3M Lens Renewal Kit Review

[NiSilS14]

My headlights on my DD were looking a little faded, so I decided to buff them out this afternoon. Picked up this 3M Lens Renewal Kit from the auto parts. "Designed to be used with a household drill." This should be pretty easy, I thought to myself. This kit contains a velcro backed pad, 500 grit discs, 800 grit, one 3000grit pad, masking tape, buffing pad and buffing compound. The kit gives several of the 500 grit and 800 grit, but only one 3000grit pad. Which I thought was a little weird, at least give me two. Either way, I dug out my drill and went to town. It definitely gets the job done. Is it the best? Probably not. I'm sure a little more time and a few more steps of sanding, the kit could probably polish turd. I probably spent a good 15-20 mins a headlight, which is pretty quick in my opinion. It did a pretty good job considering the time I didn't take to do it. All in all I would recommend this product, but I think one could produce better results with a couple more of different grit sandpaper, more time, and a 90 deg drill would've been nice too. Here are some comparsion pictures.
Before
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y268/Nissils14/headlightbuffing003.jpg
After
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y268/Nissils14/headlightbuffing005.jpg

[S14-vietusmc]

looks good to me....

[NINJASPY]

are those plastic or glass headlights? work the same on both?

[Bob_Sagat]

Nice! Might have to try this on my xb.

[FRpilot]

are those plastic or glass headlights? work the same on both?

wouldn't have to do that type of restoration job if it was glass.

[S13SILVIA|E46M3]

Big diff, looks good. I hate the plastic on the HL covers, fades to easy. I use Meguiars mini powerball and aluminum polish on the G, its super easy and works well.

[TurboSE]

looks pretty good for the time it took you...

[bonzelite]

looks great

[Wabash9000]

it's not as good as one of those kits but if you need a quick fix, take some wd40 and spray it on a rag, wipe the headlight down with it. It will clear most of the oxidation off of the lens.

[NINJASPY]

wouldn't have to do that type of restoration job if it was glass.

care to explain? I thought 98 kouki lights were glass? Mine are pitted.

[EDacIouSX]

care to explain? I thought 98 kouki lights were glass? Mine are pitted.

pitted yes, but not oxidized...

[xsidewayzx]

looks good

[projectRDM]

care to explain? I thought 98 kouki lights were glass? Mine are pitted.

The pitting on a glass lens is from road debris, sand, rocks, etc. You can't polish that out, the glass is actually chipped on the surface.

[DeezNuhtz]

As my first post on here, I will vouch for this 3m kit. I drive a zenki with the usual yellow headlights and by the time I got done they looked brand new. I would try and post pics but I'm assuming there's a post requirement on here before I can?

[PeaceOnesxWai]

think it would take off minor scratches off?

[chato de shamrock]

think it would take off minor scratches off?

Unless I'm wrong, and correct me if i am, the idea of this 3M kit is to sand off the yellowish surface off the lenses. In other words, if your scratches are very minor then it might just remove them. Anything deep is pretty much permanent.

I used this same 3M kit some time around summer of last year. Earlier this year I noticed they began to fog up again. It works nicely. As you can see from the pictures the OP shared, the lenses are left nice and clear, but this kit is only a temporary fix. They'll fog up again later on. If you press down on the drill a little too hard you will cause scuffs on the lenses. I found some to be a bit hard to remove cause the lenses are roundish and the drill has a flat surface. It took me about an hour to do my lenses. Will I use this again? Maybe, if looking at my yellowish lenses annoy me enough. I'm going to eventually save up for some glass lenses and avoid all this.... one of these days.

[NINJASPY]

^ can also use car wax to slow down oxidation
or use 3m clear tape to protect/keep them clean.

my s14 kouki glass headlights are pitted... can't polish that out.

[NiSilS14]

one of these days, I think i'm gonna give them a really good buff, and lay down some of that thick clear vinyl. There's a few websites that precut ones, which is cool.

[CrimsonRockett]

Another simple solution would be to wet sand your headlights and buff them with a good compound.

Before:
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii246/CrimsonRockett/G20/DSCF5886-1.jpg

After:
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii246/CrimsonRockett/G20/DSCF5911-1.jpg

Just wet sand with 1000, 1500, 2000, and 3000.

I used Meguiars Ultimate Compound to buff them out.