Headlight protection

R

Risky Bizness

New member
Is it advisable to use GRIOT`s glass polish and sealant on the large headlight lens on my F-150`s? Why/why not?

I also have some PLAST-X.

Thanx,

Risky Bizness
 
I wouldn`t use either of those polishes. The Plast-X because I never found it to do very much, and glass polish may have abrasives in it that are too aggressive for plastic or the UV coating on headlights (which however, is usually pretty hard).

Are the lenses in good condition? If so give them a polish like you would for paint just to clean them and provide a good surface for the sealant.

If the lenses are yellowed, you may need to use more aggressive tactics, meaning more aggressive polishes and pads, and if they are really bad, sanding with some fine paper. (If they are really bad, you don`t have much to lose by trying the Griot`s glass polish)

Some people have said they no longer need to sand if they use a product like the McKee`s All-In-One Headlight Restoring Polish...I bought some during the recent blowout but I haven`t gotten to try it yet.

A final thought, headlights have a factory clearcoat on them for UV protection, in much the same way your paint has a clearcoat on it. The more you remove of this coating, the shorter the life of it, and once it is gone, keeping the headlights clear will be something that you will have work on frequently, like every six months. I have not found any of the detailing products (coatings, etc.) to materially lengthen this maintenance interval. This of course depends on whether the vehicle is garaged, etc.

People do re-spray with 2K clear, and there are replacement UV-cured coatings similar to the factory coating which can be applied, although these are not easily available like detailing products.
 
Prep them the way you would paint, and apply whatever you are applying to the paint. I don`t give much credence to the headlight-specific sealants being much different than anything else...because you want the same UV protection on paint. Applying a coating to the headlights may be of some value, in the same way that it is of some value on paint...not sure that anyone can really say for sure because of the time frames involved...maybe someone will coat one headlight and not the other and in 5 or 10 years we might have an answer.

But putting wax or sealant on can`t hurt. Optimum Car Wax has some specific UV absorbers that I don`t think have ever been proven to make any difference (for you guys that want to argue about the patent, as I recall the patent was not on any performance of the absorber, it was for keeping it suspended in the solution). But they can`t hurt.
 
Meguiar’s makes a headlight coating spray for around $8. I’m gonna try it.

if you live in a hot sunny climate, and want to use wax or sealant, you’d need to apply it very often, like 6x per year, for it to be effective.
 
Risky Bizness said:
​I also have some Collinite 845, I can use.
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Much as I appreciate 845 (I still use it for one area on one car), I`d sure top it with something that`s been determined to really provide UV Protection (namely OCW, which only takes a literal moment when used as a Drying Aid).

Oh, and Welcome to Autopia!
 
I wish one of the great Product Testers here would do something on UV Protection, see what (besides OCW) really works. Note that I didn`t believe OCW was anything worth having until Ford tested it, and/but now I`ll probably never be without it.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Wait...what? Ford tested OCW?
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Yeah, that`s how I started using it instead of my lifelong faves for what Ford calls "post-production paintwork" (i,e, repaints). I`d never given the stuff one moment`s thought until then.

EDIT: No, sorry...I don`t have links/etc. to it but I do remember it clearly. So put this in the "do I consider [Accumulator] credible?" category and proceed accordingly.
 
Accumulator said:
No, sorry...I don`t have links/etc. to it but I do remember it clearly. So put this in the "do I consider [Accumulator] credible?" category and proceed accordingly.
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I had not heard that before, but I see Mike Phillips mentioned it (on AGO) in an OCW thread in 2017. I`m going to ask at the Optimum Forum and see what they say and will report back.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
I`m going to ask at the Optimum Forum and see what they say and will report back.
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Good idea (though I wouldn`t go there if you payed me by the minute ;) ), maybe you`ll find something documenting the UV Protection too.

I can say from first-hand experience that OCW protects UV-compromised surfaces just fine (polish oxidized-crusty-white lenses, apply OCW, observe for decade, still OK) and also worked fine on (very) fresh repaints (ended up nice and hard). But supporting documentation would be good, so I hope you find it.
 
This was the answer:

"Ford, Chrysler, and Mitsubishi all tested Optimum Spray Wax and confirmed claims of UV and other protection, but did not provide any reports or permission to use their test results."
 
Setec Astronomy- Ah, I appreciate your efforts :D

Well, at least I didn`t somehow hallucinate the whole thing! But I do vaguely recall the actual Ford TSB (had forgotten/not known of the Chrysler/Mistu angle).
 
Accumulator said:
I get most of the Ford TSBs/info from [a certain member here], and thoroughly appreciate them. But I`m pretty sure he didn`t send me the ones related to this. Aw man, I can *almost* picture the panels in the test...
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does anyone recall what year plus maybe a model for that TSB? That would ho a long way in helping me look it up .
 
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