Meguiars Keep Clear Headlight Coating: Amazon / Walmart
If you’ve ever restored headlights before, you’ll know that after you’ve sanded and polished the headlight lens, it is imperative to applying a coating. Otherwise, the headlight lens will yellow and haze back up again within a matter of time. I recently restored a set of headlights on my car and needed to apply a headlight coating. I purchased a spray bottle of Meguiar’s Keep Clear Headlight Coating and it did a superb job at coating my headlight lenses.
Meguiar’s Keep Clear Headlight Coating is an aerosol spray that according to Meguiar’s, provides headlight clarity for up to a year. I’ve had this coating on for several months and it has so far, maintained the clarity of the lens from my restoration. However, only time will tell if the product lasts according to the manufacturer’s claim.
The instructions for this product is quite simple. Cover the surrounding area to protect from overspray and then spray the entire headlight lens while overlapping the previous passes by 50%. Once this first medium-wet coat has been applied, wait 3-5 minutes to dry before applying another medium wet coat. After another 3-5 minutes, the second coat should be dried. To fully cure, you must wait about 24 hours.
After restoring the headlight lenses, but prior to spraying on the clear, the lens clarity was already quite good. After spraying on Meguiar’s Keep Clear Headlight Coating, it added extra gloss to the headlight lens. This made it look shinier, although it does leave a slight orange peel look to the finish.
This sweet candy smelling product can help to fill in some imperfections such as micro-scratches still left in the lens, however any larger scratches remaining from larger-grit sanding is unaffected by the spray and will still be very visible.
Overall, I’ve been very happy with the product. Meguiar’s Keep Clear Headlight Coating sprays on easily, wipes/cleans off just as easily, and it looks absolutely superb once you’re done. You don’t need this product if you use a headlight restoration kit that already has a coating included with it. However, if the kit doesn’t have one already included, then getting this headlight coating is a great add-on to preserve those beautifully restored headlight lenses.
2 Comments
I used this product on a new pair of headlight assemblies for my old 2014 Hyundai Elantra. I made a few mistakes initially. MASK THE CAR. This stuff is really hard to remove even if it’s only been a minute. It took a lot of rubbing alcohol to get it off my paint and I still needed goo-gone gel to finish the job.
If it gets on your skin it feels like dried superglue but it did seem to wash off fairly easily.
I am OK with the results. Sure, it’s crystal clear. But on the huge bulbous headlights of my car it creates a rainbow refraction pattern from certain angles, sort of like oil but clear. It’s basically a gloss transparent spray paint clear coat.
After curing, this stuff seems rock hard and using windex to clean my lenses doesn’t change it at all. I think the rainbow effect may go away after I wax the car and the lenses. All that alcohol and goo-gone really stripped the paint.
Good tip on masking the car, I can see it being tough to remove after it’s set. How noticeable is the rainbow effect? I didn’t notice it at all when I did my headlights. I do notice the rainbow effect on some newer vehicle’s headlights from certain angles… As for alcohol and goo-gone stripping the paint, I don’t believe it would strip the paint unless your clear coat was already gone.