[Brent Deines]

Originally Posted by chips1144

First off it was a real pleasure to meet you Brent, my wife and I enjoyed your demo and chat.

The headlight restoration subject is big, after seeing maybe 7 or more systems at MTE I'm still confused, Headlight restoration was certainly flavor of the month at this show, many vendors have some type of system.

I would have to agree with Brent that Micro Mesh and 3M systems looked great, like brand new in my opinion, My wife loved the 3M results over all, the lens was so clear, unfortunately they only have some plastic polish to finish and I'm not sure how long it will last, 3M will not take a back seat on this, Im sure they will research and develop a better coating.

Micro mesh used cushioned sanding pads and offered a Da attachment with a 3 inch head, it looked like a quality item to me.

I did see a Dvelop demo, to see the headlight restored before my eyes was good, they did have the worst looking yellowed headlights while others only had mild surface damage, I did like his 3 inch electric DA sander, it can remove heavy corrosion very well, his results were good.

I saw a Headlight doctor demo on a Jag but the lights were hardly faded, It was all hand sanding, it looked good and was fast. I left my sample kit as I figured it was risky to take the chemicals onboard an aircraft.

I wanted to see and touch the Jepson sander/buffer I saw one over on the LR stand, its nice and easy to hold, a lightweight buffer, it was being used for demonstrating IPS glass scratch removal, LR were using a manual pad and 3" hook and loop sanding system with polish for headlights.

The Renu system from headlight restoration professionals uses UV light to cure their aerosol clear, the UV light seems expensive to me at $1500, the aerosol is $150 a can, you can do a lot of cars with one can, I cant remember the amount they claimed, it was ten or twenty cars, it takes 5 minutes to cure, the lights looked good but I only saw the after results.

I think most customers would be happy with the results of the systems I saw, they all did a fair job. Longevity is a real concern to me, I think we need to use a sealer.

Here in Oregon we may not see as many badly faded headlights but we do get them, people move here from the Southern states plus we get auction cars from Arizona.

It was a pleasure to meet you as well. Did you see any ghosts at the hotel?

I agree with everything you said, but like you I am still confused about the sealers, mainly because the reps from 3M and Micro-Mesh both said that a solvent based sealer should not be used, but that seems to be what most of the others do use.

After talking to a number of body shops and seeing the results at the MTE, a good DA sander makes the most sense to me for fast high quality sanding. I sold air tools in a previous life so I am fond of Chicago Pneumatic (CP) and Ingiersall Rand (IR) products, but I'm sure many brands work just fine.

I didn't see the demo on the Jag, but some of the headlights in the Headlight Doctor's booth were pretty bad before he started, and I did watch him do one in his booth. It took about 15 minutes and looked pretty good, especially for a hand sanding job. I would love to see a good sealer on the light that 3M sanded.