Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online
Braylon Henry, saving one headlight at a time. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
ESTEVAN – Braylon Henry was looking for a side hustle. And he found one. On TikTok.
But it’s not dancing or doing something goofy. It’s rehabilitating old, yellowed headlights on cars and trucks. And it works.
In the Zinchuk family fleet of vehicles, there are several around 20 years old. And they’ve gotten to the point where the headlights were looking so bad, they were almost ineffectual. So a few weeks ago we replaced the headlights on my son’s 2004 Ford Taurus at a total cost of around $200. But his 2004 Buick Rainier was another story. A few years ago, you could get replacement headlights from RockAuto.com for around $135 each. Now they’re $205 each. Once you add shipping and taxes, the price would be $543.80.
BEFORE: driver headlight on 2004 Buick Rainier.
The neighbour had a GMC SUV with horribly occluded headlights – yellowed and scratched. Braylon was able to bring them back to almost new. It was a dramatic improvement.
Did I mention he’s 13?
So on Tuesday it was the Buick’s turn. Braylon came over on his bike, whipped out his hardware from his backpack, and got to work. Less than an hour later, he was done.
He calls his business Clear Vision.
Braylon explains the process like this: “I restore headlights. So, first I sand them down with, usually 1000 grit, 2000 grit, then 3000 grit. If they are bad, I’ll start with 800 and then work my way up to 1000.
“And then I go and polish them with a compound that I do first, and I polish them with that. Then I might clean that away, and I have a polisher that I polish it with.
“After that I have this two-year sealant that protects it from the UV rays, and I put that on, and then I wipe that off, and then I have this clearcoat to just shine up the headlights at the end.”
Asked where he got the idea, he said, “I actually got it from TikTok. I was looking at side hustles, because I was just trying to make some money.”
It’s his first year doing this work. He practiced on his parents’ vehicles before working on clients. Mine was his tenth. And since he’s got his bike, he’s able to work throughout Estevan.
AFTER: driver headlight on 2004 Buick Rainier.
The passenger side was pretty far gone, so the final result on that one wasn’t perfect, but it was a dramatic improvement. The driver side looks like new.
The cost, all in, was $50. So for the Buick Rainier, that was a savings of $493.80.
Braylon and Clear Vision can be reached at 306-421-7512 or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61591502636247
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