Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Having come into possession of two different products for auto headlight restoration, I thought I would try a head to head comparison, The two products are the 3M Headlight Restoration System (PN 39008) and the Meguiar's Perfect Clarity Headlight Restoration Two Step Kit (hereafter know as Meguiar's). The headlights on my car had started to show the telltale opaqueness characteristic of sun damage and oxidation. I started with the more involved system by 3M - the process is to use a series of disks to first sand off the opaque layer and then imperfections in the surface left by the first disk to finer and finer scratches until you get to a frosted appearance and then polish the headlight cover with polishing compound until you get a clear surface. The Meguiar's product requires less steps in that you start with a rubbing compound and then after achieving the frosted appearance spray with a clear protective coating. Effectiveness - the 3M product left a clear un-yellowed headlight cover - the Meguiar's product left a clear un-yellowed headlight cover surprise, essentially they were in my opinion equally effective at restoring the headlights Ease of use / Effort - the 3M product took roughly 60-90 minutes to strip and buff a single headlight, note that this was done using a cordless drill (you may need an appropriate chuck as the kit attachment is smooth and round where my drill required a hex shank) making several passes and wiping down to assess progress before advancing to the next disk [ note that the instructions caution you to mask around the headlights to prevent damage to the paint, I would suggest multiple layers in the areas where the paint is most likely to get damaged, varying by car - I suggest this because I cut right through a single layer of tape in one area and scratched the paint ] - the Meguiar's product took roughly 15-20 minutes, this was through intense side to side rubbing of the headlight with the applicator pad, adding more buffing compound as the surface became dry and wiping down to assess progress before the final spray on step [ note that you need to mask here as well, but now to protect against overspray from the protecting coat, also, be careful in your spray technique as it is possible to end up with drips due to too much spray application ] Overall, as you can see from the attached before and after the both systems worked well, the difference being mostly in the length of time required to achieve the effect. Overall, I like the Maguiar's product better due to the reduced time (though the manual effort was more intense). P-)