches are gone. And now also to make sure the 800 grit scratches are gone. And actually I missed some spots right here by the tape. Now you can see it's almost totally clear, but if you look really carefully, there's those really fine scratches from the 3000. And that's what we're going to take away with this final step. So last thing I'm going to do is just make sure my tape is all really set. You just want to make sure that we're not going to get any of this coating on the paint of the car around the edge here. So the last step is this clear coat wipe. And this is kind of what separates the good kits from all the DIY TikTok methods, right? Because you can use a few different ways to get your headlight looking like this, but this would quickly return back to foggy and yellowing, I mean, within weeks. So this actually fills in those scratch marks from the 3000 grit sandpaper. It's literally a clear coat, like your final stage of painting. And the other thing it does just like a clear coat is it protects the headlight from UV and everything else so that it doesn't re-oxidize and go back to the foggy yellow look that it did before. Now, another one of the reasons I really love this kit is because they claim that this UV protection lasts for two years, which is a whole lot longer than a lot of other kits. Real talk, only a fraction of you watching this video are actually subscribers. So if this video is giving you some value or saving you some time and money, easiest way to pay us back is to hit that subscribe button, and it will definitely help us make future videos for you. Okay, so I'm just going to lay this on nice and slow, a little bit of an overlap. This is the trickiest part. You just want to be patient, not go too fast. Oh, it's looking so good. So because this is actually the first of two coats, you want to resist the temptation to go back and try to fix any missed lines or anything like that. You can sometimes make things worse, mess it up because it kind of gets sticky pretty fast. So just let the first coat dry. Okay, it's been 10 minutes. I'm going to do my second wipe and my second pass. Oh, this is looking so nice. All right, before we check out the before and after on that headlight, you'll notice on this side, I've got this headlight taped as well. That's because we're going to be testing another product that I mentioned at the beginning, and that is the headlight kit by Cerakote. So I've heard a lot of people rave about this kit, but I've never actually used it myself, but proof is in the pudding. So we're going to see how the results of the Cerakote stack up against my favorite kit. See who comes out on top. I pulled the tape off of this headlight. The second coat is fully dried. And as you can see, it is like a near perfect finish. I'm super stoked with how this always turns out. It's a hard coating that the wipes put on. Nothing's going to stick to this. It's almost like brand new. And it solves all of our problems with the old headlight, right? The oxidization is gone. Looks great. Full pass through of light from the headlights. So you have no problem getting that safety check. Here's the thing. This is where a lot of people go wrong with this process. This 3M kit actually claims two years of UV protection, which is longer than most of the others, but it's not going to last forever. The trick is you want to reapply this clear coat wipe before it starts fading again. So what you really want to do is go online. I'll put a link in the description and you buy a kit of just the wipes. I think there's like 50 in there or something, a lot. And you apply them before the headlight starts fading again. So a year and a half, two years, whatever. That means all you have to do is the step where you wipe it on. You don't have to do any of the sanding. You don't have to do any of the taping. It makes it really fast and easy and maintains it for the life of your car. Okay, back to the Cerakote kit. We are going to start with a wash. So I've heard a lot of people rave about this kit, but I've never actually used it myself. Now, apparently they have some fancy chemical compound in here that dissolves the oxidization and just makes the whole process easier. Okay, step one is applying the oxidization removal wipes and they supply you with two pairs of gloves. So in the glove department, they're winning. So I've got a packet here and I've already taped the headlight off. That is one step they recommend, though they don't include the tape. I borrowed the tape from the 3M kit, but they said you don't want to get this on your paint. If you do, you want to wipe it off right away. In typical Cerakote fashion, they have lots of different packets, but they're really clearly labeled step one, step three, you know, whatever. We're always clear where we are in the process. Now they included eight of these wipes saying that you should, you know, use all of them in this process. So there's lots of wipes. And what we're doing here with these, in theory, is they've got this chemical process that is supposed to remove the oxidization and the yellowing just chemically. And I guess we're supposed to be able to look at our rag and see yellow. And sure enough, something's coming off. Got some chemical in here dissolving oxidization and kind of does feel like it's getting smoother. Kind of interesting. All right. So this is all yellow and gross. So I'm going to switch to a new wipe. I would technically have four wipes per headlight. So that's two wipes per half. Now I will say that the reason we're kind of giving this a good chance is because we had some really good success with other Cerakote products, specifically the black trim restorer product. We did it on a bumper of an old truck. It did so well, blew the competition out of the water. I mean, we have the truck over there. It's been like six, seven months. All the other products have faded and the Cerakote product is still looking brand new. So I actually do have some high hopes just because of, you know, what they've been able to do with chemicals for cars is honestly pretty impressive, but we'll see. All right. My second wipe is all yellow. So I'm going to move on to the next step. I'm going to wash off all that residue from the wipes. Then it says to take off the gloves. You really don't want any of that residue left in the picture. They said the headlight should be cloudy after this. It's cloudy. It's definitely less, less bumpy, maybe. I don't know. Still doesn't look great. The next step looks very familiar. It's a sanding pad and not a drill attachment, a handheld attachment. So we're going to Velcro this 2000 grit sandpaper, which is a big jump up. The 3M kit started with a 500 and 800. This is going straight to 2000. Okay. I'm a little bummed that I have to do this by hand, but the instructions say I only have to do it two to three minutes. So I can handle that, but it does have to be wet. So I'm wetting the disc and the headlight. This headlight is got some contours, um, but I've worked on some that have some crazy curves and this would be a bummer to have to get in here like this, these tight corners, lots of nice slurry. We call it this white, it's white stuff. That means materials coming off. How's your arm, Josh? It's a three minutes yet. Those muscles put a drill attachment on the back of this thing. If I'm honest, I think I was led to believe that this was all wipes. I think sanding is important. It's more work. Rinse everything down. All right. There's that foggy look that we want to see. Now down here where the oxidization was really bad. Definitely some spots that aren't fully sanded. So let me hit those again. And as with the 3M kit, I will take this off and just get these little tight corners by hand. I mean, maybe not taking any longer than the other one, but it's making less noise and I'm having to work harder. So it feels longer and slower. Okay. Moving on to the 3000 grit paper. I'm pretty tempted to, uh, go get the 3M's kit drill attachment, stick these on, but I won't for the sake of this comparison. So again, now I'm just knocking off the scratch marks left by the 2000 grit. Interestingly, it's ending with a 3000 grit, which is the same grit that the 3M ended with. So I assume we're going to get to a treatment process after this. So after doing 3000 for a little bit, my results are not that consistent. So I got to keep going. Also these like water spot areas have reappeared, uh, that weren't there after the 2000. So I'm sure what's going on, but I'm going to trust the process. Keep scrubbing. One thing I do notice too, is that on this kit, the sanding pad is very hard. Whereas the 3M kit was a really soft backed pad. So I felt like this is, is kind of focusing on one point at a time on, on any curves of the headlight. I All right. Let's see if we're done. The consistency is better on the front, but I'm seeing a lot of like scratching and random spots on top. So I'm going to hit that by hand. That actually feels way better doing it by hand. Like it just feels like I'm covering more area with my fingers. That is all I'm going to do. If I can't get satisfactory results after that amount of sanding, then it ain't never going to happen. Okay. Step three, we're doing another coating, just like the 3M product. I will say it doesn't look as clear as the 3000 grit looked on the 3M side, but we're going to trust the process and they give you two wipes, one per headlight, and you only have to do one application versus the two coats on the 3M. So this better be good. All right, here we go. Now this is the ceramic part of their product. Everything they make is some sort of ceramic. So I'm sure the chemical compound is different from the 3M coating, but it is to do the same exact thing. It's to seal this plastic, protect it, and also to make it super clear and shiny, which this is doing a pretty good job of. All right, the ceramic coating is drying right now, so I'm not going to touch it. And I have to say, I'm really surprised after that 3000 grit sanding, I wasn't sure if the ceramic could bring it back to clear, but it definitely did. It's super clear. Now I will say I'm seeing some spots down here, which is where I had trouble sanding, which kind of looked like, like sort of this water spot mineral deposit thing. It's really hard to see. It's not terrible, but it's there, which I will say the 3M kit took care of. I would imagine it's because the 3M kit starts with a 500 grit, which is a lot more aggressive, whereas this kit starts with a 2000. So it's really hard to get rid of any big blemishes or deep blemishes with such a fine sandpaper. Now, as far as the actual work that it took, I mean, the Cerakote was actually kind of harder. I had to do it by hand. I didn't really like the little handle without any soft sort of backing on it. It felt a little awkward and took a ton of work just by hand to get in the little corners. Whereas the 3M felt like it was a lot easier to use. Now the big difference comes with the final coating. The 3M kit claims that it lasts two years, whereas the Cerakote is claiming the lifetime of your car guaranteed. It's on the box. You get your money back if they stop looking brand new, which is crazy. No other headlight kit that I've ever seen claims that. And based on what I've seen of their other products like that, that bumper treatment, I'm inclined to think that it could be possible. And if that claim is true, that's a pretty big deal. All right, guys, I've tried both of these kits. Which one would I choose? There's things I like about both of them and they both do a really good job. I really like the sandpaper and the applicator using a drill on the 3M kit. I think it just cuts through anything any headlight puts in its way. However, I do like the ceramic wipes at the end of the ceramic kit because it's lifetime. I only have to do it once. That's awesome. An ultimate kit would be the combination of the two, the sandpaper and applicator from this kit and the ceramic coating finisher on this kit. If someone wants to put that together, that'd be great. So what would I choose ultimately? It would really depend on the car that I was working on. If I saw a car that had really bad headlights with some really bad blemishes like this one, I would choose the 3M kit because I know it's going to cut through it. That's what I've always loved about this kit. I've said it many times. Now, if I had a car with some medium blemishes, not too bad, maybe some just discoloration, I would use the Cerakote for sure because the finer grit sandpaper and the oxidization wipes would probably take care of anything on that headlight. And then to be able to just apply once the ceramic coating and never have to do it again is a huge win. If you liked watching me work on this headlight and you're going to love what we did with this bumper where we test out some of the top trim restore products.