Brand new car headlights

[Setec Astronomy]

Holy cow this thread is off the rails...Opti-Lens won't bond to factory headlight coating but Opti-Coat or Gloss-Coat will?  AFAIK Opti-Lens IS Opti-Coat with added UV inhibitors.

And you would have to be insane to sand off new factory coating to replace it with Opti-Lens, since O-L only lasts a year or two on bare headlights.

[boiler]

first, Opti-Lens is not Opti-Coat with added UV, but specially formulated to adhere to plastic where Coatings are more general in their applications.  Second, Opti-Lens is a permanent coating that will last well beyond 1 - 2 years  if properly maintained.  I do agree that one shouldn't sand off factory coating unless it's failing.

[bcwang]

From what I've read, optilens has added acrylic to help it bond to polycarbonate because of more expansion and contraction than paint. Which sounds to me like it bonds better to headlights than opticoat pro would, since it's based on opticoat pro but tailored to headlights. If optilens isn't permanent bonding to headlight uv coating then I doubt opticoat pro would be better.  But who knows, you'd need some long term comparison tests to know.  I haven't heard much evidence of either lasting permanently on new or refinished headlights.  Not saying it won't but no test result has called it out as preventing hazing indefinitely.

[bcwang]

Well after getting a new Yaris IA in 2018, getting opticoat pro plus put on the headlights… almost 3 years later having the top of it degrade and peel in some spots, get rough on the rest of the top surface and lose clarity…I’m not sure how well opticoat pro plus works on headlights.  Not sure if pro plus can’t deal with greatly expanding and contracting plastic so can’t protect it the way it does paint. But for it to fail so quickly, I think the headlight would have lasted longer if I just waxed/sealed it instead during those 3 years.  I’ve never had a headlight fail faster than this set. 
 
I just got a warranty replacement headlight set. This time I am just using optilens. If it stops beading like it’s no longer there, I’ll just apply more. I think added UV protection is needed for headlights.  Not sure if any of you have more knowledge or experience with headlight protection from new and have comments of your own on what works the best.  But I’m really hoping optilens can bond well to some new headlights if not all and become permanent.

[Setec Astronomy]

Well, since this thread was active, I've applied Opti-Lens to 2 sets of new headlights, and stopped applying it to old headlights that have had the coating removed, because it really doesn't help.  I just polish the old lenses every 6 months or so to clear them up when they yellow.  YMMV.

[Mr.Outback]

Interesting info.  Am not sure how original auto manufacturers would feel about having their in-warranty headlights sanded/polished in order to receive another coating.  Also, some headlight lenses are now quite intricate and would be difficult to polish.  I'll ask my detailer what he applied to my Subie's plastic headlights (vehicle was Opti-Coated 4 months ago and so far I've had no issues with new coatings).

[Setec Astronomy]

The factory coating (AFAIK) isn't a clearcoat, it's a UV-cured coating, and it's quite thick.  Unfortunately when it fails it makes quite a mess and can require quite a bit of sanding to remove the failing/unfailed part.  The cars I have that I've had to sand the coating off of were I think 10 years old or more at the time, and as I said, the Opti-Lens didn't really do much to help, they were yellowed again within a year.  I didn't have any problems applying the Opti-Lens to new headlights (on new cars).  I have one older car that I never got around to coating the lenses, and the coating is starting to craze, I Opti-Lensed them, we'll see if that holds off the failure.

As far as the efficacy of Opti-Lens...I think it's just too thin to provide much UV protection by itself--it may be very good at protecting, but a micron or two just isn't enough.  I'm hoping it provides extra protection to the factory coating, however.

[bcwang]

Hey Setec,

How are the new headlights coated with optilens holding up?  How long has it been and did you only apply one layer when new and not since?

I was surprised when the pro plus coated headlight failed in less than 3 years. I’m hoping optilens actually does work better. 

[Setec Astronomy]

Those cars are only a couple of years old and get a lot of garage time, so they are fine.  I think I did two coats, about a half hour apart.

At one time I looked into a UV-cured coating, there was GlasWeld, Solaray, SafeTclear, etc.  Looks like the UV lights are a bit cheaper today, in some cases, anyway.

[bcwang]

Safetclear doesn’t seem to really require a UV light to cure so it might be worth trying for a headlight repair. I noticed they have at least two types of coatings. But if this worked well I think I would have heard more word in the street about it. 

I wonder if anyone has tried optimum CCR for a headlight restoration.  That could be pretty good especially if coated afterward. But it would have to start off super clear to be viable. 
 

Setec,  have you noticed any sign the optilens is no longer still on the headlight?  I remember some talk about optilens not being able to bond to the hardcoat and recommending opticoat pro instead. But that just doesn’t make sense to me as they both are based on the same sic chemistry. So either they both are permanent or they both won’t be.  I’ve already tried pro plus and that didn’t work to protect, not sure if it wore off or just couldn’t block enough UV to preserve the coating underneath. Hoping here optilens does better. 

[Mr.Outback]

Given that car manufacturers clear coat their headlights for durability (though some coatings last longer than others), it seems one's kinda stuck with using a product that bonds to that existing clearcoat, or going through a rather laborious process of sanding/polishing off the original clearcoat (and voiding the manufacturer warranty) to apply a another protective coat.

Perhaps someday Opti Lens will be reformulated so that it can adhere to existing _cleaned_ lens clearcoats and offer better  properties.  Clouded or otherwise marred lenses would need more extensive prep work (sanding, polishing, etc.).

[Setec Astronomy]

8 hours ago, bcwang said:

Setec,  have you noticed any sign the optilens is no longer still on the headlight?  I remember some talk about optilens not being able to bond to the hardcoat and recommending opticoat pro instead. But that just doesn’t make sense to me as they both are based on the same sic chemistry. So either they both are permanent or they both won’t be.  I’ve already tried pro plus and that didn’t work to protect, not sure if it wore off or just couldn’t block enough UV to preserve the coating underneath. Hoping here optilens does better. 

 

6 hours ago, Mr.Outback said:

Given that car manufacturers clear coat their headlights for durability (though some coatings last longer than others), it seems one's kinda stuck with using a product that bonds to that existing clearcoat, or going through a rather laborious process of sanding/polishing off the original clearcoat (and voiding the manufacturer warranty) to apply a another protective coat.

Perhaps someday Opti Lens will be reformulated so that it can adhere to existing _cleaned_ lens clearcoats and offer better  properties.  Clouded or otherwise marred lenses would need more extensive prep work (sanding, polishing, etc.).

This whole thing earlier in this thread about Opti-Lens not being able to bond to the factory UV coating doesn't make any sense to me.  Back in the day Chris told us that Opti-Lens was just Opti-Coat with UV inhibitor in it.  Of course, things could have changed since then.  I keep going back to  what we used to be told about the clear (on your paint) being only half a mil thick, and if you took off half of that you basically were destroying the UV protection of your clearcoat.  Well, even a quarter of a mil is  thicker than the few microns you're getting from Opti-Lens.  I think Ron said not too long ago that Pro+ is 7 microns thick, so that's about 2.8 tenths of a mil...but that doesn't have any added UV inhibitor, as far as I know.  The factory headlight coatings seem to be a couple of mils thick, maybe more.

[bcwang]

An interesting development to all this discussion. I was asking some questions about Optilens to Ron and apparently Dr G mentioned to him that Optilens can bond to new headlights and last 5+ years in that application.  

Now given all the conflicting information in this thread from multiple sources including an optimum rep, what might be authorized installers who have access to more info, the Rag Company video that say it can only bond to raw polycarbonate, this is a change back in the opposite direction from Dr G himself.   I’m not sure what to make of it because for at least 4 years now have passed with this being the state of information (that optilens cannot bond to headlights until the coating is polished away), it was a surprise to hear this change in direction. Maybe Dr G was never plugged into these boards and discussion and knew there was this misinformation out there. Or maybe he isn’t actually aware actual users were having longevity issues with optilens to know it was discovered to not be permanent on new headlights. 
 

In any case, there is some good news to hear this. If Dr G could read this whole thread and give his comments, it may really help accurately tell the story of where Optilens stands today as a headlight protective coat. I’m sure the information that’s been around for the past 4 years has deterred many from using optilens on new headlights. 

[Ron@Optimum]

From Dr G - Opti-Lens bonds to the coating on top of the lens, however if the coating has already oxidized then you have to remove it before applying Opti-Lens. If on the other hand the coating is new and not oxidized then you can apply Opti-Lens on top of it to prevent oxidation. That is why there are two different answers depending on the condition of the headlight.

[bcwang]

This is good news since I just got my headlights replaced with brand new ones. I’ve got two layers of optilens on it applied the day of pickup and the day after for the second layer. This should be some of the best application conditions one could have, even better than a new car which has already sat on dealer lots for months.  We will see how well things hold up this time around on a car sitting outside 24x7.  
 

Ron, I forgot, does optilens also benefit from optiseal or new formula hyperseal applied 1 hour after the last coat of optilens you want to put on?  Or do you need to wait longer or not use anything on top of it at all?