Ultimate Headlight Restoration Tool | 6 Minute Permanent Fix

So, here's how to restore headlights in under six minutes with the proper tools and products that I suggest to do this as fast as possible and get incredible results. What's going on, guys? Luke here with Wilson Auto Detailing. Listen, before we get in, I want to let you guys know this Thursday I am hosting a live hands-on skills paint correction training via Zoom. There are less than 100 spots left and it is completely free, so grab the link in the YouTube description box below and go ahead and register your spot for this Thursday's training if you're interested. And if you're watching this video after October 12th, that means you missed it, but you can use the same link to join the wait list for the next time we launch something like this. So, let me go ahead and get into the video. The palm sander that you see me using in this video is the Merka three-inch palm sander and what you see me using on the end of it is a three-inch 1,500-grit sandpaper or wet sandpaper Trizact disc. I also have, and this is important, a foam interface in between the pad itself or the sanding disc itself and the Merka palm sander. The reason why I'm using the 1,500-grit is because, yes, I could go to a lower grit and actually do this faster. Even in headlight restoration with bad headlights like this, I don't like to go below 1,500-grit sandpaper because it's easier in the long run to be able to jump from 1,500 to 3,000-grit and then polish out those 3,000-grit sanding marks than it is to go from like 800 to 1,000 to 1,500 to then 3,000. Even though it takes a little bit longer on the front end with the 1,500-grit, I can actually get it done overall a little bit quicker. Now, I want to talk about a couple of things really quickly to highlight this. The Merka palm sander is an expensive machine. The reason why I use it and the reason why it helps me get really quick results with headlight restoration, even though it's like $500, is because I can use it with one hand. It's extremely light. It's extremely quiet. It's got a five-millimeter orbit and it's extremely powerful. Yes, I could do the exact same thing as you see me doing in this video with a dual-action polisher and I could use my three-inch Rupes dual-action polisher in order to do this. So, anybody who has that, just know that machine is totally worthy of something like this. I like a palm sander because I do actually a fair amount of wet sanding in my detailing business at this point and that's why I love the palm sander. I want to emphasize something else because even though I'm using the one-inch Rupes Nano to get into these corners, I'm doing the same thing with the foam interface. You can buy on Amazon a foam interface pad. That foam interface pad can be three-inch, five-inch, six-inch. You can use it in regular paint correction. You can use it in wet sanding. The reason why I use it in wet sanding these headlights is because if I were to only use that film-back disc, that 1,500-grit disc from Trizac, 1,500-grit sandpaper, it would be a flat sandpaper disc against the flat backing plate of my Merka palm sander. And essentially, I would get these really uneven sanding marks because the headlight is not flat. It's got these contours, these body lines, and so I need some cushion that basically disperses the pressure of the 1,500-grit paper and also allows me to just really easily go over the whole headlight with one hand, with my palm sander, and basically get everything. So I can go over the body lines, the contour lines, get in the edges, get in the tiny little cracks and crevices with the foam interface, and I'm not going to burn anything, right? It's very hard to burn a plastic headlight with the method that I'm using here, but I'm going to get all of the clear coat sanded away from that headlight with the foam interface. And so this isn't something I hear a lot of people talk about, but this is one of the most effective things you can do in either wet sanding or paint correction. Get some foam interface pads because it can help you disperse pressure and it was really helpful with damp sanding because it kind of helps with the residue control either. It also kind of like absorbs that clear coat residue and that water and allows you to do this for a lot longer time. Now, what you guys are going to see me move to next as I am cleaning off here is a 3,000-grit sanding disc. Now, that 3,000-grit sanding disc is really the same exact process. All I'm going to do with the 3,000-grit is what you just saw, which was me refining the sanding marks. That's it. So I moved from 1,500 to 3,000. I don't want to belabor that point because it's actually really, really simple. If I spend two minutes with the 1,500-grit, I'm going to spend around three minutes with the 3,000-grit to refine those sanding marks. That's as simple as it gets. Now, you guys see me in this moment actually pulling out my three-inch Rupes polisher because I'm going to polish these out. Now, I'm using a foam pad. The reason why I'm using a medium-cut foam pad is because while, yes, it's going to take me a little bit longer to refine or get out those sanding marks, it actually is easier on a headlight to use a foam pad like this because I can get in all of the contours of the body lines, all the edges, all those really hard-to-reach areas, and I don't have to pull out another polisher. Now, I'm using Meguiar's 110. It's a heavy-cutting compound. I'm then going to switch to a new medium-cut foam pad that's the same type of pad, but it's just a new one, and I'm going to refine even further or bring out even more of that gloss with Meguiar's 205. I actually do like those in combination for the headlights. So, again, this is really the fastest method, in my opinion, and the reason why I use so much foam, even though you might say, well, use a wool pad, use a microfiber pad, and we see a lot of people doing that on social media, that really is, in my opinion, not the fastest way to do it from an overall headlight correction, headlight restoration perspective. Then I'm going to finish with a simple ceramic coating. This is not some sort of special ceramic coating. It's just a regular paint ceramic coating that I'm putting on the headlights here. So, all of those tools and products, I will link up in the YouTube description box below so you can sort through them and see which one of those you feel like you might want to grab. Headlight restoration is one of the most profitable things to do in the detailing business because the value sells itself. It's really not hard. I want to show you guys a quick before and after. This is obviously the after. We'll look at the other after headlight as well and then go back to the before so you can see it in reference to what it was to what it is now. Remember, guys, the link below in the YouTube description box. The first link you're going to see is the ability to register your spot for the live paint correction training I'm hosting this Thursday at 6 p.m. Pacific Time. I don't do this often, but again, it's totally free, so make sure to go get that. Less than 100 spots left and I will see you guys this Thursday.