Pittman's ALR headlight restorer

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bcwang

New member
Anyone ever try Pittman's ALR product to restore clouded headlights? I happened upon it while browsing the web today and the results look pretty impressive for very little work. If you've tried it please comment about it. If it really takes off all the oxidation that easily, sounds like it could be very useful and will save a lot of time and cost over sanding and polishing out headlights.



Headlight Cleaning Before & After
 
.237 oz for $30.00. That's $120.00 per oz.

or buy .5 oz for $40.00. That's only $80.00 an oz.

Never used it myself. I'd have to cash a Krugerrand.
 
I saw some videos of it in action on youtube, stuff seems impressive. I know it's expensive for the size, but apparently you only use one drop per headlight.



YouTube - PITTMAN ALR INSTANT ACRYLIC LENS DEOXIDIZER

YouTube - Gone in 30 seconds by PIttman's KMOD ALR/ Headlight cleaning

YouTube - Pittman ALR non abrasive ACRYLIC lens DEOXIDIZER

YouTube - Pittman ALR Acrylic Headlight Oxidation Remover



I also happened upon some videos of another product called revive-a-lite but it seems like it sucks compared to the Pittman product. Barely making a visible difference except when I skipped from the beginning to the end.



YouTube - Headlight Restoration, Mustang 99, Real Time, Revive-A-Lite
 
It does look interesting, so I tried to get reviews via Google. The only reviews that come up are either on the site that sells the stuff, or, on something like Yahoo Answers, the seller of the stuff reviews it.

Has anyone here actually used it?
 
I'd definitely be interested in any opinion from anyone here who has used it. I did find someone on either a lexus or mazda board that had used it with success on two cars. I haven't heard anyone give a negative review of it anywhere. But an opinion from someone here who has used it would be helpful.
 
Hello Guys,

I new to this, but have been following your threads quite a bit. I have some first hand experience with this product very recently. It is very expensive (2.5inch tall x 0.5inch diameter vial) but worth it if it works consistently. And thats the problem.



When I first tried it on a vehicle, it was amazing. Like magic!! So I took it to several auto repair shops to demonstrate it. Not impressive! It only took off very little oxidation.



I know the seller of this product in his literature says it will not work on lights that have their UV layer damaged as is visible in a "hallow" outline on the lens. I have to disagree. The unsuccessful attempts I experienced were on lenses that were not UV damaged. Besides, oxidation is oxidation, whether lens is UV damaged or not, IMO.



I may be wrong, but it seemed like after I opened the vial of this product, something evaporates or disintegrates and subsequent applications render it markedly ineffective.



I have used Meguiars PlastX with a polisher with great success and that is the method I am going to stay with. I am sure the other products listed on this forum will do fine, especially the ones that come with a sealant.
 
It just seems too good to be true. I mean, has anyone ever wiped their headlight with a lysol wipe? I've heard it clears it up pretty good, but it's back within weeks. I'd imagine this is essentially the same thing. They try and sell you the 60 bottle of sealer at the bottom of the page too. I don't know, it looks legit, but does smell a little like snake oil.
 
I've used Novus with some success on a 1995 Lexus sc400 - It's a 3 step process 3. heavy grit/scratch remover 2. medium scratch remover then the 1. plastic cleaner.

All are liquid.



novuspolish



Did NOT make the headlights perfect but then again I only did one application with sample sizes - I would bet if I bought a full size and 2 or 3 applications, I would have had it near perfect.



Otherwise, your options are for 3m kit that physically sands the scratches off...



To me, If I can get it 90% with only liquids than I am happy.
 
grandcherokee said:
I may be wrong, but it seemed like after I opened the vial of this product, something evaporates or disintegrates and subsequent applications render it markedly ineffective.
Click to expand...



Maybe you should contact the seller and find out what is wrong with the product, such as if opening it degrades it quickly. Maybe it did go bad and he'll send you another. I can't imagine this can only work on UV coated oxidation, because what about tail lights and headlights that don't even come with a UV coat (some lexus).
 
Since this product is not consistant in its results, I won't be using it. So I won't even bother communicating with the seller. But I thought I would respond to this thread.



There is something in Megs PlastX that is different from say Novus because just rubbing without buffing, the oxidation clears up. Buffing makes it shine really nice. I am not promoting the product, but for around $6 you can't beat it. Sears has a special now. Go try it yourself and you'll know what I mean. I think this technoloy is already quite common, just comes under different brand names.



As far as the "snake oil" goes, it is an oily liquid and reddish, like power steering fluid . I am actually quite curious what it is because it seems to be the only product of its kind out there. If it is somekind of power steering fluid, he must be making a mint. If you Google and do some research, you'll find out he is an artist and his logo is about somekind of Middle Eastern mysticism. Quite an artistic logo.
 
Which is funny, because power steering fluid is another one of those "Quick Fix" things I've heard of people doing on their headlights.



Never occured to me that it could be similar to that. Just imagine if it was power steering fluid. That would be such a scam.
 
Grandcherokee,



Maybe you could try it more on different cars to see if maybe it was something different about the other headlights, material or wax coating that was making it behave differently.



Hey another red liquid that takes care of oxidation but on metal contacts is Caig Deoxit. It's also quite expensive though not as expensive as that stuff. I wonder......



I've got some of it, maybe I'll try it on a oxidized headlight and see what happens. Gotta read up though and make sure it is safe on polycarbonate.



As for plastx, I have it and I believe it is abrasives taking care of the oxidation. The same as mothers plastic polish which I also have, which is milder than plastx it seems.
 
grandcherokee,



Have you thoroughly washed your headlights after the treatment to see if they remain clear? Just seeing if it really is just some oily coating making it look clear or if the oxidation is really removed.
 
This stuff is transmission fluid, otherwise know as hydraulic fluid. He sells on eBay and one of his customers left him negative feedback. I contacted the buyer who left the feedback and he is an airline mechanic...he told me it is hydraulic fluid which is the same thing as transmission fluid...that,s why the stuff is red in color! ...Total scam!
 
I'm one of the people from the Mazda forum who's used and posted about this product. I've so far used it on four cars and had great results with each one. Two of these cars have deteriorated UV coats and were rather cloudy (2001 Sentra, 2002 Elantra). The other two's coatings were intact (2005 Mazda 3, and 2004 Miata).



On both cars with deteriorated UV coats the ALR near-instantly removed all of the cloudiness, and though the housing was still left with the deteriorated coating (which was then more noticeable minus the oxidation) the light output was ridiculously increased. I have some before after pics of the Elantra (the results aren't as obvious as they were in person), but I don't have any for the Sentra. Sadly the the Sentra was so bad you couldn't even see the reflector bowl prior to using the ALR.



On both Mazdas the headlights didn't look all that bad before hand, but looked much better afterwards. On both cars I'd cleaned the headlights and had previously tried plastic polish. I also used this on the tail lights of all four cars and they regained substantial sparkle.



HERE's a link to my thread on mazda3forums with a couple of pictures. Again they really don't do justice to the results I had.



On to the comments of the ALR being transmission fluid because it's red. I don't know about what the other guy (who's an engineer) got, but mine is clear. Also my results have so far endured for months and I've used maybe 1-2cc's of the stuff.
 
icspots,



Have you tried the liquid recently again? One of the members here says it worked great the first time, but it seems to have lost it's potency or something after he tried using it later.



Have you washed your headlights with soap many times since the fix while still maintaining the same non-oxidized look? This can help disprove any rumors that it's just hydraulic fluid making things more clear and shiny.



I still think it's quite interesting a product and there is not enough people experienced with it here to come up with any firm conclusion about it yet.
 
bcwang said:
icspots,



Have you tried the liquid recently again? One of the members here says it worked great the first time, but it seems to have lost it's potency or something after he tried using it later.



Have you washed your headlights with soap many times since the fix while still maintaining the same non-oxidized look? This can help disprove any rumors that it's just hydraulic fluid making things more clear and shiny.



I still think it's quite interesting a product and there is not enough people experienced with it here to come up with any firm conclusion about it yet.
Click to expand...



Sorry for the long delay in responding. I have washed the car multiple times and didn't really seem to get an increase in cloudiness after washes. As far as I can tell it's not just an oily finish that gets washed out.



well after about five months the headlights on the Elantra were looking super cloudy.... actually cloudier than they had initially. I don't think this is due to the ALR "wearing off", but rather that the coating is damaged so badly that they're just more prone to oxidation. The headlights on my Mazda showed no increase in cloudiness so that's what makes me think that. Since the coating on those lights was damaged (worn away, scratched, pitted, etc.) I'd always intended to go back and wetsand the lights at some point to get rid of the shreds left on the light housing. I was doing some maintenance the other day and figured I'd give the ALR another go at the car.



Again with roughly one drop per headlight I was able to get the light housings back to a near-completely clear finish. I didn't take any before/after pictures, but I did take a picture mid-cleaning. Sadly the picture isn't terribly large but you can easily see the difference by looking at the center reflector.



I'd say after five months of storage there was no decrease in the effectiveness of the ALR formula. I did have it stored inside the house, though I'm not sure what the seller recommends for storage temperatures.



da89bf54.jpg
 
Hi, I just registered only to leave my review on Pittmans ALR. I purchased some 3 weeks ago. I run a side biz doing headlight restoration and see many different lenses in various conditions from very light oxidation to so cloudy you cant even see the bulb inside. Pittmans ALR didnt work on ANY lenses I tried it on. I used it on over 14 cars with various degrees of oxidation and it never did the job as advertised. I posted my bad review on every one of Pittmans videos, and he went and removed them all. In fact Pittmens must use soem type of "review scrubber", cuz all the bad reviews I leave either get removed or buried under lots of fake positive reviews. I would have loved for this stuff to work (would have made some of my job alot easier), but it didnt work. It removes the oxidation (mostly) but the lenses are never clear looking, alwasy still with a cloudy look that seem to get more cloudy over time...one customer left his car while on a trip, so I used the Pittmans, didnt work well as usual, but this time I let the car sit and 2 weeks later the lenses were much more cloudy than when I first applied the Pittmans. I asked for a refund and they have offered to refund my money (havent received refund yet...), so a least they did offer a refund, but still, this didnt work as shown at all, I was very disappointed in the lack of clarity after using Pittmans ALR. Please dont waste your money, there are some really good "kits" if you want to repair your headlights yourself, but Pittmans aint one of them...
 
Hope this doesnt get removed as spam, but the best home kits I have used are product kits called LightRite Lens Restoration Coating and Solaray UV Headlight Lens Repair Coating. I have no affiliation with either company except that I purchase these products for my Headlight Restoration biz(i do some local used car lots and for the local Honda dealer) and use it with amazing results. It has a Lifetime guarantee again fading and clouding and can be done at home and cured in the sunlight in 10min. I have tried them all and if you want something that will last for the life of your auto, these work very well with excellent results in my experience...
 
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