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Foggy headlights...

Posted: July 15th, 2005, 7:41 pm
by PoisonDrop
Listen to this...my mom just showed me an article in the paper today about this company that comes to your house and restores your foggy headlighs...for about $140 - $200 per pair!!! The picture in the article shows this guy using an electric buffer and a bottle of "Auto Magic" (all I can read on the label in the picture). The article reads on to say that he worked "long and hard" and finally found "a combination of chemicals - he won't say what - that cleared up the headlights and made it almost look brand new."

The company is in Tampa, I guess, cuz that's who's paper it's in. It's called "Clear Again." When I read this, I thought this was a total load of crap! Don't you guys think that's a total rip-off? $140 - $200 for some guy to come and buff and polish your headlights? I mean, you can get the tools and polish from the auto parts store down the street and pay maybe $20 at the most for the same job...I just laughed when I read this...I think it's a total rip-off...taking advantage of consumer laziness I guess...

Posted: July 15th, 2005, 7:58 pm
by Grants
Its no different than paying for an oil change or paying someone to mow the lawn...

I say good on him, the price sounds reasonable considering he goes to your house and the time it would take him to do it. How much is a call out in Tampa for a plumber or electrician?

Posted: July 15th, 2005, 8:12 pm
by mitmaks
it is a rip off lol, or at least theres way cheaper alternatives, I used some gs-27 on mine just 5 minutes and they were like new

Posted: July 16th, 2005, 4:05 pm
by Custommx3
How-to in the faq.

Posted: July 17th, 2005, 3:45 am
by jschrauwen
I believe Tampa might be as well as numerous other places throughout Florida, is a retirement haven. And as such there's going to be a lot of elderly people with money to spend on people who will come to their door and do those little projects and things that they can't or don't want to do. Namely, polish the lights on their luxury sedan that sits in the sun all day, day in and day out and almost all year round, getting foggier by the minute. There's lots of foggy lights out there.

Posted: July 17th, 2005, 3:09 pm
by PoisonDrop
That's true...many people may not have access to any FAQ's or instructions on how to polish their headlights...or maybe they don't have the time or cannot manage to do it themselves for other reasons. Either way, $200 seemed a little pricey, having done the work myself, and knowing what it actually takes to polish a pair of lights. Just thought the article was interesting...

Posted: July 17th, 2005, 3:34 pm
by Custommx3
EVERYONE has access to the FAQ, just noone reads them.

Posted: July 17th, 2005, 6:36 pm
by PoisonDrop
I certainly did...although I was speaking of all the non-MX owners in Florida's "retirement haven" that may not know how find the info on how to clean their lights. Still, a lot of people could save some $$ if they had the info our FAQ had...oh well...I know I'll never need to pay to have my headlights polished...

I guess the bottom line is...if EVERYONE owned an MX-3 and was a member here, then no one would have to pay to have their lights cleaned...then again...it's nice that not many people own an MX...better than owning some honda along with everyone else. I guess the FAQ's are just one of the perks that come with owning the best damn car on the planet! :)

Posted: July 17th, 2005, 11:11 pm
by Urbanconcept
For about $150 canadia my buddy can make you stock headlights look like brand new!! he takes them apart, sandblasts them, then refinishes the clearcoat. My buddy did all the body work on RTT's ride and also redid the headlights (if you're looking for a pic).

Posted: July 18th, 2005, 1:09 pm
by bmwm3guy
Custommx3 wrote:EVERYONE has access to the FAQ, just noone reads them.
awww Barry, I do :D lol

Yeah in Canada at Canadian Tire you can buy some of this stuff by Megiars (sp?) for 10$ and theres enough to polish your headlights a hundred times.

Posted: July 18th, 2005, 7:12 pm
by PoisonDrop
$150 CAN is better than $200 US. Nevertheless, I'm sticking with the do-it-yourself method...much cheaper and just as much effective.

Posted: July 19th, 2005, 8:24 am
by BoOdOg
get a mothers powerball and use it works very well ...

I used the powerball on a drill and metal polish and plastic polish
before.
Image

after just metal polist
Image

then I used plastic polish
Image

Posted: July 19th, 2005, 12:40 pm
by PoisonDrop
powerball, huh? That sounds better than what I used...good ol' elbow grease...:)

Posted: July 19th, 2005, 4:38 pm
by monty73741
i use 3m plastic polish & a 6 inch buffer

Posted: July 21st, 2005, 11:34 pm
by tw1st3d_cl0wn
Doesn't surprise me that that article came from Tampa. I'm sure there are people who charge that kind of money for something so simple all over, but it seems like here in S. Florida, with all the retired people who have money to burn, that there's just an abundance of things like that.

But I find that some people find that working on their own car is "below them". I know a few people who'd rather pay out the a-- to have someone wash their car because to them it's manual labor and they just can't deal with doing that. Ridiculous yeah, but whatever. They think the "shiny stuff" that the car wash place puts on their tires is something really special, well worth the price. :wink: