Product Share: Headlight Film Protectors

[Dyn Blin]

Here's another product I wanted to share to know what to expect before spending money on items & shipping.    This is a headlight film from XPel.  I used these long before I picked up the Bullnose on our fleet of Volvos when glass lenses started getting harder to find (Swedish Bricks seem to attract stones).

I enjoy the heft and nostalgia of sealed beams, but given their limitations in output and lifespan, switched to an H4 conversion after going through 4 sealed beams in as many months.  An H4 conversion doesn’t solve the problem of broken lenses, so the the protection films pay for themselves on the first connection of road debris to the glass.



There are a number of manufacturers that make headlight films.   I've even tried cutting my own from a 3M product.  XPel is available on Amazon and shipping is cheap as chippiess (the same product LMC stocks if you are ordering other items.  I don't know if it’s the product NPD offers).   I’ve used them for about a decade on the Volvos, and we’ve not yet had a set yellow or peel.  I have seen a few abrade over 5 years or more to a haze similar to plastic headlight lenses;  that’s a satisfactory lifetime for me.  Our era of F150 headlight shape and measurements match their product #H9901A.



I’ve found most sealed beam and H4 kits no longer have the aiming “nubs” on the outside of the lenses, and a flat surface makes the films trivial to mount.  The films don’t have an adhesive, rather mount via a strong  “cling”-type of attraction.  Mounting is completed with placement on top of a film of water and rubbing alcohol (applied with a spray bottle), a small squeegee included in the kit, and takes only a few minutes.  The result is an almost undetectable and completely transparent protective layer.



(the lines on the lens corners are not the film, those are the internal contours of the glass lens for focusing the beam- the film itself is invisible with the edges perfectly meeting the edges of these Hella 6054 housings)

Good luck preserving your headlights.

[Gary Lewis]

Mark/Dyn - That is good to know.  Thanks for the well-done write-up.