3M Quick and Easy Headlight Restoration Kit, Removes Light Yellowing in 15-Minutes, 39193, 1 Kit

so ive bought and used a couple different headlight lens clearing kits, over the years, but not for my cars, i had a couple people that had me detail their vehicles on a regular basis and they had bought these higher priced, more elaborate kits, (ive been shocked at the cost of these,typically they are 20-30 or even higher. but some are meant for heavier clouding/oxidation(?). this kit has been the only one ive found thats under $10 and delivers excellent results, every time, not labor intensive, and only requires your hands and a lil elbow grease. AND ITS FROM A TRUSTED COMPANY 3M the instructions are on the back of foil package and are straightforward and easy to understand. and at no point was i sitting there thinking "what did they mean when they said... " etc the kit contains 3 items 1 circular piece of 3000grit SANDING PAD (not sandpaper) and 2 clear coat wipes, it really took longer to remove headlamp assemblies and reinstall them than it did to do the cleaning and clearing process. i may have gone a bit above and beyond, regarding how i went about this process, as it doesnt require you to completely remove the headlamp assemblies, but when i did this it was summer, and fall victim to heat strokes extremely fast, so i did this inside my apartment over night. so i had a more contolled setting to work in and the headlamps could dry in a contolled setting to merit best as possible results. and i also went ahead and prepped fopr this and went and sourced a full size 3m 3000grit wet/dry SANDING PAD, which can probably be sourced on amzon or at most any autoparts store or on LOWE or in DEPOT (i specify Pad for a reason as there is both paper and pads the pad is what you want .youll immediately know the difference between them just make sure its the same grit as the piece that was included it may be a different color, which doesnt matter. i dont recall if i needed it or not but it was an added peace of mind to have on hand so if needed it i had it. remember that with things like this, its the same rules as painting, to merit best results its all in the prep and process, dont let it scare you, i was a tad wary from the more complex kits, id done prior to this one, and this is on my personal vehicle and the pics i included i hope provide a good visual reference as to how well this kit works. but yeah overall its a awesome product, and i have purchased this 2 more times and done mine, a friends and my moms truck, and all have came out consistent and amazin! highly recommend! anyways i followed direct

I need to clear up some misconception about this product based on reviews I’ve read. First, if you are reading this keep reading you will learn exactly what you need to do from an individual with experience with this stuff. You looking at products like this because your headlights are not looking so hot anymore. So what are your options? Option One If your headlights are lightly oxidized: I know “oxidized” is not the best word, but what I mean is that basically this kit, “3M 39173 1 Pack Quick Headlight Clear Coat” is an extremely light buffing kit that is the equivalent of using a light rubbing-compound before waxing your car. So, if your headlights are lightly oxidized this kit will likely work. However, I am guessing your headlights are much worse and you are nervous about putting sandpaper on a drill and sanding your expensive headlights. I understand, but do not kid yourself, the 3M 39173 1 Pack Quick Headlight Clear Coat kit works, but its not a miracle product. Hence, I urge you to read Option Two. Option Two If your headlights look like my headlights in the “Before” picture attached with this review dull and pitted, the product you need to purchase is “3M 39045 Headlight Renewal Kit with Protectant.” This is a heavy-duty kit that includes the sandpapers to resurface your headlights in three steps using the following sandpapers and wet-sanding pad. • 500-grip sandpaper (heavy duty sanding to smooth out the surface and pits) • 800-grip sandpaper (smooth’s out the scratching from the 500-grit sandpaper) • 3,000-grip wet-sanding pad (smooth’s/removes out the swirls left by the 800- grit sandpaper) • Headlight Clear Coat (final application) The attached picture is my Mini headlight that has 13 years with 165,000+ miles on of wear-and-tear on it, and as a result my headlights were massively dull and pitted. The “Before” picture really does not do it justice to show just how bad they were. Attached Image Break Down • The first image shows the headlight before it was restored. It really does not show how dull and bad the pitting is, but it was really bad. • The second image shows how the headlight looked after sanding with 500-grit sandpaper. There was another sanding step with 800-grip sandpaper, but I do not have an image of that. • The third image shows the headlight after sanding with a 3000-grit wet-sanding pad and then sealing the lens with the protectant. The Restoration Process Is Simple with the kit 3M 39045 Headlight Renewal Kit with Protectant.” 1. Clean the headlights with soap and water. 2. Tape around the headlight with the included green tape. NOTE: I used additional blue tape because I did not want the sanded plastic to get into my headlight pop-up washers. This is why there are two layers of tape. 3. Sand the headlights with 500-grip sandpaper. 4. Sand the headlights with 800-grip sandpaper. 5. Wet Sand the headlights with 3,000-grip sanding pad. 6. Clean the headlights (make sure they are dry), and then seal with the included protectant. There are some good YouTube videos showing you how to use this heavy-duty kit. Just take your time and your headlights will look great again. Tips 1. Separate your sandpapers into two stacks. One for each headlight. 2. As you are sanding down the headlights, occasionally clean off your sandpaper buffing pads; you can do this by patting them on a towel or something. This will unclog the sandpaper, thus allowing you to work more efficiently. After I was done, I put the sandpaper buffing pads away because I can use them again for one more job. Conclusion I am not trying to sway anyone into buying something you do not need, but after reading a bunch of the reviews here, and knowing my personal experience and aptitude with mechanics, it is obvious that many individuals with negative reviews are not being realistic about what this kit does, and do not want to purchase the correct heavy-duty kit that they really need. To Clarify: Bottom Line 1. If your headlights are lightly oxidized use kit “3M 39173 1 Pack Quick Headlight Clear Coat,” and go with Option One. 2. If your headlights are dull and/or pitted use the heavy-duty kit “3M 39045 Headlight Renewal Kit with Protectant,” and follow my instruction in Option Two. ******* Please let me know if this review was helpful by clicking the “Helpful” button below******* THANK YOU!

Worked pretty well on one headlight on the other it barely did anything, was pretty easy to use and took about 45 seconds to apply. Don't expect your headlights to magically become sparkly

Very easy to use and very effective at restoring my headlights!! You get an easy to use sanding pad, and two wipes for clear coat, which is more than adequate for 1 vehicle! I’m impressed with my headlight clarity. They look almost new again!

This works fine for what it is, if your headlight assembly isn't overly oxidized. Mine where personally slightly hazed but not much yellowing, I personally found the sanding disk included to not be enough for me. It wore out fast while using it, wish a second was included, honestly I believe it's probably needed. I also wish they included at least a single disposable glove, as the clear coat tells you to not get it on your hands, and I might be a minority but I don't keep protective gloves at home for situations like this, so it tells you to not get it on your skin, yet doesn't give you anything in the kit to prevent this. 1 three inch disk of 3000 grit sandpaper just isn't enough for moderately hazy lenses, just isn't most kits will include multiple disks ranging from 400-3000 but price is the selling point for this product, I can't fault it for that. Just wanting to throw it out there, the cheapest kit doesn't include much, but it's enough to do some. My headlights look slightly clearer, but they where never really yellowed to begin with, just hazy, I wanted to clear some of that out, the kit helped but still felt I was under equipt to do a relatively minor cleaning.

I've used this product twice now, on both our motor home and my daughter's car. Let me start by saying it's not too difficult to find some product that will clean a hazy plastic headlight lens. In the past I have used toothpaste, rubbing compound, polishing compound, and scratch and swirl remover. All work well to clean the lens. The problem is that very quickly the lens yellows. In researching this issue, I learned that cleaning the lens also removes the UV coating, leading to the quick yellowing I kept experiencing. What's needed to prevent this is to reapply a UV coating after cleaning the lens. This 3M kit does that. It contains a small polishing pad and 2 "wet wipes" which contain the clear coat and UV protectant. Mask off around the lens to protect adjacent paint (I used painter's tape) and spray a 50/50 solution of alcohol and water on the lens to clean it. Wipe dry, then wet the polishing pad and sand the lens until you get a uniform hazy surface. Wipe clean and then open a treatment "wet wipe" and wipe across the lens in even, overlapping strokes. I did both lenses with one wipe. Wait 15 minutes and then open the second wipe and repeat. I started the driver side lens with the first wipe and the passenger lens with the second so that both received a new wipe treatment. The entire process took perhaps 1/2 hour. I treated our RV lenses in April and so far (5 months later) they still look brand new and clear. Without the UV treatment they would start yellowing in a couple months. Great product, very reasonable price and professional results!

I have used this product a few times on my 2013 prius C. It works really well. If your headlights are really bad, you may have to sand them with a courser grit sand paper first, like a 500 grit one followed by an 800 grit one. I usedthe 3M™ Headlight Lens Restoration System 39008 to restore my pretty bad headlights back in 2021. This comes with more types of sand paper and requires a lot of sanding. Ever since, I have been able to keep the heaflights looking good by using this kit every year or two. It is so much quicker than the hours of sanding I needed to do with the other system. I plan to keep using this regularly, so I never have to do that again.

Editing, because after five months the finish is starting to come off. It's still an amazing product with amazing results, but temper your expectations. It's not "like new" because new headlights look new for longer than five months. It's not a "cure", but it's a damn good product for regularly maintaining old headlights. I won't hesitate to buy it again with that lowered expectation, but I am lowering my previous review from 5 to 4. I originally thought I'd have to replace my headlights. This was so easy - no power tools needed. You clean the headlights with alcohol, and sand them with an included pad. They will still look hazy, but then you wipe a towelette across, and they magically become clear. Repeat 10 minutes later with a second towelette, and you're done!! Seriously, this requires only SLIGHTLY more time, talent and effort than brushing my damn teeth!! But, to continue that analogy - just as I have to routinely brush my teeth, I now realize after 5 months that I will have to routinely maintain this headlight repair. Magic is a fleeting illusion. The world is harsh.