Ok, we finally have a true and unmitigated winner! The 3M Headlight Restoration Kit is the real deal!

Unlike the previous kits I tried it this one fully resurfaces the headlight. Like the Meguiar’s it mounts to a drill, but it’s different in that you have different things you apply to the pad.

After the 500-grit sanding

It starts off with a very agressive 500-grit sanding pad. When you’re finished with it I looked at the headlight with a “oh geez, now I killed it” look. It was the first of the kits that was able to power through the tough sections of the headlight lens and get to a fully uniform surface. Even this had a bit of trouble it was so tough. Thankfully the instructions have a picture of what it should look like afterward and mine matched more-or-less exactly.

From there it progresses through 800-grit sanding, a foam wet-polishing pad and finally a rubbing compound. At each stage it starts to look more and more like a clear headlight. At the end I can honestly say it looked nearly new!

Of all of the kits this was also the easiest to do from a work perspective. It requires a bit more attention to detail, but as long as you can read directions you should be good to go.

I should’ve went with this kit first. I picked it up for only $15 at Amazon. Too bad I didn’t find it sooner. (In my defense, I didn’t see this locally, only online)

Ok, so here’s the before anything:

Before the 3M kit:

After the 3M Kit:

I think I could have skipped all the other steps I’ve tried and went directly to the end state in one step. I don’t know if I’ve even seen a product who’s performance really was quite as jaw-dropping as this was.

I highly recommend this if you have a headlight that needs some TLC.