Headlight Restoration-new UV sealant idea

paintman607 said:
Here is the whole thing in a nut shell. Lenses are made of lexan plastic, very rigid but won't hold up with UV light from the sun, (turns yellow and hazy. That has to be removed. As you people already know. BUT then you have to apply something on the headlights so the Lexan plastic won't turn yellow again. (like in a couple months). You need to apply UV sealant on those lights. Use what you may.. I myself use a two part Clear. This is all I do for a living, Let you all know that I did bumper repairs for dealers for 15 years, sold my business and now I can just focus on headlights. I spent a good couple months getting this down to a science. To do this job and DO IT RIGHT you need to invest time and money in it. Now for the problems of just doing headlight repairs for a living. Most of the public here in Florida have very little extra cash to put out to get their headlights done, so they don't do it. Most of the car dealers are buy here pay here that don't want to spend money on their junks they are trying to sell to the poor people that have no credit. So it is a vicious cycle. If you are doing this as a stand alone business you will starve. The way I do headlights will result in a professional repair but not many will pay the 95.00 it is worth. Good luck to all that have the talent and knowledge to do these repairs and charge 20.00 for their hard work. How is that working for you? What you have to do is find a cheap QUICK way to do this and then charge 20.00. Then I'll come along and do the job right and make the 100.00
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I was following you and actually found myself agreeing with you in the begining of your paragraph. It IS NOT easy to find instant sucess in any business nowadays, much less with a "strictly headlight restoration" business.

I am hoping though that the last couple of lines you said were in a joking manner and not meant to dissuade any of these fine young entrepreneurs from pursuing their dreams of being able to provide for themselves and/or their families in such a competetive work environment which we now live.

I applaud all of the people on this site for helping others who aren't afraid to go out and work hard for an honest days wages.......even if it is $40 at a time.
 
mr.fusion said:
Solaray is good stuff, but as mentioned... it sprays thick so it has to be laid down heavy, to level. Very tricky to get a smooth finish without orange peel or sagging. But from what I've seen when trying to remove the cured coating, it may be the toughest, most durable spray coating out there. Too bad it doesn't spray nice.

There are other uv spray coatings that spray better. I have tried a few, but I stopped using it because I found that it can be damaged with a pressure washer, at least in some cases. Without knowing EXACTLY why and how to fix that, if possible... I chose to run with the Optilens. for most of my work. I still keep UV spray coating with me for some nasty lights... the ones that take a ton of sanding and are difficult to get polished out perfect. Spray coatings are great for some jobs, but really not a good choice on others... such as a huge lens or one with damage only on the top edge.
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You hit the nail on the head there mr fusion.......different jobs and customers require different methods and materials.
 
mr.fusion said:
Took a good couple months to figure out what nobody else knows. Impressive.
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Not sure if this was suppose to be a sarcastic comment or not. But with the reading you did and all you got out of the reading was the length of time it took me. I'm sorry that is all you took from the comments.:xyxthumbs:
 
Part-timer said:
I was following you and actually found myself agreeing with you in the begining of your paragraph. It IS NOT easy to find instant sucess in any business nowadays, much less with a "strictly headlight restoration" business.

I am hoping though that the last couple of lines you said were in a joking manner and not meant to dissuade any of these fine young entrepreneurs from pursuing their dreams of being able to provide for themselves and/or their families in such a competetive work environment which we now live.

I applaud all of the people on this site for helping others who aren't afraid to go out and work hard for an honest days wages.......even if it is $40 at a time.
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The point I was making is that there are people that try to make a living and do things that have short cuts, trying to make a quick dollar for their family. What happens in the LONG TERM is they see that they are loosing money or can't make their bills and wonder why. I've been in business for my self all my life. There is nothing better than that. You will always have people that do things cheaper and they come and go. I won't, and no one else should lower their standards for the people that come along to make a quick dollar. If any one of you are MOBILE TECHS you all understand what I'm saying. I have seen quite a few techs come and go in the 15 years I did bumper repairs. Pinstriping is a good example. a guy was under cutting another striper and doing cars for 10.00 he had work for a while but then never showed up at the dealers anymore. So the other guy was always stopping by this same dealer and started doing work there again for more money than when he was there before. DON'T CHEAPEN YOUR WORK. KEEP YOUR STANDARDS HIGH AND THE MONEY WILL COME.Im the MAN
 
Your point is often true, but it's not an absolute as you imply and it's not a revelation. There is no need to talk down to everyone, or imply that someone doing work at a lower price is doing inferior work simply because you charge more. Price charged is not a direct link to the quality of the work. Sometimes a high price just means someone got ripped off.

I agree that there has been way too much lowballing in the headlight biz, and it's true that there is plenty of substandard work being done. But keep in mind that there are some accounts... used car dealers... who WANT the cheap, temporary fix. As you know, many dealers WILL NOT do any work at premium prices, period. They will just let the cars sit on the lot as-is, looking like crap. But some of these same dealers are happy to clean them up for a cut-rate price, even if the work isn't that good. So there is a market for that, and someone has to fill that niche, even if others look down on it.

It's exactly the same as the windshield repair business. There are always those that preach to everyone about charging premium price, and look down on the guys doing work for half what they charge. And that's fine, if you do good with that model. But plenty of others are doing VERY well with the lower price, higher volume model. With either model, it's possible to retire wealthy, or go out of business. But it's not likely if you go too far either direction.
 
mr.fusion said:
Your point is often true, but it's not an absolute as you imply and it's not a revelation. There is no need to talk down to everyone, or imply that someone doing work at a lower price is doing inferior work simply because you charge more. Price charged is not a direct link to the quality of the work. Sometimes a high price just means someone got ripped off.

I agree that there has been way too much lowballing in the headlight biz, and it's true that there is plenty of substandard work being done. But keep in mind that there are some accounts... used car dealers... who WANT the cheap, temporary fix. As you know, many dealers WILL NOT do any work at premium prices, period. They will just let the cars sit on the lot as-is, looking like crap. But some of these same dealers are happy to clean them up for a cut-rate price, even if the work isn't that good. So there is a market for that, and someone has to fill that niche, even if others look down on it.

It's exactly the same as the windshield repair business. There are always those that preach to everyone about charging premium price, and look down on the guys doing work for half what they charge. And that's fine, if you do good with that model. But plenty of others are doing VERY well with the lower price, higher volume model. With either model, it's possible to retire wealthy, or go out of business. But it's not likely if you go too far either direction.
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Mr. Fusion, I understand exactly what you are saying. Sounds like I'm talking down to people here. I'm not. If you really knew me you would understand that. Not sure if you are a mobile tech or have a stand alone shop. Either way it costs you money to open your doors. Three cheers to the guys that want to work and make money. I'm right there with them BUT at 40.00 or sometimes less I'm just trying to figure out how they REALLY make money. Bills, are GAS for van. Business INSURANCE almost 2500.00 a year alone HEALTH INS. another 3000.00 a year, now I have to try to make an income for myself. If anyone can help me figure this out by charging less for my time and work Please help me cause I'm not doing something right.
Starting this next week, I guess I'm going to have to concede the old saying is right. IF YOU CAN'T LICK EM JOIN EM.
MR. FUSION:props: you made me see the light. I'm offering two packages for headlight repair SILVER 25.00 GOLD 55.00 (Dealer pricing). Now everybody will be able to justify getting the work done. I think I just increased my bottom line. I will use the HS that I have experimented with for the last year. Offer that as my silver package. Thank you :urtheman:
 
How is it so difficult to see there is more than one way to make money?

MB-Ferrari-Lambo-Bentley vs. VW-Honda-Ford-Hyundai
Should we preach to VW to be more like MB? Guess which brands have highest profits?

I've seen the same argument many times in the windshield repair biz. (and others...like detail right here on AG) Some will price their work very high, and they get theirs. What seems to happen though is that these guys think everyone should do as they do. They get hung up on the few "bottom feeders" that come around doing halfass work for a lowball price... and lump everyone else in with that group. They tend to view others as being beneath them, and refuse to accept that there is a middle ground where most of us work. Comes across as elitist when the argument is made in absolute terms, without being reasonable.

You did talk down to everyone, btw. In a self-righteous post, you imply that others here are not doing it right, are not doing professional work unless they charge "the $95 it is worth", and that you would have to come behind them to fix their crap and DO IT RIGHT.

(quote) "Then I'll come along and do the job right"

Does that apply just to the $20 guy? $40? $60? This basic point to encourage people to charge more or maintain a high standard of work can be made without such a snotty arrogant attitude. I agree with the idea of doing quality work and not being the price ##### in your market, but you gotta be reasonable. There is NOT a lot of $100 work out there, just like there are NOT a lot of $100,000+ cars sold vs the "vw" of the world.

Even though you became the headlight guru in a couple of months, you have no idea what my work is like, or what I charge, or why. For all you know, my work is a notch above yours. But you are telling me you will come fix mine? Yes, I do charge more than $20, but not anywhere near your $100. I agreed to the point about too many doing work too cheap. I don't think anyone here is going to say that $20 is a good biz plan. How busy can you be only doing work for $100? If it works for you, fantastic. Most find it doesn't work for them. For me, I can tell you $100 is way beyond the sweetspot of price/volume.

IMO we need to be flexible. Too many variables to have a single "correct" price. Headlight restoration is not a one-size-fits-all process. IMO as I've said before, you should have more than one system/process to be efficient in this biz.

Look at it this way. Some lights can be done PROFESSIONALLY rather quickly and easily, while others take much longer and require a different process and more experience, and thus justify a higher price tag. Some might choose to set rates at the high end and give up a good share of the potential easy but lower paying work. But...others CHOOSE to give up the more difficult, time consuming jobs, and stick a high volume of work that can be done quickly... thus justifying a lower rate. If at the end of the day the profit is very good, and their customer is getting exactly what they want, what's wrong with that? Seriously...

There is more than one way to succeed.
 
re: the last several posts...

k31x8m.jpg


moving along...

OPTI-LENS.

/thread
 
OK, so I put a first coat on my headlights and thought all was going well. I went to put second on and some haze was appearing in big sections and I could also see little bits of stuff so I quickly wiped it off with mineral spirits and let dry for a bit. OK, I have a foam brush and thought I'd give it a try. It worked very nicely and laid down a very consistent even coat. Only problem was there were some cloudy areas. I think there was some water on the brush. Oops. Well, crap. But I loved the way the brush worked out and I think I have my technique down. I re-sanded and polished the headlights and going to try again with a brand new foam brush in a few days. The amount I mix is a 100ml batch of 70/30 var to ms. It is the perfect amount for two headlights. Hopefully three times is a charm :)
 
You will spend too much on foam brushes. Just use the scott blue towel or as I do, the scott clean up towels. These are half the size so you dont waste as much. Simply fold in half then half and again half til its like a 1x3 get the entire bent edge wet and apply that way. I rarely have any issues and when I do its 99% from me missing a spot on an odly shaped lens.

For the drama....take it to pm. This thread is too useful to be cluttered up with that crap. We all get it. Somebody is better than all of us and somebody is butthurt by it.

I have a 100% satisfied clientel and have a 1 year warranty that I have not had a claim on. I don't charge $20 and I don't charge $100. I have repeat customers and referred customers. So even at my middle price, I am doing fine. Because of that, I really don't care about attitudes. I only care to help others learn if they have questions, and to learn new things as I continue on. So please lets try and keep this thread on topic. AND keep it productive and helpful. If you want to brag about your work....make a thread called look what I can do and post all you facts and opinions there WITH pics to back it up. Saying you have a secret formula is neither helpful or productive here. If it's a secret...keep quiet about it.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using AG Online
 
barkeater said:
OK, so I put a first coat on my headlights and thought all was going well. I went to put second on and some haze was appearing in big sections and I could also see little bits of stuff so I quickly wiped it off with mineral spirits and let dry for a bit. OK, I have a foam brush and thought I'd give it a try. It worked very nicely and laid down a very consistent even coat. Only problem was there were some cloudy areas. I think there was some water on the brush. Oops. Well, crap. But I loved the way the brush worked out and I think I have my technique down. I re-sanded and polished the headlights and going to try again with a brand new foam brush in a few days. The amount I mix is a 100ml batch of 70/30 var to ms. It is the perfect amount for two headlights. Hopefully three times is a charm :)
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I've also tried those foam brushes in the past. They didn't work well for me, plus they get expensive as Lightbright says. The Scotts Blue towels do work great and you can cut them to different sizes. I cut bigger size pieces for the bigger lenses, like Ford trucks. You get more coverage for quicker application.

I highly recommend just using one coat also. It sounds like your having some issues trying to make 2 coatings work. Very few people I've seen had any luck with that. For the past 2 1/2 years I've always used only one coat with no problems.
 
Has anybody seen the video on headlightclean dot com and know what they are using for cleaner? Looks like you need nothing else than the cleaner only if you want to seal the headlights afterwords
 
I'm not quite sure what the stuff is. I did buy some. It removes some of the light top oxidation...but that's it...and the oxidation returned quickly. Longevity is an issue here. Buyer beware.
 
RENU said:
I'm not quite sure what the stuff is. I did buy some. It removes some of the light top oxidation...but that's it...and the oxidation returned quickly. Longevity is an issue here. Buyer beware.
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Sounds like nothing more than bleach Whited and Mean Green. I used this and then wet sanded with 1000 grit then applied MS with not bad results. I guess I shouldn't worry about quality when the dealers don't worry about it. I just can't see spending an hour or two on cars and only leaving the lot with 45.00. This is really a cut throat business I'm finding down here. I went down to 20.00 to see if a dealer would do the lights, and he still said no. That his business wasn't good. LOL I wonder why. I walked in the office with him, and there set his salesman with a blanket over him cause it was cold in the office. I'm Getting frustrated with the whole thing.
 
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