3M Headlight Lens Cleaning Kit

Guest Review by John Jagielski

I just wanted to thank you for the 3M Lens Cleaning kit you got me at the New York Auto Show.

It did the trick very well considering the lenses were completely oxidized to the point where they were really useless.  See below.  Now they work like new!

BEFORE RIGHT

headlight cleaner before right

AFTER   RIGHT

 headlight cleaner after right

Cleaned with 3M  LENS RENEWAL KIT with PROTECTANT

headlightcleaner3

I tried 3 other lens restorer kits (Turtle Wax, Meguire’s Scratch-X 2.0, and Novus Plastic Polish). Considering how badly oxidized my 1996 lenses were, these all made them look better but failed to improve lighting for driving. The 3M kit did a really great job since sanding actually removed all the oxidated plastic and provided a streak free, completely clear lens which looks like new.

Procedure:

1) Washed the lens with soap and water, then rinsed with fresh water.

2) Applied 2 layers of 1″ wide green tape provided around the lens.  I used painters blue tape 3″ on top of that for wider protection and I’m glad I did because I slipped sanding with the drill and would have damaged the paint if I didn’t add that wider tape. This picture shows the final product after the protective glaze.

headlightcleaner4

3) DRY SANDING: Used an electric drill at 1,200 rpm with the arbor provided in the kit.

Started with 500 grit sandpaper (12 passes)

4) Then 800 (12 passes)

5) WET SANDING with Water:

3000 (wet sanding-12 passes)

6) Applied 3M’s final synthetic protective glaze applied by hand and buffed it out with 3M microfiber cloth.

I should have video’ d the project.

Great stuff!

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