Anyone using headlight protection film?

[xenarc]

I am looking for a film to protect against highway rocks and mostly fading of the headlights. I was looking at Lamin-X and those Ebay films. Anyone here recommend the Ebay films that go for around $10.00 for a whole roll.
Lamin-X has the pre-cut but its close to $65.00

[tobin]

I've had Lamin-X on mine since new (2013). A small exposed area on the top of the headlight lens (where the film ends) is just starting to oxidize, but everything under the film still looks new. Worth the investment, and I even paid to get mine installed.

[ichitaka05]

Have Lamin-X on mine since May '14 & glad I did. Had several rocks hit the headlights, but headlight didn't break/crap nor scratch on it.


If you don't wanna pay that much from Lamin-X then buy uncut clear protection film and you cut it in headlight shape. You can get 3M and other high brand for $10~$30 to do headlights, foglights and DRL.

[Doubletap]

I use headlight armors. It's hard enough to install (just be patient), let alone precision cut them because of the curvature.

www.headlightarmor.com

[Decep]

does it have UV protection? that'd be the only reason to use it imo.

[EndlessAzure]

Also worth noting that protection films can cause yellowing on plastic housings over time

[HeadlightArmor]

We had a few people email us and ask questions about info on this thread so we thought we should register and try and clear up some issues and misinformation.

Originally Posted by Doubletap

I use headlight armors. It's hard enough to install (just be patient), let alone precision cut them because of the curvature.
www.headlightarmor.com

Thank you for using Headlight Armor and the feedback. The headlight is a little more time consuming to apply a headlight protection film to, but nowhere near as hard as some of the even more radically contoured lights out there currently. We do have a real time DIY application video showing the process on a BRZ. The headlight on the Toyota version has a slightly different inner corner but eh rest of the light and the application process is the same.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS6KhrkJciU[/ame]

Originally Posted by Decep

does it have UV protection? that'd be the only reason to use it imo.

The material is going to absorb some uv. Modern headlights come with a hard uv coating from the factory. These coatings are much better that they were decades ago as manufacturers transitioned to composite headlights. If you took a brand new headlight and placed it in the sun the uv is not going to have much effect on the lens in any useful time frame.

The most likely reason your headlight will fog up / did fog up is not usually do to UV on its own. All headlights come with a hard protective UV coating from the factory. The problem starts when you drive your vehicle without a lighting protection film applied to the lights. Over time sand and road debris chip the hard coating the headlights came with and the sun starts to break down the polycarbonate. This process happens slowly, little by little. So slow you don’t notice it until it is too late.

If you then sand down and polish the lamp and return the clarity you must protect the lamp from both exposure to the atmosphere and UV otherwise you will have the fogginess return. While you could use some sort of polymer sealant they typically do not last that long and of course will do nothing again further pitting – and pitting was the root cause of the cloudy / foggy lens.

Your best course of action is to protect the lens with our Headlight Armor lighting protection kits!

Originally Posted by EndlessAzure

Also worth noting that protection films can cause yellowing on plastic housings over time

A headlight protection film is not going to cause the polycarbonate headlight lens to yellow. The opposite is true. By applying a headlight protection film you are going to increase the headlights life as you will preserve the uv hard coat on the factory light.

We hope the preceding information was useful.

[xenarc]

"pitting was the root cause of the cloudy / foggy lens"

Thanks for this information.