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Archives : headlight oxidation

Headlight Restoration: Good Business Decision

As a successful business owner, you know the importance of improving and growing your business. Consider the advantages of adding headlight restoration.

There are strong similarities between windshield repair and headlight restoration: both save vehicle owners money; both are eco-friendly not adding to landfills; and both make vehicles not only look better but safer with better visibility.

Upfront investment is minimal: For instance, you can get started with a headlight restoration kit for as little as $495—or less if you already have some supplies to remove the oxidation. If so, all you would need is GlasWeld’s OEM UV Hard Coat and UV Curing Light for a long-lasting, durable finish that exceeds OEM standards. And GlasWeld training is included with the purchase of any kit.

Business will come to you: While customers come in for a windshield repair, you might notice cloudy headlights and offer the service. Both can be accomplished simultaneously saving you and the customer valuable time. Additionally, you can go to local dealerships and companies who maintain a fleet of vehicles (i.e., UPS, FedEx and utilities) to gain additional business.

So don’t miss this sure-way to get new business—especially, if your location has a lot of sunshine, which makes headlights oxidize faster. Learn more about our Gclear Essentials Kit.

Learn how to restore headlights to nearly new OEM condition with Gclear™.

The customer hands you the check for the headlight repair, thanks you, and then pulls out into traffic with bright, shiny headlight lenses, ready to fool oncoming traffic into thinking they have accidentally left their high-beams on.

Problem is, you didn’t add a hard coat to the lens. So, in another month or so, they’ll be back wondering what happened. While getting a customer into your shop every other month might sound like a good thing, it isn’t when they come back because of failure.

This is where having a quality OEM UV hard coat will forever (or at least every 1-3 years depending on conditions) make a customer happy.

GlasWeld’s Gclear Headlight Restoration Kit utilizes an OEM UV Hard Coat in the restoration process. And, it is UV curable. This adds life to the coating since it doesn’t have to air dry and potentially become contaminated with debris.

There is a hurdle, however, that must be cleared, literally. The original OEM coating, or any other hard coat that has been added, must be cleared completely before adding the Gclear UV Hard Coat to the lens. Getting to this stage takes some know-how, practice, and even a little patience.

Ever heard of a ‘horizon line’ on your headlight lenses? This line is actually a protected portion of the lens that has not had the chance to degrade as quickly as the rest of the lens from the environmental elements it has been exposed to over time. This area must be completely removed (with sand paper or an orbital sander for even quicker results) in order for the new coating to be consistent across the entire lens.

The horizon line will not be as visible in real life as it is in this enhanced picture, so it will take some practice to look for and then deal with this line when restoring the lens.

How can you tell when the old coating has been removed? When sanding the lens, the old coating will be removed and will appear as a yellowish residue. This is actually oxidation that is being removed. Even the horizon line area, as it is removed, will contain this oxidation. The enhanced picture below shows the yellow oxidation and is a good indicator as you work of how deep into the lens you need to sand.

As you continue to sand you will notice the yellowish residue turn to a milky white residue. This means you have reached the original lens.

All that remains is to use a finer grit sanding disk to smooth out any ridges and then to clean the lens with alcohol in preparation for the Gclear UV Hard Coat.

One quick word about using the Gclear UV Hard Coat: Don’t be stingy with it. The thicker you apply the coating the better the coating will cure. A thicker coat will contain more of the photo-initiators which provides for a completely cured coating.

Another note about the Gclear UV Hard Coat: Get close to the lens as you spray; say 1-2 inches. And spray from the top down, in a side-to-side sweeping motion. This will help let a thick coating run down the lens and self-level. This means no runs, drips or errors. In other words, the result will be a complete and smooth coating experience.

Once the lens has been coated with the UV Hard Coat, use a frequency-tuned UV Curing Light for complete curing without the risk of contaminates from the environmental elements.

These are just a few headlight restoration tips of many that we have come up with through experience and extensive testing in the development of the Gclear Headlight Restoration System. The following video offers more tips on the Gclear Headlight Restoration System and how to provide excellent results for your customers every time.